Oklahoma Christian University, a US-based varsity, has inaugurated a campus in Kigali to offer Masters Degree programme in Business Administration (MBA).The programme launch took place on Monday in Gacuriro, Kigali.Dr Innocent Mugisha, who represented the Ministry of Education, hailed the launch, saying it would boost national skills development drive.“The government, through the Ministry of Education, is always committed to create a friendly environment which will facilitate universities and other higher institutions of learning to open branches in the country as education is key to sustainable development,” Dr Mugisha said.Jean Chrysostome Rindiro, the Director of Admissions and Operations in Rwanda, told The New Times yesterday that lectures would commence on August 27 at Telecom House, in Kacyiru, Gasabo District. “The main objective of our university to begin offering MBA course in the country is to minimise the costs on Rwandan students studying at our main campus in the USA,” he said, adding the programme will now be cost-effective. The cost of four students to study in the USA can cater for 16 students studying at the Kigali campus, he said.According to Rindiro, 25 students have already been enrolled in their first intake.Rindiro noted that the lectures will include combined programmes of online and on ground lessons. For the first year, many of the lessons will be taught online until they put in place all the necessities with lecturers expected to come from the USA.The courses will be completed in one year for fulltime students at a tune of about US$9000 for each student, according Rindiro. “Before registration selection examinations that are based on the USA standards were held for each student to test their capacities,” he said.The university has a partnership with the government through which they pay half the money which the students were supposed to pay in tuition fees. Currently, there are over about 60 Rwandan students at Oklahoma University, eight of whom are on masters’ programmes sponsored by the Students Financing Agency for Rwanda.The partnership between the government and Oklahama Christian University begun in 2006 when President Paul Kagame visited the university.Dr Mugisha encouraged Rwandan students to enrol at the university, saying those who have qualified from there have demonstrated competence on the labour market.
