University of Rwanda admits over 9,000

After scrutinising 19,024 applications, the University of Rwanda has confirmed that 9,360 applicants meet admission requirements to various courses for the 2015 academic year.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

After scrutinising 19,024 applications, the University of Rwanda has confirmed that 9,360 applicants meet admission requirements to various courses for the 2015 academic year.

Professor Nelson Ijumba, the deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and research, told Sunday Times yesterday that the other 9,664 applicants either sent in incomplete information, or do not qualify at all.

He said that the documents with gaps are either missing full identification of the applicants, or their colleges of choice among others.

"We shall publish the candidates whose applications have issues. Those with missing information will have two weeks, to comply with application procedure,” he said.

The UR’s first post-merger admission was opened early March and closed on May 1.

UR officials took May and June to scrutinize this close to 20,000 applications, an exercise that involved both the staff at headquarters and the colleges. Ijumba said selection was transparent and based on set criteria.

Applicants were required to have obtained at least two principal passes totaling 24 marks and 18 marks in Sciences and social sciences, respectively.

They also needed to have passed English and General Paper. Ijumba previously said that UR is ready for 10,000 new students, adding that, they would take a little more, like 11,000, considering that some students would later have other options or impediments to enroll for their programs.

CBE takes lions share

According to the provisional figures, the College of Business and Economics (CBE) whose main campus is at former School of Finance and Banking (SFB), is set to take the biggest percentage (38 percent) of the students.

CBE has campuses in Huye, Rusizi and Nyagatare districts for both day and evening programmes.

The College of Science and Technology (CST) and College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS) will take 20 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. Huye main campus, the former National University of Rwanda, now College of Arts and Social Sciences, will host 15 percent of the students.

The College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (CAVM) and College of Education (CE) will share the remaining 20 percent, with the latter taking 11 percent.  Admitted students will soon receive their admission letters, Ijjumba said.

Education Minister, Vincent Biruta, said students who will not be selected can seek admission in private institutions of higher learning.