University of Rwizikuru

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University of Rwizikuru
File:University of Rwizikuru.png
Coat of Arms
Other name
Rwizi: Yunivhesiti yeRwizikuru
Former name
University of South Bahia (1940-1955)
MottoRwizi: Ndinodzidza
Motto in EstmerishI learn
TypePublic research university
Established1940; 84 years ago (1940)
BudgetTBD
ChancellorMunashe Ngonidzashe
Vice-ChancellorJonas Sibanda
Academic staff
840 (2018/19)
Students20,399 (2020/21)
Undergraduates17,718 (2020/21)
Postgraduates2,681 (2020/21)
Location
Port Fitzhubert
,
Rwizikuru
Campus3 campuses
Language
Colours
AffiliationsTBD
Websiteuniversity.ed.rz

The University of Rwizikuru (Rwizi: Yunivhesiti yeRwizikuru) is a collegiate university system operating in the Rwizikuran cities of Munzwa, Port Fitzhubert, and Port Graham. Established in 1940 as the University of South Bahia, it was meant to provide higher-level education in the Estmerish colony of Riziland and the mandates of Kigomba (now part of Mabifia) and East Riziland (present-day Garambura). Today, it is the sole university to officially operate as a university in Rwizikuru, although satellite campuses of foreign-based universities have began operating in Rwizikuru.

The University of Rwizikuru operates 31 colleges in the cities of Munzwa, Port Fitzhubert, and Port Graham, with most of the colleges being concentrated within Port Fitzhubert, and is divided into nine faculties, of which eight operate on all three campuses, with the Faculty of Agriculture only operating on the Munzwa campus.

History

Background

Since the late nineteenth century, calls have emerged for an official university within the Colony of Riziland "for the best and brightest students." While seminaries existed, which did teach theology, particularly in Saint Geoffrey's, it was only in the 1930s that serious consideration was given to establishing a university in the post-Great War period.

With Riziland being given self-government in 1937, Byron Wigram, as the first Chief Minister sought to establish a university to "serve all of South Bahia." Thus, in 1938, Wigram sought to create a university based on the Molbridge model, believing that "the universities of Morwall, Damesbridge, and Tolbury were the best ways to provide a civilised Euclean education to natives."

At the same time, with the annexation of East Riziland, and Sainte-Germaine in particular, the colonial government felt that setting "only one university in one city" would lead to conflict, particularly as "all the cities worth their value would seek to have it in their city, and refuse to accept any other location." However, setting multiple universities up in multiple cities would be "too much for the colonial treasury to bear."

Thus, in 1939, the colonial government passed legislation to designate sites in the cities of Munzwa, Port Graham, Port Fitzhubert, Port Vaugeois, and Sainte-Germaine to house colleges under a "single University of South Bahia," as a way to ensure that the campuses would operate in an efficient manner, while preventing any one city from being too dominant "in the field of higher education."

Establishment

Although the University of South Bahia was organised along the lines of Molbridge, as a collegiate university, with residences to be the responsibility of colleges, while the university was responsible for teaching, the layout of the campuses were to be akin to campus universities, particularly as Queen Evelin College in Sainte-Germaine refused to join.

In 1940, teaching began at the University of South Bahia at the facilities on Queen Evelin College, while construction began on the campus in Sainte-Germaine. In 1943, the Port Fitzhubert and Munzwa campuses opened, with the Sainte-Germaine and Port Vaugeois locations opening the following year, with all activities at the Queen Evelin College being moved to the campus in Sainte-Germaine. The Port Graham campus would finally open in 1945.

During its early years, under Chief Ministers Byron Wigram, Jean-Louis Milhaud, and Zophar Bohannon, extensive funding into the construction of university facilities and into higher education helped make the University of South Bahia one of the most prestigious universities in the region. By 1950, enrolment was at 6,000 students, making the University of South Bahia among the largest universities in Bahia.

After Vudzijena Nhema succeeded Zophar Bohannon as President of Rwizikuru in 1954, the University of South Bahia was renamed to the University of Rwizikuru "to better reflect the fact that it serves the Rwizikuran nation." In the late 1950s, as Vudzijena Nhema became more authoritarian, academic freedom was eroded, and by 1961, after a professor was arrested for criticising the government's economic policies, student protests in Port Fitzhubert was suppressed by the police and by the Army.

