In 2003, you will celebrate the 40th anniversary
of the NUR. What have been the major achievements
of the university over the past 40 years and especially
the past 8 years, following the 1994 war?
This university was created on the 3rd of November
1963, so it is close to 40 years. We started with
63 students and today we are 5,922. Between 1963
and 1994 there were roughly 3,000 students and
after 8 years we have doubled the intake.
In the first 30 years, the university had developed
with traditional subjects like basic sciences
and humanities. After 1994 we had to rethink about
a number of things, the vision, the mission and
the strategies according to the needs.
As for the vision, we clearly came up with a
university that would be instrumental in upgrading
the technological skills of the nation. We also
came up with a university that would clearly be
focussing on the needs of the society. This means
that the University has to play a role in the
major challenges of the country like poverty reduction
and conflict management through a multi disciplinary
approach and of course other traditional challenges
for creating knowledge that's needed. We also
look at education of women because they make up
over 53% of our society and they have been left
behind. This is an agricultural country and the
women produce most of the food. They also cater
for child education and growth. So we thought
the university has to play a major role in that.
As for the mission, beyond the traditional mission
of the university, the University focused at the
providing the country with skilled manpower that
the country needed so badly after 1194 genocide.
Though research is expensive it is not a luxury
even for poor countries as some people have been
saying; we know that in the modern world there
cannot be development without research.
We embarked on a human resource development program
and today 30 % of our permanent staff are outside
the country on training for masters and PhDs.
They are in countries like South Africa, in Europe,
the US and Canada. We hope that in the next few
years we will have a critical mass of young PhDs
who are dynamic. This program started 4years ago
and now some of them are returning. Fortunately
the brain drain is not so much but of course we
are aware that this problem is there. Just to
give you an idea on what we want to do, in terms
of poverty reduction we want our lecturers, in
their research work, to work directly with rural
areas and see how they can create that linkage
with researchers, producers, NGOs and farmers
associations to solve problems in rural areas.
One example is in the coffee sector, through inter-university
co-operation between universities in the north,
our university and other research centres, students
work together in the field on how to improve small
farmers coffee quality.
In the field, we suppose you also collaborate
with other research institutes.
We try to get involved with everybody in research
in all activities that can raise the income of
the people. We are trying to think about how best
the university can participate in exports for
example.
Recently, a team composed of university researchers
and businessmen went for a tour of Europe to see
what can be sold especially in the agriculture
sector. They came back with very good suggestions
and today we tried to get business people together
to work with them. We tried to get a basic processing
unit and embark on a pilot project to export to
the market those export commodities that had been
identified. We just realised that there is a huge
African and African related Diaspora in Europe.
Today we are talking about agriculture, but definitely
we are also involved in other sectors like conflict
management to see what we can do as a university.
It is not easy to carry out research because you
need money; we have to compete for research funding
that is why we need to be updated on grant writing
and other potential donors.
Who are your main partners in terms of transfers
of technological know-how and equipment?
The main transformation in the university as
far as technology is concerned is Information,
Communication Technology. In 1998-1999 we had
between 40 and 50 computers in the whole university.
Today we have a network and Internet and we are
managing about 350 computers with servers for
administration, libraries and mail.
To make human resource development efficient,
you need access to information. Today some of
the faculties really have up to date information
especially the faculty of medicine. Most of the
equipment was bought through government grant,
as the president is a champion of IT.
For the know-how we work with foreign universities,
in the field of IT we have mainly worked with
the University of Midland in the US. We have also
been working with some universities in Belgium
in the field of Library computerisation. Otherwise
we have been working with private companies and
some big names like CISCO. We are the regional
CISCO academy in the country and we are setting
up local academies. So far we have initiated two,
one in KIST and the other in Rwandatel.
We have contacts with some companies like Lucent
Technologies; it is a company in the US that gave
us some research grants. Through that grant we
are involved in community multi-purpose centres,
we have one in a district about 15 Km from here
and we will put up another one in a primary school
and secondary school about 20Km form here. Through
that grant we have opened the first ever tele-centre
in the country. Through this applied research
we wanted to look at the feasibility of such a
program in Rwanda. Some of the places do not have
electricity and telephone lines; so we have to
use solar energy and wireless technology.
