The process to appoint the University of Rwanda (UR) senior management team is set to begin after Parliament passed the Bill seeking to merge the country’s 10 public universities and institutions of higher learning.
MPs passed the Bill on Friday after hearing and adopting a report by the standing Committee on Education, Technology, Culture and Youth, on slight amendments by a joint Senate-Chamber of Deputies team
The Bill now awaits Presidential assent and then publication in the official Gazette.
Government wants to fast track the UR project. It could be fully operational starting with the next academic year in September, according to officials.
The UR will be given a period not exceeding two years from the date the law is published in the Official Gazette, to merge the activities formerly performed by the affected institutions.
What next?
The Minister for Education, Dr. Vincent Biruta, told The New Times that officials were ready to swing into action. The planned activities include, the recruitment and appointment of UR senior management team (Vice-Chancellor and deputies), the adoption and promulgation of various orders provided for in UR bill, among others.
“We will also need to appoint the Board of Governors. In the meantime, technical teams are working on programmes of harmonisation, financial or administrative arrangements for the merger of existing public higher learning institutions,” he said.
The Chamber of Deputies had, in June, endorsed the Bill seeking to have 10 of the country’s universities merged to form one institution of higher learning.
The proposed law notes that UR will have legal personality, administrative, teaching, research and financial autonomy and will be run in accordance with the law governing the organisation and functioning of higher education, which was also passed last Friday.
Pooling resources:
Dr. Biruta has, in the past, told lawmakers that the lack of an enabling law had been a major obstacle to harmonising higher learning institutions as part of efforts to improve the quality of education. The new project will enable universities to pool their often scanty resources, he said.
In practice, the merger could take up to two years and a task force set up to fasttrack the process is working to ensure that the project becomes operational at least in the next two or three months.
Apart from the main design changes, MP Agnès Mukazibera, Chairperson of the committee, told the House that it was agreed by both teams that in Article 13 [Incompatibilities with membership of the Board of Governors], board members shall not be allowed to perform any remunerated activity within UR, except those referred to under paragraph 3 of article 11.
Paragraph three of Article 11 [Board of Governors of UR] partly states that in “addition to members appointed by Presidential Order, there are members of the Board of Governors by virtue of managerial positions they hold in UR, and members elected to represent teachers, researchers, staff and students of UR.
The New Times
