The report revealed that universities are able to provide hostel facilities to students at a 12% rate which impacts the quality of education as students live far away from where they undergo their studies from.
The Commission’s report noted that due to long distances between the university and their residences, students leave the university back home early fearing for their lives during nights.
In an exclusive interview with IGIHE, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Institutional Advancement at University of Rwanda (UR), Ambassador Dr. Charles Muligande said that the University is doing all that is possible to help students get proper residences though some chose to live outside them and rent houses for themselves.
“It is not necessary for UR to have hostels for all the students because they don’t even use all the available lodgings. They make their own choices where to live. When they rent houses outside the university, eight students can share yet at the University such overcrowding is not allowed,” Dr. Muligande said.
Muligande said that students do not use all the lodging resources available. Here, he gave as an example a students’ hall of residence at UR Huye Campus with the capacity to accommodate 400 students only has 200 students.
“Some chose to rent houses outside where they can get houses at lower prices. The University hostels charge only Rwf4000 and Rwf5000 in Kigali. They do not pay electricity and water bills,” he explained.
Dr. Muligande says that before a number of UR students were relocated to its campuses across the country, Huye Campus was home to over 11000 students but today hosts about 9000 students this academic year which he thinks will not upset students’ accommodation.
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