The School of Journalism and Communication, and that of Law are set to vacate their current premises at the College of Science and Technology, a move University of Rwanda administration said seeks to provide the students with better learning environment.

The two schools, that are under the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS), will now move to the Gikondo campus, which is also home to the College of Business and Economics.

This development was confirmed by Dr Yusta Kaitesi, the principal for CASS, who said the move is aimed at providing the students in the two schools with a better learning environment.

While announcing the changes to students, on Wednesday, Kaitesi said the decision will help improve the quality of education as students will be able acquire more subjects related with their fields of experiences.

"The main purpose for students at school is to acquire knowledge, so to relocate is among the possible ways to facilitate students acquire standardised skills, we wish that students would learn while in good a environment,” she said.

"At the College of Business and Economics, there is a presence of such related disciplines like economics and business subjects, which the students at the two schools will be able to take on. For example, journalism students will easily take on economic reporting, and Business Law for those in the Law school.”

Both schools were formerly located at Huye-based College of Arts and Social Sciences before the journalism school relocated to Kigali in 2011, followed by the School of Law in 2015.

Dr Kaitesi urged students to embrace continuous changes because they are meant to improve their learning.

"These changes will not destabilise daily studies. Take the example of Law students, we moved them from Huye because many facilities like libraries, and institutions related with this field like Parliament and courts are based in Kigali. We want them to learn more of practice than theory by experiencing what goes on in these institutions,” she said, adding that the same exercise was applied to journalism students so they can benefit from media houses in Kigali.

Kaitesi assured the students of improved facilities at the Gikondo campus.

Students react

Some of the students The New Times spoke to said there would be inconveniences for them but agreed that if the decision was being taken in the interest of advancing quality education, they would happily oblige.

"We didn’t have library and internet access in the past year, and the situation remains the same, so if changes will address these issues, we will embrace it,” said Jean Bosco Safari, a fourth year Law student.

According to Dr Kaitesi, the relocation arrangements have started and the second semester, that is set to start next month, will begin when all things will have been completed.

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