• The affected new university colleges include Nyagatare, Nyamishaba and Musanze. The colleges reportedly lack well equipped laboratories and libraries.
Some of the university of Rwanda colleges are in dire need of equipment and facilities ahead of the September intake.

The affected new university colleges include Nyagatare, Nyamishaba and Musanze. The colleges reportedly lack well equipped laboratories and libraries.

This year’s intake is expected to raise the number of students by 25 per cent, from 8,000 to 10,000 after the merger of all public universities last year.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Rwanda said admission boards of the affected colleges will admit students according to available resources.

Only three colleges out of seven have modern learning facilities. The colleges with modern libraries, laboratories and accommodation facilities for both male and female students are College of Arts and Social Sciences, College of Science and Technology and College of Education.

Sources at Higher Education Council say while many universities are still building infrastructure, they still need essential facilities like modern play grounds, bigger conference halls, amphitheatres and hostels.

According to recent data on higher learning, institutions in Rwanda still lack enough computers for lessons.

The most three equipped institutions are college of Science and Technology with 1,033 computers, followed by College of Arts and Social Sciences and College of Education with 719 and 660 computers respectively.

Number of lecturers

The student to teacher ratio remains relatively high as Higher Education Council recent report say there are only 1,200 permanent lecturers in all colleges.

In the current education strategic plan, the government has put more emphasis on the construction of multipurpose facilities, mainly science and computer laboratories and sports facilities.

New regulations require sufficient provision of water and sanitation facilities in schools across the country.

Last year, College of Arts and Social Sciences built a modern science laboratory to facilitate research after receiving aid from Belgian. The laboratory is used to conduct studies in areas such as water analysis and food production.

According to Dr Desire Ndushabandi, former vice director of Finance and Administration, the support was intended to aid chemistry and biology teachers conduct research.

“The facilities will help our researchers to conduct many studies like water analysis, food production among others that will ben­efit the whole population,” he said.

The merger of public institutions of higher learning became the latest move by the government to bring several public agencies under one name and management. The exercise started in 2008 and has resulted into several mergers.

Since 2008, the government has merged several public agencies and created much bigger entities such as the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) which oversees investment promotion, tourism and conservation,company registration, skills development as well as Information and Communication Technology infrastructure development.