In order to enable more students to attend public universities, the Rwandan government has lowered the tuition fees from RWF 850,000 to RWF 600,000 per year. The new tuition costs will go into effect beginning in the 2013-2014 academic year.
The State Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, explained, “The new policy is aimed at enabling more students in public tertiary education to pay affordable tuition fees and minimize the possibility of losing students who may drop out of public higher learning institutions due to cost.”
The new policy also includes the harmonization of the registration and caution fees to RWF 50,000 in all public institutions. Prior to this policy the costs of these fees differed in some public institutions and students were being charged RWF 30,000 for the registration fee and RWF 50,000 for the caution fee.
Beginning in September, the government will also cease providing students with full bursaries to students. They will be considering Ubudehe levels to determine which students are most in need of a bursary, while other students will either be put into a group eligible for half a bursary or removed from the list completely.
The Ubudehe program began in 2001 and divides students into six groups based on the economic status of their households. Students in categories five and six will no longer be eligible for tuition fee loans.
The president has requested that the poverty level barometer of Ubudehe be revised in order to ensure that everyone is properly categorized and receives the respective funding for which they are eligible.
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Written by Nina Thurau