University of Rwanda, Rwanda
Mr Bernard Nkuyubwatsi

Keywords: Student Voice, Accreditation of informal & non-formal learning, socioeconomic inclusion in higher education

The school of Open and Distance Learning originated from a concept paper that was produced in late 2011. The concept paper was originally for an open university that would help expand higher education to the majority of secondary education graduates who qualify and wish to attend higher education in Rwanda but are not serviced by the traditional higher education system. The concept paper was produced with an agenda to cut down the cost of higher education to make it more accessible to learners who are unable to secure student loan which was increasingly becoming inaccessible due to decrease of funds for public higher education. However, due to the process of merging public higher education institutions into one university, a Task Force on the project was assigned to develop the College of Open and Distance Learning. Then, the project was integrated in the University of Rwanda as a school under the College of Education. The project needs pioneers of open and distance learning for its implementation.