Deadline 15 January 2016

EAUMP Self-evaluationFor all departmental members of the network

The EAUMP Network will during 2016 be evaluated by external evaluators. The main purpose of this self-evaluation is to provide the evaluators with a basic understanding of the network. It includes questions about the former and current situation at your department, your vision, view and experiences of the EAUMP network and ISP collaboration, funding, outcomes of the collaboration and challenges faced. Please develop your answers to give the evaluators the best possible understanding of the situation at the departments involved in EAUMP. The document should however not exceed x pages. The self-evaluation should be sent as a word document to x no later than x 2016. Please don’t hesitate to contact x if you have any questions.

1. Organization

a) Contact informationName of Node CoordinatorMAHARA IsidoreLocationDepartment/unit: Department of Mathematics / School of Science – Huye CampusUniversity/institute: University of RwandaPart of the network since year: 2008

ContactEmail: I.MAHARA@ur.ac.rwPhone office:N/A Phone mobile: +250(0)788453523

b) List all staff at the department involved in the EAUMP network activities.Gender (F/M)

Given name, family name Position held/ Function

Staff qualifications PhD Other Ac. Supp.

M Wellars BANZI Head of Department

x

M Désiré KARANGWA Member of the Advisory Board

x

M Michael GAHIRIMA Coordinator/ Nyarugenge Campus rug

MSc

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M Froduald MINANI Member of the Advisory Board

x

M Isidore MAHARA Coordinator/ Huye Campus

x

c) List all PhD students currently enrolled at your department. Clearly indicate if they are supported by ISP or not.

Gender(F/M)

Given name, family name,area of specialization and email address

Start. year

Exp.Grad. year

Staff(Yes/No)

ISP- support (Yes/No)

SWC/LOC*

M Stanislas MUHINYUZA, Statistical Modelling, S.MUHINYUZA@ur.ac.rw

2015 Yes No SWC

M Vénuste NYAGAHAKWA, Semigroups of Sets Without the Baire Property , V.NYAGAHAKWA@UR.AC.RW

2012 2017 Yes No SWC

M Innocent NGARUYE, Small Area Estimation for Multivariate Repeated Measures Data, I.NGARUYE@ur.ac.rw

2012 2017 Yes No SWC

M Kurujyibwami Célestin(Algebra) 2012 2017 Yes Yes SWCM Murara Jean Paul(Financial

Mathematics)2013 2017 Yes Yes SWC

F Byukusenge Béatrice(Statistics) 2015 2020 Yes No SWC*SWC = Sandwich, LOC= Local

d) List the ISP supported MSc students currently enrolled at your department.Gender(F/M)

Given name, family name Start. Year

Grad. year

Staff(Yes/No)

SWC/LOC*

F Solange MUKESHIMANA 2014 2016 No LOCM Emmanuel TWAGIZIMANA 2014 2016 No LOCM Ntezimana Ignace 2014 2016 Yes SWC

*SWC = Sandwich, LOC= Local

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2. Historical overview and current situation

Historical description of your departmenta) Baseline. Briefly describe the situation at your department before you joined the

EAUMP network.(Including postgraduate training, research activity, available facilities, book and journal access, internet connection, funding, staff capacity, conference attendance and available networks for scientific collaboration).The current Department of Mathematics at the College of Science and Technology (CST) of the University of Rwanda (UR) comes from the union of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the former Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Department of Applied Mathematics of the former National University of Rwanda (NUR) after the merging of all public institutions of Higher Learning into the current University of Rwanda (UR).After the 1994 genocide, the department at NUR was started in 2000 at the Faculty of Science and Technology before this one split into the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and the department at KIST was started in 2006 at the Faculty of Science.By 2008, both KIST and NUR were mainly funded by the Government of Rwanda. In addition NUR was benefiting of an important funding from SIDA SAREC. As for the department at KIST, its main external collaboration was from the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) through the Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) Project. A number of its staff had started training at LUT for MSC and PhD.

Situation in 2008At former NUR the department had only three permanent national lecturers with a PhD degree and seven permanent national tutorial assistants with a bachelor degree. The situation was similar at former KIST where the majority of the staff was made of expatriate lecturers.The internet connection was good enough at both institutions.

b) With the help of your librarian, provide a brief historical account of the development of the Departmental library since you joined the network.At former KIST the departmental library was set up in 2009 and since then many books have been donated, especially by Full Bright Scholars who taught students for periods of 3- 6 moths. Individual staff efforts have also been made to obtain more books from different sources; other books were ordered and bought through the main library.

