University of Rwanda adopts IT from Kenyan school

Collaborating with Kenya's Strathmore University to improve the use of technology in Rwanda, the National University of Rwanda will adopt Strathmore's information management system, which includes financial management, academic management and a library system.

"This system is going to make National University of Rwanda more efficient and effective," said Silas Lwakabamba, the university's vice chancellor.

Like many African universities, Lwakabamba explained that his institution employs "ghost workers" as the human resource and finance offices are not linked, the university often suffers losses. Moreover, with the manual registration system, there are students who join the university and do not pay fees until they graduate, Lwakabamba said. With the new system, he hopes that all university departments will be linked and information regarding students and staff will be available online.

The financial system will also enable the school to monitor payments and ensure that fees paid do not end up in people's pockets, as occurs in some Sub-Saharan universities, said Lwakabamba.

The system has various modules that track students' academic records from admission to graduation, and the financial system is paperless, said Paul Maina, head of Strathmore Research and Consulting Center (SRCC).

The academic system costs US$300,000 to implement, the financial system costs $200,000, the library management system costs $20,000 and the e-learning system costs $10,000. The fees include one year of maintenance and the training of university IT staff. SRCC will also evaluate the university's policies and implement the systems to suit the university.

The collaboration is supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and is intended to show how technology can improve processes at universities. The project will also lead to collaboration within the East Africa Community, which includes Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.

While there are vendors selling systems to universities, Maina says most of them are selling an accounting system with a front-end module of admission without all the functions of a university room, exam and timetable allocation.

Rwanda will be the first in the region to fully install the system, after Strathmore held awareness forums last year in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The University of Malawi has also requested that Strathmore visit the country to address students and teaching staff, Maina said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.