Students in their final academic year at School of Finance and Banking(SFB) long dispute continues as they are accusing the Vice Rector in charge of academics Dr Papius Musafiri.
The students accuse Musafiri for blocking them from sitting for suplimentary papers after failing the exams saying it is a common practice in many universities around the world more especially in common wealth countries of which Rwanda joined recently.
Over 200 of the 500 students largely from Finance and Accounting Departments supposed to graduate June this year now face missing their graduation due to failed exams and not allowed to sit for supplementary.
“We petitioned the administration but the Vice-Rector in charge of academics says that their policy prohibits supplementary examinations,” Steven Nankunda who is also the Guild president said.
The policy seems to be hinged on only business interests as students are asked to pay Rwf 80,000 in order to retake one examination even when they have to repeat the class.
The students continue pointing an accusing finger to Vice Rector Musafiri as a more complicated and don’t mind about the problems of the students claiming that their education environment does not favour them.
They claim that facilities at the institution were stretched and lecturer rooms are overcrowded that even can’t hear the lectures giving examples of also the library and computer laboratory.
Other students complained that lecturers at times refuse to assist them complete their studies.
“We have students who do a lot of work on their project proposals because some supervisors do not respond to their queries. Sometimes they even refuse to pick up calls from students,” claimed Livingstone Byakatonda, one of the affected students from the Department of Finance.
The accused Vice Rector Dr Papius Musafiri question the claims of the students yet they have failed examinations however saying the final list of those to graduate is yet to be released.
Musafiri says the objective of the graduation should not be the number of graduates, but the quality of students that the institution is discharging into the labour market.
Professor Geoffrey Rugege, the Executive Director of the National Council for Higher Education has backed the SFB for its “tough stand”.
“Institutions of higher learning have the full freedom and autonomy to change their academic regulations to adopt what they consider the best practices,” he said.
He added that all academic regulations are under review with the aim of making all universities adopt uniform standards by September this year.
Unlike the SFB, other universities in Rwanda are yet to abolish supplementary examinations.
Contrary however the celebrated professor Silas Lwakabamba the Rector of National University of Rwanda (NUR) says “Its part and parcel of our regulations that students should be given another chance once they fail an examination,”
SFB has vowed to produce quality students for Rwanda’s labour market with skills in Finance, accounting mostly to bridge the gap of incompetence in finance, procurement and accounting sectors.
ENDS
Leave a Reply