Since UCU started, Social Work  had never been recognised as a department but rather a part of other departments. Today, the Department does not only stand recognised but also has a frontrunner. 

Lewis Kabanda, one of the people who have longed for the identity of Social Work at UCU, is now the Head of Department.
“Not to have an identity as a department has been such a huge problem, not only to the staff but also to the students who felt unrecognised,” Kabanda says, adding that this is an opportunity to put social work to where it is supposed to be.
Kabanda is aware of the challenges that come with the new office. He says there are a few qualified social workers in Uganda. The university has affiliate colleges but with no people with matching qualifications which is a challenge when it comes to merging exams. He adds that many people don’t know what Social work involves and so field work and training for most students is in vain.
“There is a lot of work to be done considering that these affiliate colleges carry the UCU documents,” he says.
However, he comes to office with plans to counter- act the challenges. These include improving field work training manual for agents or supervisors of students on study. There is also a new brand of social work coming up, which requires any department of Social work to affiliate to National social work body and other international bodies. Kabanda plans to work towards this.
To the department, he asks everyone to cooperate and ensure that the department becomes a
success. And to the students, he says, “Though there were challenges like field trips, workshops and identity, we now have a department and we hope that all will be well.”
Kabanda went to Namilyango Junior for primary education, Namilyango College for O’ level and St. Stevens Kitovu for A’ level. He studied Social work for his first degree at UCU and went to University of Botswana for Master of Social Work.  After his Masters, he realised that there were some things not put together in the Social work undergraduate programme he had undertaken and looked for an opportunity to come back and put things right.
He joined UCU in 2008 as a part- time lecturer for the first semester, teaching Social work core courses and was later taken on a full time contract. He has also volunteered as a Social work coordinator at UCU.
He is married to Christine and they have one daughter, Christine.