The newly merged University of Rwanda (UR) has admitted 9,443 students of the 18,950 applicants in its maiden intake, administrators announced Thursday.

Registration is planned to start from August 15 to mid September. The students will be absorbed in the university’s six colleges.

 Online applications closed at the end of April, but officials told a news conference yesterday that the two-week extension – starting Thursday – had been granted to allow applicants who had submitted incorrect information to complete their applications.

 Prof. Nelson Ijumba, the deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic Affairs and Research, said  some 5,862 applicants, about  30.9 per cent, could not be considered because they submitted incomplete information.

"We shall consider them only after they have submitted all the required information,” Prof. Ijumba said.  The university has posted the details of those admitted on its website.

Pudence Rubingisa, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Administration and Finance, said the delay was, among others, due to challenges in the new process and students giving incomplete information during application.

 "A student would register as Emmy Rugira instead of Emmanuel Rugira as known by  the Rwanda Education Board (Reb). Another would register as a resident of Nyagatare District, yet they had indicated Nyarugenge District when filling the examination board forms,” Rubingisa said.

 "We encountered so many mismatches. We had to re-examine documents multiple times and this consumed a lot of time,” he added.

 During the application process, hard copy applications were also accepted from foreign applicants and those who completed their secondary education earlier than 2011. Databases from Reb and Workforce Development Authority (WDA) were used to verify the applicants’ information.

A total of 3,680 (19.3 per cent) applicants could not be admitted because they did not meet the minimum entry requirements.

Catering for the high demand

Due to the high demand, UR is compelled to take in more students than its current capacity of 9,175, officials noted.

 Prof. Ijumba said: "Each of the colleges had indicated how many students they could accommodate depending on the available facilities.”

 "We want to ensure quality education. We recruit staff, and make sure that the facilities are sufficient so as to provide the kind of education that is required,” Prof. Ijumba said.

 The College of Business and Economics (CBE) has the majority of the admitted applicants (38 per cent), followed by the  College of Medicine and Health Sciences (CMHS), with at least  7 per cent. Officials said these figures will change after the second and final selection.

Meanwhile, Prof. James McWha, the university Vice Chancellor, said he was surprised that female students were under-represented. Males accounted for 6,544 (69 per cent) while females were a paltry 2,899 (31 per cent).