The University of Rwanda (UR) graduated 4,953 students in 2026, down 48 per cent from 9,526 the previous year, with sharp differences in graduate numbers across its colleges. The graduates included 3,783 undergraduate students and 1,170 postgraduate students. Among the undergraduates, 3,480 earned bachelor’s degrees, 302 received advanced diplomas and one received a diploma. ALSO READ: UR graduates over 4,900 as degree programme reforms take effect Ignatius Kabagambe, the university’s spokesperson, said the decline was largely due to changes in the duration of undergraduate programmes, which now require students who would previously have graduated after three years to complete a fourth year. Kabagambe explained that some undergraduate programmes had previously been reduced from four years to three, while others, including Law, remained four-year programmes. The university later decided to return all undergraduate programmes to four years. “We are now in the third year of implementing these changes, which is also the third year in which the affected students would otherwise have graduated.” “These students have not dropped out. They are still studying in their fourth year,” he added. Three colleges record sharp declines The College of Education (CE), the College of Business and Economics (CBE) and the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) recorded the largest declines in graduate numbers in 2026. CE graduated 317 students, down from 2,554 in 2025, representing an 88 per cent decline. CBE’s graduating class fell from 2,005 to 438, a drop of about 78 per cent, while CASS went from 1,006 to 297, down approximately 71 per cent. ALSO READ: Why University of Rwanda has reverted back to four-year degree programmes “Some colleges already had four-year programmes, meaning their students have continued to graduate as usual,” Kagabambe said. “However, colleges such as CBE, CASS and CE have more programmes that were extended from three to four years.” He added that some students had repeated academic years, meaning that even within programmes affected by the change, some would graduate later than expected. Other colleges recorded higher graduate totals in 2026. The College of Medicine and Health Sciences graduated 1,323 students, followed by the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Sciences with 1,226 and the College of Science and Technology with 1,215. How the numbers compare with previous years UR graduated 8,068 students during the 2023–2024 academic year. The College of Education had the highest number of graduates, at 2,308, followed by the College of Science and Technology with 1,663, the College of Business and Economics with 1,458, the College of Medicine and Health Sciences with 1,157 and the College of Arts and Social Sciences with 760. The figures show that the three colleges most affected in 2026 had much larger graduating classes in previous years. Postgraduate numbers increase While the overall number of graduates fell, postgraduate numbers increased. The university graduated 1,170 postgraduate students in 2026, compared with 773 in the previous graduation. The latest group included 1,086 master’s graduates and 49 PhD graduates. Kabagambe said postgraduate students were continuing to graduate while the changes affected some undergraduate cohorts. University expects numbers to rebound Kabagambe said the university expects the number of graduates to increase as students in the revised four-year programmes complete their studies. “Next year, you might find that the number of graduates will rise to more than 9,000 or even 10,000,” he said.
