Reforms in higher education will not necessarily result in savings

Editor, I wish to respond to the letter, “Focus on quality education, not fewer years in school” (The New Times, November 15).Senator Prof. Chrysologue Karangwa is right. As a former rector of KIST and NUR he is in the perfect position to understand the following:a) The proposed move from theory only courses to courses of practice will require extensive capital and operational expenses that will probably exceed any savings from the merger and any potential savings in reducing the academic requirements from four to three years. It will take only a very quick tour just of the agricultural campuses and the schools of nursing to realise that even under the current regime there is inadequate funding for existing programmes, much less costly laboratory, field and intern experiences. Up to 80 per cent of the population in Rwanda is dependent on agriculture and the country is under significant pressure to improve the quality of health care, both inadequately funded at the university level.b) Internationally, there is a move towards competency-based degrees and away from the traditional graduation by seat time and credit hours. It is well understood that even in the theory-based courses that serious work needs to be done to raise standards. The move to practice increases the demand on the institution to provide adequate resources while the move to competency-based qualification may create a substantive challenge to all, including students. Lock-step, cohort-defined degrees do not guarantee competency. c) E-learning or the move from brick-spaced courses into click-space does not guarantee savings in cost of delivery. Also, quality e-learning courses require extensive support facilities and curriculum development specialists to realise quality as well as requiring student and faculty access to quality ICT technologies. The one alternative that has promise is to obtain basic courses that are available for free, currently, on the Internet from recognised, medallion universities. This implies outsourcing a substantive part of the current university curricula. There are numerous other issues that mitigate against the simple model of having current instructors offer virtual courses, including the issues outlined in “a” and “b” above.d) A recent report, (“Internet connection: what is Rwanda’s niche?” The New Times, November 13) points out that many businesses need to hire management and technical staff outside of Rwanda. This clearly shows that the post-secondary institutions have not provided adequate theory and practice for its business majors. This is an indicator that outside of the critical disciplines such as agriculture, health, there is need to raise the quality of the entire institution from business to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).The Government of Rwanda needs to carefully prudently allocate any savings realised from the merger and change in curricula. In fact, it should consider that education is critical to all sectors of Rwanda’s future and look not to savings but to increase funding.Dr. Tom P Abeles, Kigali*******************Editor,In my view, I think that reducing the time which Rwandan students spend for a Bachelor’s Degree is really needed. It is no longer applicable to spend four years, full time, studying for an Ordinary Bachelor’s Degree.An ordinary degree equals 360 credits, which are normally completed within three years, or IV levels, according to the terminology used. After a three-year degree, a successful student may add one year, i.e. more 120 credits, corresponding to level V, for an Honours (Bachelor’s Degree with Honours).This has many advantages on all education system components, such as students, lecturers, government, etc.Valentin Uwizeyimana, South Africa

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Reforms in higher education will not necessarily result in savings