Concerns over more higher education sector reforms

Further restructuring of the University of Rwanda – the product of a seven-institution merger – may be on the cards. "At what cost to quality?" asks a higher education expert.

In 2013, the government adopted a law which enabled the merger of seven public institutions to form a single public University of Rwanda.

The move was aimed at helping the country harmonise its higher education system, promote efficiency, meet international standards, improve the quality of education and promote research.

Officials at the time said some colleges, scattered in various areas of the country, were offering similar programmes, which pushed up operational costs for the government.

The government had hopes that the merger would streamline programmes and lead the country towards a knowledge-based economy. It was expecting that the university would ultimately be able to finance its own operations without necessarily relying wholly on state funds.

However, a few years down the road, the institution continues to face restructuring.

New round of mergers

Last week it was announced that the University of Rwanda would begin another round of mergers of schools and programmes across seven campuses. In some cases, this will involve the relocation of academic units.

For example, the schools of communication, arts and law under the current College of Arts and Social Sciences in the southern part of the country will relocate to Kigali to join Gikondo campus which is currently home to schools of business and economics.

Nyarugenge campus (also Kigali-based) will be home to schools of science, engineering, architecture, ICT, mining and geology. The five existing schools of nursing and midwifery, merging with school of medicine and health sciences, will be housed on both Remera and Huye campuses.

Rukara campus will house the school of education, while Busogo campus will house the school of agriculture and food science, leaving Nyagatare campus as home to the school of veterinary medicine and engineering in agriculture. Huye campus will also be the home of the school of forestry, conservation and biodiversity.

Dr Charles Murigande, deputy vice-chancellor for institutional advancement, said bringing faculties with the same programmes under one roof would harmonise research and academic activities.

“Some colleges and schools which were scattered in different places happen to have been offering the same programmes and these operations were expensive for the university and lecturers who had to move from one district to another,” he said.

Warning from HE Council

In what seems to be a more reserved and critical stance, the national Higher Education Council has warned the university management it cannot proceed with the restructuring exercise before seeking input from the council.

In a letter addressed to the university management dated 14 September, the council’s Executive Director Dr Emmanuel Muvunyi, said that the latest restructuring proposals were not legally binding and were not submitted to the council for a review. The letter made specific reference to law 01/2007 of 31/01/2017 which governs the organisation and functioning of the Higher Education Council.

“In line with the above legal provisions, the University of Rwanda is advised to submit their proposed changes to the Higher Education Council for review and decisions,” the statement from the council reads in part.

Expressing concerns that the process will disrupt the teaching and learning process, Dr Oscar Brekmans Bahizi, head of the Rwanda Institute of Cooperatives, Entrepreneurship and Microfinance and former lecturer at the Institute of Legal Practice, told University World News that there was a ‘rush’ into the merger.

“Before you embark on any merger, you need to mobilise resources; you have to put all things together, otherwise it would happen in phases,” he said.

Disruptions

Bahizi said previous internal restructuring had been a disruption for both staff and students.

“There is a serious need for stability, because such inconsistent changes are bound to affect service delivery of the institution,” he said.

“It becomes even worse when students, normally known to have insufficient resources, are told a few months before changes that they will need to prepare for changes. It disrupts them psychologically and financially,” Bahizi explained.

The University of Rwanda, which is yet to formally respond to the Higher Education Council’s request, was among a number of institutions for which an overhaul of operations was recommended by a recent council audit report.

At the request of the government in November 2016, the council embarked on a detailed inspection of universities to monitor how the universities were meeting national goals, as well as the relevance and quality of education.

Independent auditors and higher education experts indicated the need for improvements in some institutions, while others were given until the end of this month to make changes or face cancellation of licences.

An earlier report by the Inter-University Council for East Africa to establish employers’ perceptions of graduates found that 52% of graduates in Rwanda were not ready for the job market.