Rwanda Moves On With One University Plan

Rwanda

The government of Rwanda is merging seven public institutions of higher learning to create one university that is set to begin with the next academic year in September. The move is geared towards increasing efficiency and quality of higher learning education.

The plan mooted last year in a leadership retreat in February 2011, will see the government creating the University of Rwanda (UR) which will comprise colleges and schools all under the management of the government.

This will see the current National University of Rwanda (NUR), which is seen as the leading institution of higher learning in the country, lose its status and name to the new outfit.

The merger of public institutions of higher learning becomes the latest move by the government to bring several public agencies under one name and management. The exercise started in 2008 and has resulted into several mergers.

Since 2008, the government has merged several public agencies and created much bigger entities such as the Rwanda Development Board(RDB) which oversees investment promotion, tourism and conservation, company registration, skills development as well as Information Communication Technology(ICT) infrastructure development.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Vincent Biruta, said the single university system, which is the first in the East African region, will research and create a world-class higher learning institution while also effectively using the available resources such as lecturers and laboratories.

"The university will also ensure quality and relevance of higher education, develop research capacity, encourage innovation, improve coordination between institutions and operational efficiency, strengthen partnerships and enhance regional and international visibility," he said.

The rapid growth in the number of programmes, enrolment and activities, the ministry explains that are some of the factors that dictated that the structure of the higher education system realign itself to be more efficient and effective. The 2012 education statistics show that the number of students enrolled in public higher learning institutions was 37,902.

A task force to fast track the establishment of the university has been tasked to ensure that the university will be operational at the beginning of the 2013/14 academic in September this year.

The task force is expected to conduct an assessment of the existing academic and administrative staff to be reappointed in the new structure. These will be picked from the seven existing public institutions of higher learning.

The task force's initial work is to provide the foundations of the University's organisational and functional structures and its strategic plan determining such issues as its headquarters and recruitment procedures.

Has this worked somewhere else?

The Rwandan one university system will be the first in the east African region but it will not be the first in Africa and other continents. The former Executive Director of the Rwanda Higher Education Council, retired Prof. Geoffrey Rugege, says that one university system exits in some parts of the United States of America (USA).

"Two of the most well known are the University of California system (10 universities) and the State University of New York (64 campuses)," says Rugege.

Further research shows that in 2004, the University of South Africa (Unisa) merged with Technikon South Africa and incorporated the distance education component of Vista University. The combined institution retained the name University of South Africa and it is now organised by colleges and schools.

Unisa had begun way back in 1873 and was modelled on the University of London. It was an incubator from which other universities in South Africa descended. Currently Unisa offers unparalleled high quality distance learning education on the African continent.

Proposed structure of University of Rwanda:

The task force has already proposed that the university includes six specialised colleges which are; The Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Education and Open and Distance Learning, Business and Economics, Science and Technology, and Arts and Social Sciences.

These colleges will in turn comprise eighteen specialised schools and departments whose re-sponsibilities will be held by deans and heads of departments respectively. There will not be faculties.

The taskforce will decide where each of the colleges will be located in the next few months along with other actions to be undertaken to have the university up-and-running.

The university will have a chancellor on the top followed by a Board of Directors and then the Vice Chancellor. Under the Vice Chancellor will be Communications and Public Relations Department and an internal Auditor.

Also under the Vice Chancellor will be the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic and Research Affairs. This will be in charge of Research and Graduate Studies as well as Academic Affairs.

On the same level will be the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement charged with Resource Mobilisation and Investment, Planning and Monitoring and ICT and the Deputy Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration charged with Estate Management, Procurement, Finance, Administration and Human Resources.

Challenges anticipated:

Just like it has been the case for higher learning institutions in Rwanda, the University of Rwanda faces the challenge of lack of qualified lecturers.

The few qualified people available are being poached by other institutions offering better pay. Rwanda has few PhD holders and masters' degree holders at the faculties. This presents a very big gap which could suffocate the realisation of the goals of the single university system.

In developing countries, it is preferred that a country has a ratio of 30% PhDs and 70% masters in the academia which is not the case in Rwanda.

The one university will also inherit lecturers with heavy workloads, and university campuses with inadequate facilities, high cost of education, and curricula that may not be in line with the labour market requirements.

The ministry of Education says under the University of Rwanda, focus will be on research by professors and will be a requirement for a lecturer to be promoted.

"We know it is a problem because finding time when you are teaching is not easy. We have a shortage of lecturers. Sometimes they don't have time to do the research at all."

Students less informed:

Nevertheless, despite the government having streamlined the whole process for the kick-off of the one university system, students appear not to be well informed about the process.

"I am not sure whether I will have to be transferred from Umutara University to another school. We are in the dark, there has not been clear communication and information from the administration," said Dan Ngabonziza, a third year student at Umutara University.

"Apart from reading stories in the media which are also not deep enough, I have no clue how this whole thing will be done. Our institutions have not done much as far as communicating the plan is concerned," reiterated Rita Umurungi, a second year business student at the School of Finance and Banking (SFB) in Kigali.

"It is important that we understand the whole idea and not in bits and pieces like it is currently the case. Let government put in place a communication strategy to bring us all on board," said Anastase Muhizi a third year student at the Kigali Institute of Education (KIE).

For Joy Akaliza a third year student of Social Sciences at the National University of Rwanda(NUR), the idea of one university sounds good, but she cannot offer any views about something she does not understand.

"There has been lack of communication about the initiative and yet I believe that its success would depend on all parties being on board and in harmony," she says.