A delegation of Swedish Research Council along with Embassy of Sweden in Rwanda and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) has been visiting the National University of Rwanda (NUR) with the aim of strengthening the cooperation already in place between NUR and Sweden through SIDA.
At NUR the delegation witnessed the impact of SIDA support in different domains such as research, training of academic and administrative staff, ICT infrastructure, library resources and management and meeting high officials of Rwanda.
Maria Hakansson, the chargé d’Affaires in the embassy of Sweden in Rwanda speaking to media, revealed that the delegation appreciated the progress of cooperation between NUR and Sweden through SIDA.
She also mentioned that the delegation was glad to find that the support of SIDA at NUR is used appropriately. She said that Sweden is committed to cooperate with NUR in a five year plan to train massively staff on PHD and Masters Programs for the coming five years starting from July 2013 and ending in June 2018.
The Acting Rector of NUR, Prof. Manasse Mbonye commended the government of Sweden for their support for NUR.
He presented the background of NUR since its foundation and focused on status of NUR academic staff in terms of academic degree.
He explained that through the support of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the number of NUR academic staff members who go on training at the level of Master’s and PHD programs has grown.
Sweden through the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) has been supporting NUR since 2002 to the tune of approximately 41,000,000$.
The program broadly consisted of two parts: Research training in the fields of Peace and Conflict, Education, Environment, Medicine, Applied Mathematics and ICT, NUR library system, ICT infrastructure and implementation of a Management Information System (MIS).
