The University of Rwanda (UR) has announced that secondary school graduates from 2024 and 2025 will join the institution in the same intake, with the new academic year set to begin in mid-October. ALSO READ: More students seek admission to University of Rwanda The development follows last week’s announcement of Advanced Level national examination results by the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA), which recorded a pass rate of over 85 per cent. UR Vice Chancellor, Didace Muganga Kayihura, said the decision to merge the two intakes was aimed at addressing the long waiting period students often face before starting university. “This is something we have been thinking about for a while, because we were concerned, and many others were too, about the fact that students spent a long time after finishing school without immediately starting university,” Kayihura told The New Times on Tuesday, September 9. He explained that the gap year often pushed students into challenges such as dropping out of education, early marriage or drifting into risky behaviour. “We asked ourselves: what could be done so that a student can start university immediately without such a long delay? Kayihura said. 'Not an easy thing to do' However, the Vice Chancellor said it would take at least one year for the merger of the two intakes to succeed and run normally. This was not an easy thing to do, because there is usually a full year in between, Kayihura said. It required sacrifices– we cannot say we are 100% ready — but it was a deliberate decision we made to try to close that gap. ALSO READ: With 10,000 foreign students, Rwanda seeks to become hub for university education He added that continuing students will begin classes on September 15, while the new cohort will start at the end of October after a joint induction. “They will study under slightly difficult conditions this time, but from next year onward, everything will run normally,” Kayihura said, noting that future intakes would begin their university studies immediately after completing secondary school. Overall, about 12,000 graduates are expected to enroll at UR this year. Admissions opened on August 21. The UR Registrar has previously told the media that they received about 16,000 applications. According to the admission criteria published on UR website, applicants must have scored between 50% and 75% in the Advanced Level National Examinations, depending on the program they wish to pursue. “Admission is based on published criteria, including performance in specific subjects and overall results, alignment with priority national programs (especially STEM), and programme availability,” UR spokesperson Ignatius Kabagambe told The New Times. The university has about 31,000 students in seven colleges. It offers 87 undergraduate and 138 postgraduate programmes.
