Cabinet has appointed former Minister of Commerce Professor Alexandre Lyambabaje as the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Rwanda (UR). Lyambabaje has been serving as the Executive Secretary of the Inter University Council of East Africa (IUCEA), a regional body that coordinates inter-university cooperation in East Africa. The body facilitates strategic development of member universities, promotes internationally comparable higher education standards and systems for sustainable regional development. At UR, he replaces Professor Phillip Cotton whose tenure came to an end in October 2020. Cotton had served as UR’s Vice-Chancellor since 2015. Who is Lyambabaje? As Vice-Chancellor, Lyambabaje will be serving as the principal academic and administrative officer of UR, the only public university in the country. Born in 1960, Lyambabaje among other academic qualifications holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Mathematics and a Doctorate in Mathematics from University de Rennes in France. He has served in different capacities in Rwanda’s public sector. Among these, in 1999, he was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education. In 2000 he was appointed Minister of Commerce, Tourism Industry, Investments Promotion and Cooperatives, a position he held until 2003. He supervised the formulation of policies for the ministry and in particular Rwanda Tourism Policy. He also contributed to the regional integration process through active participation in regional ministerial meetings, including those of the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). From April 2014 to 2015, he served as a senior researcher at the University of Rwanda in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences. He also served as an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Institute of Applied Sciences Ruhengeri.
