Indian varsity in Rwanda a dream come true

Editor, This letter is with reference to the article, “Education is about dignity – Kagame” (The New Times, March 16). As President Paul Kagame has very rightly remarked during the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai recently, education is about dignity and empowering citizens to choose their place in society.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Editor,

This letter is with reference to the article, "Education is about dignity – Kagame” (The New Times, March 16).As President Paul Kagame has very rightly remarked during the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai recently, education is about dignity and empowering citizens to choose their place in society.

Please allow me to share with your esteemed readers that my dream of bringing an Indian university to Rwanda has since become a reality. It was during Rwanda Calling 2014, held in Kigali in May 2014, when the senior management of the leading Mahatma Gandhi University touched down in this beautiful land for the first time.

The super fast process of registering a company, coupled with the ease of doing business in the country, found favour with the university management and not only did they register but, today, they have a fully fledged campus right in the heart of the City of Kigali while they wait, of course, for their state-of-the-art campus to be constructed in Bugesera.

Presently, we have thousands of Rwandan youths who travel all the way to India for graduate, post graduate and even for doctorate studies.

Mahatma Gandhi University Rwanda, which today already has close to a thousand students enrolled and which even employs as many as sixty Rwandans including the dean himself, focuses on making education job and skills oriented. They aim at developing a healthy balance between job seekers and job creators.

Ultimately, this university, with its modern technological expertise, will contribute towards making this great nation an "education hub” where students—not only from Rwanda and the EAC region but even beyond—will flock to in their quest for quality education.

Clarence Fernandes