Students want authorities to help them get their records

Students from l’Institut Supérieur de Développement (ISD), a higher education institution in the Ntahangwa district in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, have appealed to the government to help them to get academic documents from the defunct university so that they can seek re-admission elsewhere.

ISD, a private institution, was closed permanently by the ministry of education early in March 2021 because of financial management problems including the non-payment of staff.

The problems started in 2015 when the university reportedly fell into arrears with the salary payments of academic and administrative staff. And, in 2018, the ministry of education suspended the university’s activities temporarily to first resolve the salary issue.

However, three years later, the ministry closed the university permanently, leaving students stranded and uncertain about their educational prospects.

When the university was closed in March, the Minister of Education and Scientific Research, Gaspard Banyankimbona, assured students that the ministry would protect its interests.

“All students’ documents will be managed by the ministry and [problem] cases will be solved accordingly,” said the minister at the time.

However, almost four months after the March closure, students were still not able to access their documents.

According to affected students, lecturers have refused to release their results. “Lecturers have refused to release our results until they get salaries that have not been paid for months,” Vital Nzambimana, a student representative said.

Jean Butoyi, one of the affected students, said that, even before the university was closed, courses were not delivered well because the lecturers were desperate for their salaries.

“We spent a month or two without receiving lectures scheduled on the timetable and the university management seemed as if they owed us no explanations,” he said. “To make things worse, it was after the university was [already] closed.

“There is no hope that we will get our academic transcripts, because lecturers have kept the results because they have not been paid,” he added.

Students petition government

In the meantime, University World News has learned that the affected students have petitioned several government institutions, including the prime minister’s office and the ministry for security for help. But, despite providing details at the prime minister’s office, no action has been forthcoming.

“At the ministry of security, they asked us to be patient so that the issue could be peacefully resolved [but] they threatened to use force if we refused to cooperate,” said Nzambimana.

University still registering students

L’Institut Supérieur de Développement is one of 11 private higher learning universities which the ministry of education has closed, and has been warned not to enrol new students in the new academic year. However, ISD has continued to accept students who are unaware of its closure.

When contacted, Jean Bosco Hakizimana, the university’s legal representative, said he was not aware that the university was permanently closed and hoped it could continue admitting new students and that studies will go on unhindered.

However, Hakizimana did not want to comment on the issues that might have led to the closure and neither did he want to speak about the fate of the affected students.

Damien Ciza, the vice-chancellor of ISD, could not be reached for comment.