The University of Rwanda (UR) is planning to increase its hostel capacity to accommodate up to 60 per cent of undergraduate students.

The institution currently accommodates about 23 per cent of undergraduate students, according to Ignatius Kabagambe, its spokesperson.

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The UR has more than 30,000 students distributed in six colleges, with 87 undergraduate and 138 postgraduate programmes.

Despite the plans to increase the number of hostels, Kabagambe maintained that the UR has no issues related to accommodation as the majority of its students rely on rented homes in the communities around its nine campuses.

"However, the university has plans to gradually expand its hostel facilities, starting next year. The goal is to increase capacity so that within five years, 60 per cent of students at each campus will have access to on-campus accommodation,” Kabagambe told The New Times.

For example, he said, this year, 900 additional rooms will be built at the Nyarugenge campus to meet students' housing needs.

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Hostel rooms are allocated to students at the start of every academic year.

"Priority for hostel rooms is given to students with disabilities, followed by first-year students, with a particular focus on female students, and additional allocations are made to other female students in subsequent years,” Kabagambe said.

Rooms are only allocated to students who have registered and applied for accommodation. Each campus has a committee responsible for ensuring fairness and transparency in the allocation of hostel rooms, he said.

The University of Rwanda was formed in 2013 following the merger of then National University of Rwanda and six other public institutions of higher learning.

The UR will hold its 10th graduation on October 25, with 8,000 graduands.

More than 72,000 students have graduated from the university since 2014.