NUR

NUR determined committed to quality output despite fast congesting facilities

BY GEORGE KAGAME

On 28 March, National University of Rwanda held the biggest graduation ceremony Rwanda ever had, yet earlier the in the same month there were reports in the media that the university was increasingly getting too congested, with the main library originally meant to accommodate 200 students suffering the worst.

Without immediate effort to expand the size of the library, the current 8000 population at the university cannot find enough reading space in a room meant to have only 200 students at a go.

George Kagame finds out more about Rwanda's ivory tour. The main entrance to Butare’s National University of Rwanda is deceptive; it’s very picturesque and the drive way resembles that of an old colonial governor's mansion. At the main gate, a lone private night watchman stares impassively in the middle of the road; he will be replaced in the morning by an even more bored looking policeman.

The long walk to the administration block however, is telling. Along the way, very long green eucalyptus trees line both sides of the road from the main entrance to the main administration block.

As if its a rule, all pathways inside NUR main campus are covered under the canopy of one tree or another, under these trees are old wooden benches which are used by students for several purposes. On some benches are students in group discussions, Jane Mutesi is giving her views on the government of Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation commission as i walk past one such group.

On another bench a student is puffing away on a cigarette while another group is practicing as some sort of choir, its early in the morning. The walk from the main entrance is telling of Rwanda today. There is no gate at the entrance as if to create the impression, everybody is welcome at Rwanda's most prestigious academic institution.

The security guard is seated in a makeshift detach. It is very early Wednesday morning, and Butare town is soon to be closed for Gacaca sessions. There's a rush everywhere to beat the early Gacaca deadline. As they rush, young female students are carrying bags on their shoulders, talking on their mobile phones while the male students are talking about the European Champion's league match the previous night.

On one side of the road is a genocide memorial site for university residents that were killed in the 1994 Genocide, there are some fresh looking wreaths inside the site. NUR is a busy institution, the campus is slowly becoming a town closed it in itself, the dean of students Mudaheranwa Gerard says the population of the university has blown up in recent years; "we now have a university student population of 8000, but the entire population of NUR could be anywhere between 10000 estimates."

The increased population has attracted a variety of businesses and lifestyles and rejuvenated the entire Southern Province; "it is easy to get to Butare by public means even as late as 7.30," says Frank Mugisha a senior executive working in Kigali and pursuing a masters' program in Economics at NUR.

There are many post graduate students at the university today, on 28th March NUR had its maid awards for PhDs, faculty of Medicine was the first to teach the PhDS, the university itself has 104 teaching staff currently pursuing PhD programs abroad. The introduction of various post graduate courses at the university coupled with increasing admissions have made NUR become over populated, stretching academic and other facilities," Mudaheranwa adds.

The increased population at the university has definitely brought many benefits as Innocent Buyinza a bus driver with Volcano transport services, one of several public transport managers on the route between Butare and Kigali says.

However, the serene gardens of NUR hide many challenging situations to the administrators. "NUR was built for only 2100, now the student population stands at 8000. Some of our facilities have been stretched to the limit. For example in some cases we have two students sharing one single small bed," says Mudaheranwa. Shortage of accommodation is not the only problem the institution faces; the library is the most affected sector of the university's population boom; "our students cannot fit into this small structure, so we have devised means to work longer hours so that we cater for many more students, Charles Kalinganire the director of the library says.

The university Rector Professor Silas Lwakabamba is more direct; "we don't have a conference room or a cafeteria, we take all our meetings to hotels. When the staff members, many of whom reside in Kigali come to the university to teach, they have no where to prepare their lectures from. They instead prepare from hotels, where they are labeled drunkards."

Yet all these challenges have not stopped NUR from being the biggest producer of skilled labour to the economy; "we have been t the forefront of supporting government's knowledge based economy drive," Lwakabamba says. And NUR is very aware of the competition for jobs now that Rwanda is in the East African Community; "we are playing a full part in education transformation in Rwanda, last year, the government adopted the National Qualification Framework.

This policy will ensure that we produce competitive labour not just for Rwanda and the EAC for global employment opportunities," Professor Martin O'hara Vice in charge of Academics says. The National Qualification Framework was adopted from the international academic standards in terms of quality and quantity of tertiary institution graduates that was adopted in Bologna. O'hara adds that the National Higher Education Council is one of the recommendations of the Bologna framework.

NUR has been very crucial in increasing the number and quality of skilled labour in the country; with an average roll out of 2500 annually, (the university just held its biggest graduation ceremony on 28th March 08 with 3217 students), "we have been the biggest institution to educate leaders in the country. We have developed partnerships with many institutions in the world to ensure the quality of graduates is good." Lwakabamba says.


According to the 2003 National Population survey, the ratio of university graduates to the total population of Rwanda was only 0.5 percent. NUR has doubled its effort since those sad discoveries; "we have produced over 8116 since 1995, and we are still determined to remain the leading institution in Rwanda." The university has embarked on a massive ambitious reform program, "we have plans, already there 28 projects that the university has earmarked beginning in 2008, we have Catholic sisters constructing a 5000 hostel that will solve most accommodation problems.

The library will also benefit from a KOICA grant (Korean International Development Agency). They have offered us 4 US Dollars for a new building to house ICT services, telecommunication and electronic departments. This will create more space in the library; we also have a conference soon with government and our donors where development projects will be presented."

Lwakabamba adds that the university has undertaken reforms that today when the students finish their academic years, they are not left with luxury of doing their projects at their pace as has been the case; "we want to avoid situation where students that were supposed to graduate in 2001 are just getting their certificates today, when a student walks out of the gate, they should have finished all academic work."

The university also has handled its fair share of Genocide ideology cases, these ideologies a December 2007 parliamentary commission issued an alarming report about the prevalence of hate speech in Rwandan schools. The commission concluded that genocide ideology had increased in schools to an extent that there is ground to fear another genocide in the coming years. The senior administration at NUR says there are no such cases in the institution which has been labeled as the fermenting ground for the genocidaire regime before 1994; 'in the past we had cases where students wrote abusive massages in the toilets, that has since been stopped. Lwakabamba adds that these ideology issues manifest themselves during student guild election. "

However they take the form of Francophones against Anglophones. But only because here's a lot of competition for guild positions, they attract many benefits. We are discussing removing these benefits too." He says the love of money has already infected guild politicians, "the fights we have are only between guild politicians, usually between incoming and out going governments."

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