At least 8000 students are set to graduate from the University of Rwanda with degrees and diplomas in various disciplines during the institution’s second graduation ceremonies since merger.

The weeklong graduation ceremony for the six different Colleges that were merged to form the University of Rwanda at the university grounds in Gikondo, Kigali, is expected to be concluded on Saturday.

The graduation will start with the College of Education anf followed by that of Science and Technology, then the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. The College of Business and Economics will graduate its students on the fourth day, before the College of Arts and Social Sciences, and finally the College of Medicine and Health.

Some 8,178 students graduated at the varsity’s maiden graduation last year.

The student enrolment has been going up since the merger. This year, 13,354 students were admitted up from 9443 last year.

The number of girls admitted also grew to 4,536 from 2927 in 2014

Speaking to The New Times at the weekend, Prof. James McWha, the vice-chancellor, said that plans to maintain the students’ enrolment are in place.

"We have plans to build more hostels and laboratories especially for the science students,” Prof. McWha said.

Asked about the employability status of graduates, Prof McWha said focus is now on job creation than job seeking by graduates.

"Entrepreneurship has been introduced in most of the programmes purposely to emphasise job creation,” he said.

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