University of Rwanda’s (UR) new Vice Chancellor Professor Alexandre Lyambabaje has pointed out research improvement, beefing up finances, and upgrading e-learning as some of the key areas he will work on during his tenure at the helm of the institution.

He was speaking during the official handover ceremony held at the University’s College of Business and Economics in Kigali on Friday, February 12 to instate him in his position.

Lyambabaje was appointed by the cabinet earlier this month, and was later approved by the senate to head UR, the biggest university in the country.

Speaking to a few top officials of the university that attended the handover ceremony, he outlined ways through which the institution can make money to sustain quality education.

Among these, he said the university can earn from doing research for government or other local institutions, which have previously been hiring foreign researchers, yet even the local ones can do the job if they put in good effort.

"When you look at the money that goes to foreign researchers to study local problems – it is alot,” he said.

"We need to look at how we can build our capacity so that any time our country needs a particular study or research, we can be right there to do the job – and do it well as professionals. I think we have many experts at the university. So there is no reason for the county to continue losing money to foreign researchers,” he added.

For another source of finance, Lyambabaje said the university can foster partnerships with the private sector, which can help to sponsor some of the institution’s activities – mainly sports,

"I don’t often see corporate companies with universities, in regard to sponsorship of activities and branding. We need to look at these companies and how we can work with them, for instance in taking our sports activities to the next level,” he said.

Meanwhile, he appreciated the government of Rwanda as a key financier of UR, as well as some local and foreign partners that also give some funds to the university.

Lyambabaje takes over UR’s leadership at a difficult time when the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc over the institution, disrupting the curriculum, and throwing uncertainty on a number of activities.

However, he does not think that the virus situation should only be looked at through the lens of disadvantages, since the university can put up efforts to use such a challenging time to develop their e-learning capabilities,

"We can look at this situation as a pathway for us to work in various ways,” he said, adding that the university can improve its e-learning and have such technologies at every one of their campuses, in an upgraded way that assists students to make most of the lectures by being able to ask questions, among other things that make an interactive class.

Presenting a report on the state of the university, Papias Musafiri Malimba, who was serving as UR’s Acting Vice Chancellor before Lyambabaje was instated said that the institution has approximately 27000 students.

Of these, 92 percent are undergraduate, while 8 percent are post graduate students.

He also highlighted to the incoming Vice Chancellor the key pillars for the university which include: research, quality teaching and learning, being responsible to the community, quality infrastructure, responsible leadership and management, and financial stability.

More about Lyambabaje

Born in 1960, Lyambabaje among other academic qualifications holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Mathematics and a Doctorate in Mathematics from University de Rennes in France.

He has served in different capacities in Rwanda’s public sector. Among these, in 1999, he was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education.

In 2000, he was appointed Minister of Commerce, Tourism Industry, Investments Promotion and Cooperatives, a position he held until 2003.

He supervised the formulation of policies for the ministry and in particular Rwanda Tourism Policy.

He also contributed to the regional integration process through active participation in regional ministerial meetings, including those of the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

From April 2014 to 2015, he served as a senior researcher at the University of Rwanda in the College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

He also served as an Associate Professor of Statistics in the Institute of Applied Sciences Ruhengeri.