{"id":68838,"date":"2024-03-30T12:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T12:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy"},"modified":"2024-03-30T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T14:15:54","slug":"ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy","title":{"rendered":"UR official on why the university needs greater autonomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>The greater autonomy that University of Rwanda (UR) seeks to gain through a bill awaiting approval by Parliament is critical for it to be able to fast-track the recruitment of competent staff and improve its performance, a senior UR official has said.<\/p>\n

UR\u2019s Acting Vice Chancellor Associate Prof Didas Kayihura Muganga made the observation on March 28 while speaking to journalists about the need for such autonomy and the rationale behind it. It was at the end of UR\u2019s CEOs and heads of organisations meeting in Kigali, under the theme \u201cenhancing stakeholders\u2019 engagement towards the university we want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lower chamber of Parliament approved the relevance of the draft law governing UR on March 21. Among other provisions, the bill proposes allowing UR to operate in its full autonomy especially in matters regarding its powers and responsibilities, its Board of Governors, as well as the responsibilities of the Executive Organ.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposed full autonomy will also help to take decision on matters regarding the procurement of materials related to teaching, learning and research by using internal resources (academic and research staff, and their business companies respectively as part of teaching and learning),\u201d an explanatory note of the bill reads in part.<\/p>\n

This will be done, among others, by establishing specific rules regulating UR procurement, it indicated.<\/p>\n

Kayihura said that currently, hiring a lecturer requires that the university goes through the general recruitment process of public personnel \u2013 such as through the online recruitment (e-recruitment) system managed by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour. This practice, he said, was not effective and efficient for a university that is looking for competent staff who are also sought after by other universities globally, and could, sometimes, due to delays, lead to hiring staff that are not responding to the university\u2019s needs to grow.<\/p>\n

If the autonomy is achieved, he said, the university management will be able to identify scholars with the skills that match its development needs and recruit them in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

He indicated that in academia, universities place greater importance on the needed knowledge or skills than on nationality in their recruitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can recruit an Australian now, a Chinese tomorrow, and an American the next day because what I want is knowledge, not nationality. That\u2019s how universities are built,\u201d he said, indicating that by going the traditional way, recruitment is marred by bureaucracy and is not effective in getting the desired staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the freedom we need in terms of human resource management, procurement, and research,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Giving an example of how the autonomy is important, he cited research where \u201cyou can start your research thinking that you will need, say, up to four consumables [materials needed for practice], but research shows that you need eight. Based on the current procurement legislation, you are not allowed to procure the other four.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that, normally, it is research that determines what you need.<\/p>\n

For him, the general procurement procedures are not appropriate in terms of research and could block it.<\/p>\n

Much as the university should be held accountable for resource use and management \u2013 including value for money \u2013 in line with its mandate, Kayihura said that, this should be contextualised in terms of research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be held accountable for what we have done, but in a way that the one holding us to account does not base it on a context that is not appropriate to the university as a research centre,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Remunerating researchers based on performance, budget self-sufficiency<\/p>\n

Kayihura pointed out that the autonomy also concerns the remunerations of staff, pointing out that the university will reach a period when a university researcher is paid based on their performance. For instance, he said, if one researcher did their best and came up with a research project worth Rwf1 billion, and another brought a project worth Rwf500,000, the greater efforts of the former should be recognised as a motivation.<\/p>\n

This could encourage staff to be competitive so as to realise research projects that bring them major profits, he pointed out.<\/p>\n

According to data from the university, the government contributes 57 per cent of UR\u2019s budget, while the remaining is mobilised from other sources including the university capacity through research.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur target is that the more than 50 per cent government contribution to our budget goes down, and then, we generate more internally. As such, we reduce dependency on the government and rely on our capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Source: The New Times<\/b><\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. The greater autonomy that University of Rwanda (UR) seeks to gain through a bill awaiting approval by Parliament is critical for it to be able to fast-track the recruitment of competent staff and improve its performance, a senior UR official has said. UR\u2019s Acting Vice Chancellor Associate Prof Didas Kayihura Muganga made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":68837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,761],"tags":[760,763,325,758,3800,4096],"class_list":["post-68838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-education","tag-rwanda","tag-university-of-rwanda","tag-ur"],"yoast_head":"\nUR official on why the university needs greater autonomy - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The greater autonomy that University of Rwanda (UR) seeks to gain through a bill awaiting approval by Parliament is crit ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UR official on why the university needs greater autonomy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The greater autonomy that University of Rwanda (UR) seeks to gain through a bill awaiting approval by Parliament is crit ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-30T12:59:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-30T14:15:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/03\/sm_1711795377.901237.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"589\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"UR official on why the university needs greater autonomy\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-30T12:59:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-30T14:15:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy\"},\"wordCount\":769,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/03\/sm_1711795377.901237.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"Education\",\"Rwanda\",\"University of Rwanda\",\"UR\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/ur-official-on-why-the-university-needs-greater-autonomy\",\"name\":\"UR official on why the university needs greater autonomy - 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