The Director-General of the Higher Education Council (HEC),  Rose Mukankomeje recently announced that stringent measures for universities to operate will soon start to be fulfilled for a university to be allowed to admit any students.

Among the requirements is the requirement for universities to operate from their own facilities instead of renting their premises, use financial equity in their operations and stop relying on students’ tuition fees and bank loans.

Mukankomeje said that the regulatory framework will be much stricter to avoid past mistakes where universities have had to be closed largely because problems associated with failure to meet their operational costs among other administrative anomalies.

These requirements will apply to all existing institutions of higher learning and the deadline to have adhered to the requirements is August 15.

Are the measures applicable before the deadline? The New Times spoke to students, lecturers and owners of private universities on how applicable and helpful to the sector the requirements are.

May increase cost of higher education

Some students argue that although all the changes aim at improving the quality of education, once universities are given stringent requirements that are financially demanding, tuition fees might increase.

Speaking to The New Times, a student who preferred to stay anonymous said that he is worried that once schools resume with new premises and investors who need return on investment, tuition fees will have to be increased, meaning that the cost will be transferred to the students.

"Students’ financial capacity is limited, at least for some. I understand the motive for the requirements but the authorities need to think about that too,” said the student, who was enrolled at the Christian University of Kigali, which was closed recently over the administrative discrepancies that threatened the quality of education offered at the school.

His point was echoed by Henry Mapesa, who has been a lecturer at the same university who said that along with improving the quality of education, the government should think of the impact such sudden moves will have on students.

Financial stability and quality

Although students and lecturers who talked to The New Times agree that there will be a need to extend the deadline for universities to be able to fulfill the requirements, they also agree that financial stability, if realised, will solve a lot of issues currently faced by private universities.

Dr. Alfred Sessazi Mukuru teaches at Mount Kenya University Rwanda and has a 21-year-experience in the education sector.

He supports the fact that HEC has imposed tight instructions regarding investment and financial management of private universities.

"Cheap or even unpaid staff was actually the source of a lot of problems in private universities. That adds to bank loans and rent. If those problems are solved and the government keeps an auditing eye on them, the required quality of education would be realized,” he said.  

However, Prof. Rwigamba Balinda who owns Kigali Independent University (ULK) thinks the measures are not new, only that the implementation was not followed by the concerned authorities.

"I have been telling fellow university owners that the quality of education we want can never be attained if we are still financially reliant with very few resources. HEC is just pushing harder now but the requirements were always there,” he said.

He added that if the current effort are consistent, good effects would be realized soon.

Recently, multiple universities were closed due to low quality of education.