Will the University of Rwanda reshape our higher education?

Whether the University of Rwanda (UR) will boost education quality in the country is a question only time can answer. But 2013 will definitely go down in the country’s history as the year in which all leading public institutions of higher learning came together under one roof, and turned into within the UR.For some in the country’s academia, including Senator Chrysologue Karangwa and Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, both former rectors of the former National University of Rwanda (NUR) and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (Kist), running the institutions under one roof will help pull resources together and improve quality.“Rwanda has limited resources and there is no need to scatter them. We were duplicating our efforts in smaller universities. The University of Rwanda will improve our higher education and make it easier to work with other partners,” Prof. Lwakabamba said.Senator Karangwa told The New Times after the appointment of UR’s officials in October that bringing faculties and researchers from different institutions together, in specialised colleges will harmonise research and work, especially with foreign partners.Noting that the new university would help address the country’s challenges, including the issue of quality education, Karangwa argued that the UR was an opportunity for the country to harmonise public post-secondary, graduate, and post-graduate education.The UR is expected to ensure that students who were lacking access to adequate study equipment, books, and innovative lecturers can now access them because formerly scattered resources were merged.Students at different colleges of the UR have also started relating with their new university, many of them seeing it as a unifying factor.“Being part of the UR is better because KIST was referred to as an institute. I hope our degrees will now carry more weight. I also hope that the UR will have a strong career development centre to help us get jobs after graduation,” said Doreen Wibabara, a first-year student of Creative Design at UR’s College of Science and Technology (former KIST).The major concern among critics of the idea of creating the UR is the high level of bureaucracy that might come with it. Former rector of SFB, Prof. Reid E. Whitlock, said:“Already-complicated and time-consuming administrative processes will be worsened by additional approval at the vice-chancellor and deputy vice-chancellor levels.” The former rector advised Dr Pudence Rubingisa, UR’s deputy vice-chancellor for finance and administration, to do as much streamlining as possible to avoid bureaucracy.Veteran education managers have also warned the new principals of the UR’s various colleges to refrain from behaving like former rectors.They should work as a team connected to the central leadership of the UR if the institution is to succeed, Prof. Karangwa advised.The senator shared the experience of a failed merger of public universities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a few years ago that was a result of former university rectors failing to be part of the new central public university.“They need to understand that they are working under one management. Working together as one will help them deliver the mission of the new university,” Karangwa said.The UR comprises seven campuses that correspond to former public universities and institutions of higher learning.They are; NUR, which was the largest public institution of higher learning with 11,256 students; Kist, the Institute of Education (KIE), the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (ISAE), the School of Finance and Banking (SFB), and the Higher Institute of Umutara Polytechnic.The seven campuses have two transitional years to complete the integration process, essentially sending their students and academic staff to study and serve in six colleges affiliated to the new university.The colleges include the College of Education, College of Science and Technology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, College of Business and Economics, College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, and the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.Top administrators of the UR announced in November that they were planning to restructure the public tertiary education system in the country to improve the quality of education.The Vice-Chancellor, James McWha, and his deputy in charge of academic affairs Nelson Ijumba, said they were going to ensure that the UR becomes a research-based institution to boost innovation and job creation in the country.The academics have also said many lecturers at the UR could be sent for further studies to upgrade their academic credentials to PhDs in order to improve their abilities to deliver quality education.