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As for the department at former NUR, a number of books have been donated and housed at the main library. However there is no departmental library and, since 2008, the main library has never bought any book specifically for the department of Mathematics.

c) What were the main challenges/difficultiesfacing your departmentsince you joined the network? (Internal and external bottlenecks or hindrances for increased capacity and development).The Department of Applied Mathematics at former NUR had very few staff. The situation was similar at former KIST. As a consequence there was no enough time left for research.

Current situation& developmentd) Briefly describe the situation today compared to when your department joined the

network. (Including postgraduate training, research activity, available facilities, book and journal access, internet connection, funding, staff capacity, conference attendance and available networks for scientific collaboration).The current situation is better than the situation in 2008. In fact the department has seven national PhD holders from former NUR. Four of them were still tutorial assistants in 2008. Three MSc holders from former NUR are preparing their PhD in Sweden. Unfortunately no tutorial assistant was recruited by NUR since 2008.As for former KIST, thirteen of its staff have obtained their MSc degree and two, their PhD since 2008. In addition MSc students from former NUR and staff members from former KIST can attend regularly the yearly EAUMP Summer School.

e) How well does the library meet the needs of your Department in terms of periodicals and reference texts? (Highly satisfactory, fairly satisfactory, satisfactory, lacking some mainstream periodicals, lacking some reference texts, inadequate Internet access? Briefly describe).The situation is fairly satisfactory at Nyarugenge Campus (former KIST) though there is a need of good journals. At Huye Campus (former NUR) there is no departmental library. The situation at the main library is as follows:

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List of databases containing mathematics subject

1. arXiv.org e-Print archive2. Cambridge University Press - Cambridge Journals Online

3. De Gruyter Online Journals(inc.LIS)

4. Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS)

5. IOPscience

6. JSTOR

7. OUP - Oxford Journals

8. Project MUSE journals

9. Royal Society - Royal Society Journals Online

10. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journals (SIAM)

11. Taylor & Francis Journals

12. Wiley Online Library Full

13. MathSciNet

14. Elsevier journals through Research4Life

15. Open access e-journals and e-books from Elsevier and DOAB (Directory Open Access Books)

16. Many printed books searching through Library catalog

f) What are the main challenges/difficulties facing your department today? (Internal and external bottlenecks or hindrances for increased capacity and development).The teaching load is heavy even after the merging of all public institutions of Higher Learning into the new University of Rwanda. In fact it is true that there are many MSc holders (essentiallyfrom former KIST and ISAE). However, the staff members of our

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Department have to teach the mathematical modules in the whole University of Rwanda, except at the College of Education. As a consequence there is no enough time left for research.

Visiong) What is the overall vision of your department? (What does your department want to

achieve in term of research and higher education?).Like for former KIST and NUR the department vision consists of research, high quality academic activities, capacity building and service to the community – in line with the vision of UR to become a centre of excellence.

h) Where your future emphasis should be put to be able to realize the vision? (Which are the areas of improvements and what are your general future plans?).The emphasis should be put on the strengthening of research capacity in research teams and on the enhancement of the quality of academic activities in order to raise the level of the students at the undergraduate level .

3. Postgraduate training

MSc Programa) Does your department have an in-house MSc program? If no, what is the reason? If

yes, what specializations are available? Yes, with the following specializations: 1) Scientific Computing, 2) Statistical Modeling

b) How many MSc students are currently enrolled? (Indicate both the total number and number with ISP support).Total: 13ISP supported: 2. Comment: The stipend and tuition fees for the 2 students supported by ISP are deducted from EAUMP/UR – Huye Campus funds for local activities. The students were selected as the best students of the cohort, taking account of the gender

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balance (one of them is female).They will graduate in March 2016. They are not members of the staff.

c) How has the MSc program(s) developed at the department over the past 10 years?The MSc programme was started at former NUR and developed as follows: The first cohort of MSc Programme students started in September 2008 at the Department of Applied Mathematics, NUR.The second cohort of MSc students started in April 2011 at the Department of Applied Mathematics, NUR. The current cohort started in January 2014 and will complete the program next month.. The fourth cohort will start in March 2016

d) What improvements can be made in regards to the MSc program(s)?There is no problem for teaching because the University of Rwanda has a strong support from Sweden, particularly from Linköping . The big issue is in regards to the scholarship. Students are economically weak and they have to find a job in order to meet their daily subsistence and pay their tuition fees. They don’t have enough time to concentrate on their studies and, therefore, they get bad results at their exams.

