Over the past four years, the Higher Education Council (HEC) has received over 28,000 equivalence applications. However, according to Edward Kadozi, the institution's Director General, only 55 percent of these applicants have successfully received their certificates. About 30 percent of the applications are still pending, mainly due to incomplete documentation, data errors, or system issues such as the previous crash of the Irembo platform. Another 15 percent have been rejected, often due to submission of fake documents, or failure to submit the full-required documents. ALSO READ: HEC reviewing process for academic qualification equivalences Kadozi emphasizes that missing or incorrect documents are the most common causes of delays. “When you miss something, your file goes into a pending status,” he explained. To address these challenges, HEC is digitising the entire equivalence process. What is going to change? “We are working on fully integrating the equivalence component into a new digital system we are developing,” Kadozi said in an interview with The New Times. “Once this system is complete by the end of the year, we expect significant improvements in efficiency and transparency.” The digital system will eliminate most manual processes, ensuring that every step, from uploading documents to engaging with universities, is conducted online. The system also includes international best practices. ALSO READ: Higher Education Council sheds light on equivalence delay issues Personalised and smart verification One key innovation in the new system is its ability to adapt based on the origin of the applicant’s qualifications. “Not all degrees come from the same risk level,” Kadozi noted. “Some regions have higher instances of document fraud, so we segment countries accordingly. That way, we can ask for more verification where needed, and reduce unnecessary requirements for applicants from more transparent systems.” This adaptive approach also allows for customized document requests based on the level of study, undergraduate, masters, or PhD, ensuring that only relevant information is required. Greater engagement with institutions The upgraded system also will allow for seamless communication between HEC, applicants, and foreign universities. If an institution is no longer operational, HEC will reach out to regulatory bodies or international education assessment organizations (UK-ENIC) to confirm accreditation and validity. “In some cases, the university may have closed years ago,” said Kadozi. “We will be working more with regulatory bodies and international partners, like those affiliated with UNESCO, to verify academic credentials.” HEC is also planning to conduct a major awareness campaign to help students, both in Rwanda and abroad, understand how to navigate into the system. “The other challenge we’ve identified is the lack of adequate awareness series,” said Kadozi. “Many applicants rely on agents who often are not as informed as them. Some don’t even understand the system themselves.” Through the awareness drive, HEC aims to enhance this activity by empowering people to both manage and own their own files submitted during the application process independently and avoid unnecessary delays or frauds. ALSO READ: HEC equivalence processing to go digital Simplifying the requirements HEC is also simplifying the types of documents required. Moving forward, non-academic documents, such as travel records, will no longer be considered except in those high-risk countries with academic fraud. Thorough verification is and will always be done with due diligence to do the needful to the most suspicious ones. “We’re focusing only on academic-related documents,” said Kadozi. These include admission letters, transcripts, degree certificates, and student ID cards among others. Depending on the level of education, applicants may also need to provide registrar-confirmed details or registration numbers. Kadozi is expecting that the system will restore confidence in the equivalence process. “We want to make the experience smoother, seamlessly, fairer, reliable and more available to every applicant,” he said. A person who faced challenges shares her story When Lydie Umubyeyi graduated from Uganda’s Makerere University in 2017, she had no idea how obtaining an equivalence certificate in Rwanda would be delayed. In 2019, while applying for a job that required academic equivalence, she was advised by a friend to use an agent who claimed to have successfully navigated the process. Trusting the advice, she paid for the service, expecting results within a week. However, months passed without any update. Umubyeyi contacted HEC, only to learn that her file was incomplete and still under review. She decided to restart the process on her own to fix the issue, but unknowingly triggered a fresh application, which caused further delays. Although she eventually received her equivalence, the experience left her wishing for a simpler, more transparent system she could manage herself.