For traditional technological transfer, it is
through inter-university co-operation that we
are able to up-date our skills. We have co-operation
with over 40 universities including European universities,
American universities and African universities.
|
Do you work together on the elaboration of
your teaching programs?
After 1994, we had to move fast to more relevant
teaching programs like IT, which was a new department
that had to be opened, and we are having our first
graduates this year in BSc.
We had to create a number of new subjects like
business administration, Accounting, development
studies, banking and International economy, etc.
You mentioned that you are developing courses
like accounting, are you training in that direction
to implement revenue-generating activities like
KIST that provides consultancy services?
This is done but you have to be very careful
to balance the time your lecturers spend in the
university and the time they are outside. We have
a big student population and not enough lecturers;
so you really have to balance. In terms of revenue
generation you have to come up with new ways of
generating money because the government doesn't
fund all programs.
We encourage consultancies but within acceptable
margins. Some of our departments offer services
that are paid for. For example, the department
of civil engineering tests building materials
in the laboratory. Sometimes we do studies for
structure; most of the new buildings in Kigali
have been studied in the department here.
Of course, our teachers would like to go more
often because they make a living through this
but we have to strike a balance between the need
to look after our students and the need to earn
a better living. The university is involved in
income generation but in a way that is not compromising
to the quality of the education.
Most of your students are meant to become
the main assets of Rwandan companies when they
come out of university. In this regards, what
type of relationship do you build with the private
sector?
Our links with the private sector are not yet
fully institutionalised. All our students have
industrial training and most of the companies
in Kigali take our students for training.
The 2nd way we interact with the private sector
is through workshops. For example when it comes
to reforming the curriculum, we call future employers
and employees of the private sector to participate
in defining the needs. We did it last year for
the faculty of Agriculture, two years ago for
the school of journalism and communication and
we have done it for most faculties.
The 3rd strategy is partnership. We had very
interesting workshops a month ago between the
IT companies in Rwanda and the education institutions
here at the university. One of the strong recommendations
was the formalisation of the partnership. We are
involved in supplying manpower for IT companies
in Rwanda. The IT companies in Rwanda are few
but I think there are going to develop very fast.
If you compare today and a few years ago, you
definitely see a big difference. The privatisation
and liberalisation of the telecommunication will
boost this industry.
So, the need for qualified human resources
will have to grow?
Yes, last evening I had a group of people from
the local business community asking me to help
to see how to promote the new IT Company they
are putting up. The university will play a role
in terms of maintenance of their equipment and
solving a number of their problems. We told them
we are ready and we will even assist with our
recommendation to the bank.
We are also in the process of reviewing our charter.
One thing that will change is the role of the
private sector and other stakeholders like women
in the university council.
Once again, in 2003 you will celebrate the
40th anniversary of the university, I suppose
you will deliver a message to the students and
the private sector. What will your main message
be?
My message will be a message of hope, despite
the fact that we have gone through hard times
and we are among the poorest countries. If there
is will and faith, in the next years, we shall
become a middle-income country. The university
is a tool that the people of Rwanda should use
to move from this agricultural country to a more
knowledge-based country.
In August we shall launch the university alumni
association, we shall look at what has been achieved
and which mistakes have been made in the last
40 years to avoid making them again and what should
be the new impetus to allow us to move to this
new era.
Could tell us a little about your professional
background?
Well, I have had my education here and abroad.
In 1960 my family fled the country because of
the turmoil in Rwanda and we came back in 1964
and I continued my secondary school education
at Group Scolaire de Butare. I then went on to
the National University of Rwanda. After two years,
in 1973, I had to flee again because of political
reasons. I then spent one year at the University
of Burundi then went on to the University of Dakar
where I finished my medical education.
I then moved to France where I completed my further
education and I became a general surgeon, then
a urological surgeon. In 1988, I came back to
Africa; I went to Uganda and worked with the medical
school there. I came back to Rwanda in 1994 and
was assigned the task of reopening the Kigali
central Hospital while I was teaching urology
here at the university. In 1998 I was appointed
the rector of the university. Of course I miss
practising and I like teaching.
NB : Winne shall not be responsible for unedited
transcriptions
|
RWANDA
