Relocation of University of Rwanda Gikondo campus students to the Huye campus has been pushed to June 2024, when the academic year ends, Raymond Ndikumana, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Strategic Planning and Administration at the University of Rwanda told The New Times on February 22.

The current academic year started in September 2023.

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As part of ongoing reforms in the College of Business and Economics, the students who were studying at the Gikondo campus in Kigali were supposed to relocate to Huye in March 2024.

One of the many highlights of this reform is the concentration of a particular college at a particular campus.

However, after students complained about disruption in accommodation they had already paid for to stay in Kigali for the next term, the relocation has been pushed to June.

"The University of Rwanda management has taken note of the concerns raised by the 2nd year students in the School of Business (Gikondo Campus) in response to the impending relocation of the programme to the Huye Campus in March 2024.

"In this regard, the university wishes to inform the concerned students that their appeal to stay at their current campus premises until the end of the current academic year in June 2024 has been duly deliberated upon and is hereby sanctioned,” reads the UR statement released on Thursday.

The students relocated from the UR Gikondo campus are doing Banking, Procurement, Business Information Technology (BIT), Insurance, Transportation, Marketing, Accounting, Finance and Human Resource Management (HRM).

"This decision is a result of consultative sessions involving representatives of students from the School of Business at Gikondo Campus, as well as discussions with the management of the College of Business and Economics (CBE). The various concerns articulated during these engagements, together with the concerns that were articulated by the Gikondo campus’ Students Guild Council, have also been assessed and have been appropriately addressed,” UR’s announcement explained.

The Business and Economics College was running campuses in Nyagatare (Eastern Province), Huye (Southern Province), Gikondo (Kigali City) and Rusizi (Western Province). It was decided that the College of Business and Economics will be consolidated in Huye, especially all undergraduate programmes.

University of Rwanda (UR) students studying at the Rusizi campus were, in November 2023, relocated to Huye District as Rwanda Polytechnic occupies the buildings to run the Master’s degree programme.

The relocated students are doing Accounting and Finance degrees.

Business and Economics students from the Nyagatare campus were also relocated to Huye to pave the way for the Veterinary Laboratory Complex and new college.

The relocation initiative is part of a broader framework of the university’s ongoing institutional reforms, aimed at optimising resource utilisation with an ultimate aim to achieve an enhanced teaching and learning environment conducive to the delivery of high-quality education.

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"The UR review aims at consolidating the gains realised over the last 10 years since the merger of public Higher Learning Institutions that formed the University of Rwanda, removing observed inefficiencies towards developing UR into a premier University with quality education and research reflecting and supporting Rwanda’s ambitions and aspiration,” Ndikumana said in January 2024.

The University of Rwanda was created in 2013 after merging seven public higher learning institutions.