WESTERN PROVINCE

RUBAVU — At least 340 students were on Sunday awarded degrees at the second graduation ceremony of the Kigali Independent University [ULK] Gisenyi campus.

Presiding over the ceremony, at Umuganda stadium, the university Chancellor Prof. Rwigamba Balinda underlined continuous support of the Millennium Development Goals, the county’s Vision 2020 and the country’s policy of economic revolution as among the university’s goals. Others, he underscored, include good governance, justice and improvement of people’s welfare.

Balinda who is also the founder member of ULK, outlined the contribution of the university’s Gisenyi campus to the district such as paying taxes, providing employment to Rwandans and knowledge to students. He hailed the district authorities, pioneer students and the public for supporting the creation of the campus.

Balinda said that although university graduates in Rwanda still make up less than one percent of the total population, there was still lack of employment opportunities. In this regard, he called upon graduates to be job creators not job seekers.

He said the government of Rwanda is committed to help them in their process of job creation by providing initial capital through organisations like Small and Medium Rural Enterprise Promotion Project [PPMER] and the Center to Support Small and Meduim Enterprise in Rwanda [CAPMER].

He advised the graduands to form cooperatives in order to get easy access to bank loans. He called upon students to work hard, be honest in their work and to always involve God in whatever they do, thus rendering solution to the county’s social-economic problems.

Balinda called upon the group to be educators and roll models in their families in the implementation of the government policies such as health insurance. The graduands included 89 from the Faculty of Management, 61 from Rural Development, 68 from Faculty of Law, 103 Sociology and 19 from the Faculty of Administrative sciences.

Rubavu district mayor, Evariste Bizimana, who acted as the chief guest thanked ULK for the efforts in providing quality education, saying it was a big contribution to the country’s development. He further thanked them for their role in the district’s goal of achieving the economic revolution; through combating soil erosion, by planting trees on the elevated hills.

"As graduates and elites, you should continuously support the country’s developmental policies such as the current economic revolution. I thank the campus authorities and students for their participation in planting trees on the elevated Rubavu hills, which has reduced soil erosion,” he said.

ULK was created on March 15 1996, by the Rwandan Association for Promotion of Education and Culture (ARPECC). It opened the Gisenyi Campus on November 5 2001, to cater for upcountry students.

Ends