The University of Rwanda has seen an increase in the applicants for undergraduate programs for the academic year 2020/2021 according to the varsity’s management.

The public higher learning institution has seen the number of applicants scale to 25,019 from less than 15,000 that normally applied in the previous years.

Odette Uwizeye, the university’s registrar attributes the move to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Parents who normally send their students abroad were hindered by the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic and we have seen more private education institutions shutting down this year, "she recalls.

"So, after those two circumstances, all of those students who did not get those opportunities turned their eyes to the University of Rwanda,” she told The New Times.

Among the 25,019 applicants, 10,000 have been admitted and those who had not completed the required data were required to fill them, before January 13.

Principal course performance over aggregate performance

Principal course performance was preferred over aggregate performance during the admission procedure.

In an exclusive interview with The New Times, Dr Papias Musafili Malimba, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Rwanda said that the foundational principle of admission into higher learning programs prioritizes the subject’s performance.

"The Higher Educational Council’s policy gives admission to students based on their performance on the principal subject, which determines the faculty to take, aggregate performance comes after,” he noted.

"But most students are not aware of this", he adds. 

His comments follow concerns raised by students who were not allowed to take certain majors whereas they had aggregately performed well.

Gedeon Ishimwe, who majored in sciences from Byimana High school says admission criteria at University of Rwanda should be communicated to high school students.

"It is a common thing that students work hard, to get good grades and be able to choose any faculty they may want, but they are not aware of the performance in a specific course, because some even change them upon getting in the University,” he said.