By David Himbara
Rwanda’s head of state, General Paul Kagame, has made Patricia Campbell the Chancellor of the University of Rwanda. Kagame recruited Campbell from the US. She is Tufts University’s Executive Vice President responsible for finance, budgeting, treasury functions, and human resources. Patricia Campbell joins Phil Cotton, the University of Rwanda’s Vice-Chancellor. Cotton was at Glasgow medical School before his Rwandan venture. Cotton is also described as ”a Methodist preacher and the founding chair of a Scottish fair trade organization and board member of several development charities working in Africa.”
Meanwhile, the latest Webometrics’ ranking of Rwanda’s institutions of higher learning is not encouraging. Far from it — as indicated in the attached global rankings.
Kagame’s latest American import, Patricia Campbell, joins Kagame’s British import, Phil Cotton, to save the University of Rwanda. Campbell and Cotton are respectively the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. The two face a tough job. The University of Rwanda is ranked 3,158th in the world. The rest of Rwandan institutions of higher learning are ranked from 15,860th to 28,679th in the world. Is there any hope for higher education in Kagame’s Rwanda? Let us pray.
