Skills in Higher Education

The University of Rwanda was established as a merger of all public universities to help address the issues of duplication, sharing of resources and most importantly that of quality. One of the objectives is to build a research-based institution. This includes a Staff PhD training programme; an incentive scheme to reward and encourage research; and to integrate entrepreneurship and innovation into the curriculum.

Several initiatives are ongoing to strengthen the quality and relevance of engineering programmes at TVET and Higher Education levels through the DACUM process which ensures that curricula are developed in line with the needs of industry. This has been applied to date in programmes related to Energy, Transport and Logistics and Agro-processing. Strengthening of laboratories and facilities are also ongoing, including the inclusion of SMART Workshops and laboratories to ensure that students learn practical skills that will be needed once they move to industry.

Centres of Excellence (CoE) have been established, focusing on developing research capacity to address critical challenges facing Rwanda and the Region and in developing research strength and capability within the Higher Learning Institutions in Rwanda.

These include:

-          Partnership Institute of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) between the Government of Rwanda with ICTP in Trieste Italy has established an East Africa Centre for Fundamental Research based at University of Rwanda on research including High Energy Physics, Condensed Matter, and Earth System Physics including climate change and geophysics. Category Two status has been approved by the UNESCO General Assembly and this recognises the high level of programmes of EAIFR and contributes to the execution of UNESCO programmes on theoretical and experimental research and advanced training. with current 20 MSc students (including 8 Rwandan and 12 from the Region) and 6 undertaking PhD studies

-          Partnership Government of Rwanda and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) of US master's degree-granting program in Rwanda. Financial support from African Development Bank for CMUR to be the centrepiece of ICT Centre of Excellence in Kigali Innovation City. In addition to the Rwanda students, students are from 15 other African countries: Kenya; Nigeria; Uganda; Ghana; Cameroon; Zimbabwe; Ethiopia; Tanzania; Benin; Zambia; Lesotho; Burundi; Eritrea; Gambia; South Sudan and Somalia.

-          Ongoing collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Government of Rwanda in establishment of a world class global climate observatory. This measures Climate parameters including Green House Gases and provides capacity building in Atmospheric and Climate Science. An interim observatory is already operational with the final observatory to be established on the summit of Mount Karisimbi at an altitude of 4,507 m.

-          Through the World Bank Centres of Excellence (ACE II) project four proposals submitted by Rwanda were selected to be funded by the World Bank and these are:

·         African Centre of Excellence in Internet of Things;

·         African Centre of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development;

·         African Centre of Excellence for Data Sciences; and 

·         African Centre of Excellence in Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science.

-          With the support of UNESCO, a Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity & Natural Resources Management has been established, to provide knowledge‐based approaches for sustainable management of the wealth of biodiversity and natural resources in the Albertine Rift region.

-          A regional Centre of Excellence in Health Supply Chain Management was endorsed by the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health as a teaching institution in Rwanda with partner collaborating institutions in the EAC with a vision to “to protect and improve the health of the population of the EAC partner states. “

-          African Institute for Mathematical Sciences – Next Einstein Initiative (AIMS-NEI) has been established in Rwanda in partnership with the Ministry of Education. One of the central programmes is an intensive one-year Masters Programme in Mathematical Sciences. 126 students have graduated since the inception with one third of students from Rwanda and two thirds from other countries in Africa.

Another initiative to strengthen Higher Education Science and Technology is the Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences Engineering and Technology (PASET). Rwanda is one of the founding members of PASET and other members include the Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya and Cote D’Ivoire. One of the flagship programmes of PASET is the Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund which includes PhD training in priority ASET disciplines anchored in African institutions. The University of Rwanda has been competitively chosen as one of the host universities for PASET. 

The infrastructure already in place and the intellectual community of educators and researchers, already running the centres, are key indicators of the foundation for the development of Rwanda’s and the region’s scientific and technological capability.

Skilled Youth and Professionals to Support Rwanda’s Knowledge Economy

The pipeline of skills being developed at basic education, TVET, tertiary and at the Centres of Excellence will ensure quality training of a critical mass of skilled individuals who will support Rwanda’s growth potential in various sectors such as: agriculture, health, energy, transport, communications, and manufacturing. Several of the Centres of Excellence include in their mandate to provide mentorship and support to youth at various levels of education especially the African Centre of Excellence in Innovative Teaching and Learning in Maths and Science (ACEITLMS) which has programmes supporting the teaching of maths and science in basic education through the use of technology.

It is expected that this combination of scientific and practical/industrial orientation of the education sector will result in new job opportunities for the skilled youth with expertise and responsibility in linking science, technology with sustainable development in the current era of SDGs, the 4th Industrial revolution, and global challenges. This will hence put Rwanda on the right path for achieving the ambitious targets in Vision 2050 to build an advanced country with high standards of living for all Rwandans. 

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