OVERVIEW
The Government of Rwanda is supporting the transformation of higher education so that it is fit for purpose and internationally credible. Higher education institutions are required to deliver graduates, research, consultancy services and community engagement to support the social and economic development of Rwanda.
They are also required to demonstrate that the standards of their awards, research and consultancy services are internationally credible. All providers, public and private, will be periodically reviewed and sub standard provision, wherever it is found, will have to be brought up to threshold standards. Failure to bring provision up to standard will result in closure.
To support it in transforming higher education the Government has established the Higher Education Council as an independent Government Agency. The Higher Education Council is responsible for ensuring the structure, organisation and functioning of higher education institutions and monitoring and evaluating the quality and standard of provision and ensuring the quality enhancement of teaching and research. It advises the Minister in charge of Higher Education on all matters relating to the accreditation of higher education institutions. One of the key responsibilities of the Higher Education Council is to act as a regulatory agency.
The Higher Education Council, as a regulatory agency, advises the Minister in charge of Higher Education on issuing operating agreements to private sector higher education institutions. From August 2007 up to now, the Council carried out different reviews following applications for programs approval and operating agreements. A process involving peer review of the applications by trained teams of academic and other senior staff from both private and public sector higher education institutions was used to evaluate the applications.