Repression and decline

Throughout the early 1960s, repression became the norm at the University of Rwizikuru, particularly as the government of Rwizikuru under Vudzijena Nhema tightened control over the University of Rwizikuru. In 1962, the University Act of 1962 made the President of Rwizikuru the Chancellor of the University of Rwizikuru by virtue of his position as President. This, combined with other measures negatively affecting academic freedom, and crackdowns on student movements meant that by the time of the 1963 coup, many students supported the end of Nhema's regime.

However, the Rwizikuran Army would dash the hopes of students when in 1964, they staged a second coup against Pierre-Adarchir Niyonzima and established the National Salvation Council, students at the University of Rwizikuru protested against the coup, which led to Izibongo Ngonidzashe, the leader of the National Salvation Council, to decree the closure of the University of Rwizikuru "to quell the disturbances" for the remainder of the academic term, and permanently expelled "any and all students who participated in the protests to oppose the legitimate government of the Rwizikuran nation."

When the 1964-65 academic year began, academic freedom was effectively eliminated from the University of Rwizikuru. Despite the climate of fear and repression present at the university, the University of Rwizikuru remained a hotbed of political activism, particularly in Sainte-Germaine and in Port Vaugeois, where students began organizing movements to demand independence (as in the case of Sainte-Germaine) or to join a neighbouring state (as in the case of Port Vaugeois, where students sought to join Mabifia), which led to the university system having high levels of student protest, despite the climate of repression, which led to the university campuses in Port Vaugeois and Sainte-Germaine "being closed for at least several weeks" every year between 1965 and 1969, with the system as a whole being closed in 1968 when anti-monarchist protests sprang up over Izibongo Ngonidzashe's decision to establish a Rwizikuran monarchy.

With the outbreak of the Mabifian-Rwizikuran War, the entire university system mostly shut down, with all students except for medical students ordered to leave campus and to join the Royal Rwizikuran Armed Forces to "do their part for the country" against Mabifia. In the aftermath of the Mabifian-Rwizikuran War and the Garamburan War of Independence, the campuses in Port Vaugeois and Sainte-Germaine, although officially still in existence, were no longer functional, as the Mabifian and Garamburan governments took possession of former University of Rwizikuru campuses.

During the 1970s, the University of Rwizikuru's standards reached its nadir, with an eyewitness account noting that "friends of the King were able to get full academic degrees [from the University of Rwizikuru] in only a few months," while one notes that the campus in Munzwa "had fallen into disrepair as funding towards higher education is virtually non-existent." Degrees from the University of Rwizikuru, by the late 1970s, were "not recognised internationally" excluding those issued prior to 1960.

Modern day

Entrance to the Port Fitzhubert campus, 2008

In 1981, Izibongo Ngonidzashe fired the entire University Senate on the grounds of "corruption," and appointed reformists, with Izibongo Ngonidzashe ordering them to "restore the reputation of the University of Rwizikuru" on the international stage.

This, combined with increased funding to the University, meant that standards of education began to improve, albeit they still remained behind both Euclean standards and what the University of Rwizikuru was prior to Vudzijena Nhema's presidency. However, unlike areas of Rwizikuru, where corruption was rampant, the University of Rwizikuru was noted by the Global Institute for Fiscal Affairs that "it was one of the few areas associated with the Rwizikuran government where corruption has been cracked down upon," particularly with regards to academic fraud.

Much of the increased funding however went to the campus at Port Fitzhubert, which led to tensions between it and the campuses in Munzwa and Port Graham, and to the decline of the latter two campuses in favour of the one of Port Fitzhubert, although Munzwa's agricultural colleges garnered significant investment. Thus, in 1989, after student protests in Port Graham protesting the allocation of funding to Port Fitzhubert as opposed to "equally funding all colleges," the Port Graham campus was closed for the remainder of the academic term, with all students who participated in the protests being expelled. This led to further student protests against the government's "abuse of power" over the Port Graham campus, which was met with similar responses.

However, unlike earlier protests in the 1960s, the Rwizikuran government reviewed the response, and in 1990 began to invest heavily into the Munzwa and Port Graham campuses, particularly to repair dilapidated infrastructure due to the "past thirty years of neglect" by preceding governments. It also designed a free speech zone where protests can be held without "fear of retribution," and enshrined the protection of academic freedom.

