Ten years ago, the Government of Rwanda entered into a partnership with one of the world renowned high learning institutions, Oklahoma Christian University. 

The partnership initiated by President Paul Kagame was aimed at offering undergraduate scholarships to the university to build a pool of relevant professionals in government agencies and the private sector.

In 2012, the institution began a Masters in Business Administration programme offered in the country where students take their classes primary online with the guidance of a facilitators in the main campus in Oklahoma.

The programme has so far had three successful graduations with about 121 students graduating since it was introduced in Rwanda. 

Friday last week saw the graduation of the latest batch of graduates specializing in various fields such Accounting, Finance, Leadership and Project Management among others. 

Sunday Times’ Collins Mwai caught up with Dr. Scott Lamascus, the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the institution for insight to the 10 year partnership. 

Excerpts:

What would you say is the greatest addition to Rwandan ecosystem fostering development?

Rwandans know what is best for them. For now we are proud of our alumni and we know that they are leading and contributing to development.

The First Lady of Rwanda, Mrs. Jeannette Kagame early this week presented an award to one of our Alumnus Christelle Kwizera for the work she is doing in promotion of entrepreneurship.  We hope that all our graduates across the nation are finding ways to give back to the society. They all have capacity to contribute to national development. 

What would you say are the characteristics of an Oklahoma Christian University?

An MBA graduate from Oklahoma has both qualitative and quantitative skills to understand and practice business ethics and principles of finance. They understand that the most successful enterprises come of honest practices, quality customer services and service to their communities.

We hope that we have modeled them to be able to practice and implement what they learnt. They have a global view. We are learning together on how much the world is interconnected. We think that those are qualities that our students take out into all across Rwanda.

Rwanda wants to build a private sector led economy, are alumni from the programme and the campus equipped to facilitate towards the goal?

We hope that they have picked up a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. We take them through courses that teach them the core characteristics of entrepreneurs who begin businesses after identifying needs and are able to tailor solutions. Among our graduates, there are those who will serve this purpose.

From your experience, what is the significance of such partnerships for developing countries such as Rwanda?

We have loved this partnership. We appreciate the diversity that Rwandan students bring to our university.

Though the partnership may be valued in millions of dollars, the ultimate value can be seen in relationships and education.  As nations develop or as they seek to sustain their development, they have to address their higher learning education challenges. We are glad to be able to help in this aspect.

You mention diversity created by Rwandan students in your main campus, how relevant has it been?

It has contributed in a powerful way.  An example is my son who studies at the same university is partnering with a Rwandan student in the development of a wind energy project. To me that is an example the diversity created by having Rwandan students where they can learn from each others’ different backgrounds.  Such interpersonal relations have greatly improved the campus.

Going forward, are there plans to scale up the partnership?

We do see this partnership going forward in a very strong way.  We see this programme continuing to grow in numbers and also we hope to be able to bring additional students in our campus in Oklahoma City as well as continuing the partnership by introducing other programmes that we have in our main campus such as computer science. It is our hope that we can find other areas that are defined as a need by the Rwandan government, corporations and citizens and find a way to introduce relevant courses.

Do you have any expectations of your alumni in the country?

We have seven university outcomes that we aim at. One of them is global stewardship. We want them to have literacy skills that are very powerful. Literacy, not only in the traditional sense but also global literacy. We want them to be great communicators to be able to spread their great ideas.  We also want them to have analytical and critical thinking.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw