Prof. Mike Kuria, Deputy Executive Secretary of Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the facilitating body of the Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education of Excellence Project has appreciated the achievements that are registered so far in the implementation of the ACE II project.

The observation was made during his two-day visit to four centers of Excellence of the University of Rwanda namely Center of Excellence in Data Science, Energy for Sustainable Development, Internet of Things and Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science.

The Deputy Executive Secretary was accompanied by Jonathan Stephen Mbwambo, the project coordinator.

The main objective of the visit was to assess if the targets that are set to become the center of excellence are being made on the ground, identify existing challenges and discuss how these challenges can be addressed.

The delegation visited each of the centers, exchanged on the achievements, challenges and toured different centers’ facilities.

After presentations of key achievements, discussions on ongoing activities and tour to all centers of excellence facilities, the findings were promising.

Guests were shown different facilities that are used at IoT

“All centers are making good progress towards becoming Centers of Excellence …I am very impressed by the work that has been done. If the momentum is kept, we are sure that they will become Centers of Excellence”, noted Prof. Mike Kuria.

He however said that there is a need to engage in more stakeholders and raise funds from external partners, issue of benchmarking and infrastructure which need to be improved to make things become reality.

He added that existing challenges are minor that need only consultations with different stakeholders to address them.

He called upon centers’ leaders to partner with different actors to find mechanisms of attracting more regional students.

“We want these Centers of Excellence to become regional integration centers that there is a need to attractive more regional students”, he emphasised.

The Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education (ACEII) is a project funded by the World Bank which seeks to strengthen 24 competitively selected centers to deliver quality, market-relevant post-graduate education in Eastern and Southern Africa. Rwanda is home to four African Centers Of Excellence under University of Rwanda.