When Rwizikuru joined the Council for Mutual Development, the University of Rwizikuru began to receive more international support, which combined with the university continuing to improve its standards meant that beginning in the 2000s, degrees from the University of Rwizikuru began to be recognized internationally again, mostly in COMDEV member states. By 2002, the University of Rwizikuru's standards were "a far cry from its nadir in the 1970s: while there are still some issues [concerning academic standards and academic freedom], it is definitely closer to its heyday in the 1950s."

Ongoing issues still present at the University of Rwizikuru include a lack of reliable electricity and water, particularly in Munzwa, although historically they also affected Port Graham and Port Fitzhubert as well.

Organization

Governance

The University of Rwizikuru is governed by a University Council, which is comprised of representatives of staff, faculty, students, and government officials, with the titular head being the Chancellor of the University of Rwizikuru, which since 1962 has been ex-officio the President of Rwizikuru, and later, the Monarch of Rwizikuru. However, the actual head of the University of Rwizikuru is the vice-chancellor, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the University of Rwizikuru, and is elected by the University Council.

Faculties

The University of Rwizikuru is divided into nine faculties, which are further subdivided into fifty departments.

Faculty Department
Agriculture
Arts and social sciences
Commerce
Education
Engineering
Law
Medicine
Science
Veterinary science Veterinary science

Colleges

The University of Rwizikuru was structured both along the model of the University of Morwall and the state university systems in TBD, with the intention that the major cities of Rwizikuru, Kigomba, and East Riziland would have "university branches."

Since the end of the Mabifian-Rwizikuran War and the Garamburan War of Independence in 1969, which saw Rwizikuru lose the cities of Port Vaugeois and Sainte-Germaine to Mabifia and Garambura respectively, the University of Rwizikuru only operates in three cities.

Officially, colleges are responsible for "room and board," while the university itself provides teaching. However, in practice, most colleges provide teaching in certain areas, such as Haberlin College and Saint Isidore's College in Munzwa providing teaching in agricultural science, although degrees are given by the University of Rwizikuru.

Colleges in Munzwa

Colleges in Port Fitzhubert

Colleges in Port Graham

Rankings

Beginning in the early 2000s, the University of Rwizikuru's rankings have begun to improve: as of 2008, out of TBD accredited universities, the University of Rwizikuru was ranked 3,549th, while in 2018, it had risen to 2,917th place, with the university being ranked as the best in Rwizikuru, although with the opening satellite campuses in the late 2010s, such as the TBD University of Chekumabvazuva in 2019, it is expected the University of Rwizikuru's ranking will decrease.

Student life

In the 2020-21 academic year, the University of Rwizikuru recorded 20,399 students, of which 17,718 were undergraduate students, and 2,681 were graduate students. There are only around a thousand international students, with most of them from neighbouring Bahian states.

Sports and clubs

Hatitye Mkwananzi, 2015

The University of Rwizikuru offers sporting programs on all its campuses, with sports such as athletics, basketball, cricket, field hockey, football, horse racing, netball, and rugby league. Due to its position as the national university, alumni from the University of Rwizikuru have a heavy presence on Rwizikuru's sport teams, both nationally and on the international stage, with most on the Rwizikuran football team being alumni from the University of Rwizikuru.

The University of Rwizikuru has a number of subject-related clubs and societies, such as Saint Brendan's Biology Club and Bohannon College Law Society. As well, the University of Rwizikuru have a student union, the University of Rwizikuru Student Association (URSA). While officially, the role of URSA is to represent students and advocate on their behalf, with URSA representatives being on the University Senate, URSA has been accused of being "bound to the government and its interests," with URSA supporting the government expelling students from Port Graham and Munzwa in the 1989 student protests.

Gender issues

The University of Rwizikuru has generally been biased to men: in the 2020-21 academic year, 62% of students were male, with only 38% of students at the university being women. The gender imbalance rises to 74% of graduate students being men, with only 26% of students being women. However, this is seen as an improvement to 1995-96, when the year prior to affirmative action being introduced for women, 87% of students were male, with 93% of graduate students being male.

Gender issues still remain prevalent at the University of Rwizikuru, with women being markedly less involved in student politics or in student clubs than men, with only 21% of women reporting that they are involved in a club or society, compared to 75% of men, with women being concerned about sexual assault and sexual violence on campus. Efforts have been made to crack down on sexual assault and violence on campus, with a zero tolerance policy instituted against sexual assault and violence in 2007.

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