University of Burundi Launches a PhD programme

On 20 July, the University of Burundi has officially launched the doctoral programme for candidates who already hold a Master’s degree.

Joseph Butore, Second Deputy President launching the doctoral programme at the University of Burundi.

“Students will no longer need to apply for doctoral programme in foreign countries”, says Juma Shabani, Director of the Doctoral School at the University of Burundi. He says candidates must hold a Master’s degree and have already published an article in the International Press Media.

Shabani says the application form will be online from next week and tuition fees that will be fixed by the board of directors at the University of Burundi. “A doctoral school is very expensive. We will continue to develop partnership with other countries”, he says.

He also says the first team will be deployed in Belgium, this year, to meet their lecturers to converge on their PhD dissertations. The doctoral courses will focus mainly on two domains namely Sciences and Human and Social sciences. “They will probably have 180 credits extended to three years”, says the director of the doctoral school.

Désiré Nimenya, students’ representative at the University of Burundi believes that the doctoral school will allow a large number of candidates to attend the PhD programme. “The number of scholarship was limited to a small number of candidates. I hope this programme will also increase the number of lecturers with PhD degree which was already low”, he says.

However, Janvière Ndirahisha, the Minister of Education recognizes that the lack of human and equipment resources is a direct challenge to the Master’s and Doctoral programmes. “ It is very expensive. There is a need to use the pooling of resources for a sustainable educational training”, she says.

Joseph Butore, Second Deputy President, who has launched the activities says the government previously paid 8000€ per year to each PhD candidate. From December 2014, Butore says the government grants 30 scholarships per year.

“Certainly, this PhD school will contribute to the reduction of the expenses involved in that domain and the number of candidates who don’t return home after graduation”, he says.

The University of Burundi started in 1963 and has six campuses today ; four are located in the capital Bujumbura and two others in the country.

It has eight faculties and three professional institutes with 44 departments and more than 100 training sections. It had 53 students when it started but it counts 9251 students nowadays. Among the 1903 employees who work at the University, 502 are full-time lecturers including 235 PhD holders and 277 lecturers with a Master’s degree.