The University of Kigali (UK) on Friday, April 16, offered free scholarships to all the 20 contestants that made it to the grand finale of Miss Rwanda 2021.
The university was one of the potential partners of Miss Rwanda 2021 pageant, where its management pledged to offer free scholarships to contestants who would make it into the top 20 of the beauty contest.
When the university management hosted the finalists on Friday, April 16, at its headquarters, UK’s Vice-Chancellor Prof Gustave Tombola welcomed the finalists to the university and explained to them the requirements needed to be admitted to the university.
He further explained that the corporate social responsibility of the university is to serve people and not be money-oriented.
"Being a private higher learning institution, one may think that we are profit-oriented. But it’s not. If it were that way, the top 20 Miss Rwanda finalists wouldn’t have been offered free scholarships,” said Tombola.
Therefore, each of the 20 finalists will be given chance to study either undergraduate or Masters’ programmes at the university freely.
However, only those who fulfill requirements will be admitted.
"These scholarships come with requirements. The scholarships are available but for those who qualify and there is no limit regarding the programmes that we are offering,” Tombola added.
The university welcomes high school graduates who scored two principle passes during the national examinations and the same will apply to Miss Rwanda finalists who comply with the requirements.
Contestants who currently study at other higher learning institutions will be required to submit transfer documents approved by Higher Education Council (HEC) before they can continue their studies at University of Kigali.
However, the free scholarship will only be valid for those who are ready to start their studies at the university beginning with the May 2021 intake.
Dieudonne Ishimwe hailed the University of Kigali’s commitment to empowering young women by offering the scholarships it pledged.
"Education is one of the key values that Miss Rwanda Organization considers for women's empowerment and empowering a young woman by supporting her in education is one of the most important achievements we can take pride in because, with education, we see a bright future in the 20 Miss Rwanda 2021 finalists,” said Ishimwe.
"We thank the University of Kigali for opening the doors for us when we came up with the idea of giving scholarships for our contestants. They didn’t hesitate to support our idea because they were excited to give it a shot to contribute in empowering young women rather than giving it a business direction,” he added.
Grace Ingabire, the holder of the Miss Rwanda 2021 crown, is one of the beneficiaries of the scholarship, having come top of the top 20 finalists of the beauty contest.
Although she is a graduate of Dance from the United States, the beauty queen said she does not take the free scholarship offered to her for granted and taht she is already looking for a programme she can pursue at University of Kigali.
"Although I graduated from Dance, I still need to learn more. I am looking into the programmes available at the University of Kigali so I can choose what to pursue. It is a privilege to study here [UK],” Ingabire said.
Ingabire welcomed the university’s offer and commended it for promoting the education of young women by providing scholarships.
"For me, offering us free scholarships was the most prestigious gift of all at Miss Rwanda because education opens up your mind and gets you from one place to another… it is a form of enlightenment. So it is a privilege not only for us but the society in general because when a young woman gets educated, society benefits from her education as well,” she added.