Kigali Independent University (ULK) has put in place new recruitment procedures for its teaching staff as a way of checking counterfeits in the country’s biggest private university.

According to the Director of Research, Consultancy and Cooperation at ULK, Gustave Tombola, the move is aimed at improving the standard of the university’s graduates by ensuring skilled lecturers and deal with counterfeit academic papers.

"We have established a ten-person panel to help us in the recruitment process and the panel includes external members from other universities,” said Tombola in an interview with The New Times yesterday.

He added that the method has helped them come up with a very good and competitive teaching team which will help improve the standard of the students who graduate at the university.

Tombola who is the chairman of the selection committee urged other institutions of higher learning to borrow a leaf from this method because it is the only way to ensure quality.

"We have been giving jobs to whoever came saying that they had Masters or PhD degrees. They have been getting the jobs without their papers undergoing serious scrutiny and checking if they have the teaching skills,” said Tombola.

This committee which has been interviewing the candidates is made up of highly experienced scholars.

According to Tombola, the committee has been able to identify some doubtful papers during the assessment and some candidates had no teaching skills.

Out of the 44 candidates who were assessed, nine were disqualified due to questionable papers.

Tombola added that the commission had also assessed the current staff for English proficiency since the university will begin using English as the language of instruction come 2010.

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