PhD Program e) Do you have anin-house PhD program at the department? If no, what is the

reason?No, but it is scheduled to start at latest in 2018. For the moment there are not enough local PhD holders trained for such a programme.

f) How many PhD students from your department are currently enrolled at your department? (Indicate both the total number and number with ISP support).Total: 6ISP supported: 2Comment: Three students from former NUR and three from former KIST: two of them are supported by ISP.

g) How has the PhD program developed at the department over the past 10 years?

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There is no PhD programme but it is scheduled to start at latest in 2018 with the support of SIDA

h) What improvements can be made in regards to the PhD program?Training PhD trainers on time so as they are ready by 2018.

i) Is there any course work available for local PhD students? If yes, please list the courses available for PhD students. None

j) What is your opinion on the sandwich model PhD training, compared to other models (full time local and full time abroad)?The SDW model allows PhD students to be trained in International High Learning Institutions and to come back regularly to their families after a not too long stay abroad. In this regards it is better than the full time local and the full time abroad.

Postdoc

k) Are there any Postdoc positions for incoming Postdocs available at your department? No

l) Besides ISP/EAUMP, are there any other sources of funding available for Postdoc from your department? If yes, from where? Postdoc positions are funded by UR-Sweden Programme for Research and University Institutional Advancement.

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4. Research and Collaboration

a) How is the research activities organized at your department? Do you have research teams? If yes, in what fields? If not, what is the reason why?Formally, research teams have been recently determined at a departmental meeting with the following fields: Pure Mathematics, Scientific Computing, Partial Differential Equations and Statistical Modeling. But actually up to now there is no research in group. In fact after the merging of many Higher Learning Institutions into the University of Rwanda, a period of time is needed for lecturers from different institutions to know each other.

b) Approximately how many hours/week does staff and sandwich PhD students spend on research, on average? Staff: Approximately 10 hours Sandwich PhD students: Approximately 24 hours.

c) Approximately how many hours/week does staff and sandwich PhD students spend on teaching, on average? Staff: Approximately 12 hoursSandwich PhD students: Approximately 5 hours (20% of a normal workload)Comment:

d) Describe the staff exchange within the network. (To and from where, and frequency and purpose of travel).As far as UR nodes are concerned the staff exchange within the network is almost inexistent.

e) Besides the EAUMP network, what scientific collaboration and networks does you department have with researchers inside and outside the university? If not, what is the reason? (Indicate both national and international and type of collaboration).The department collaborates with Linköping University in the framework of UR-Sweden Programme for Research and University Institutional Advancement.From former KIST we have also : Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) Project and Higher Education Institutional Cooperation Instrument(HEICI) both based in Finland

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f) Please list the seminar series conducted at the department since you became a member of the EAUMP network. At Huye Campus a monthly seminar is organized in the framework of the Master’s programme. In addition any visiting staff at the MSc Programmme gives a seminar during his stay. Every two years a Modeling Week is organized by the Department of Mathematics: in 2010 and 2012 at former NUr; in 2014 at UR.Recently the department of Mathematics has organized at Nyarugenge Campus a two-day seminar where PhD holders and MSc holders gave presentations.

Topic seminar series, and name of responsible staff member

Year Frequency No. of participants

5. The EAUMP Network and the ISP collaboration

a) How and when did your department get involved with the EAUMP network? Briefly describe. Rwanda joined officially the EAUMP network in August 2008, although former KIST was already partially supported by EAUMP for attending Summer Schools since 2006.In fact in March 2008 a meeting was held at KIST with the participation of representatives from KIST and NUR. At that meeting Prof. Patrick Weke was mandated to prepare a report on EAUMP activities and send it to the Rector of the National University of Rwanda. On the 30th June 2008 the EAUMP coordinating team, the Rector of NUR and members of the Departments of Mathematics of KIST and NUR held a meeting at NUR where the new membership of Rwanda was accepted with two coordinators: a coordinator from KIST and a coordinator from NUR. The details of the membership had to be discussed in details at an EAUMP meeting at UDSM in August 2008.

b) What has been the nature of the ISP/EAUMP support? What does it include for your department?

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Financial support for training staff in MSC and PhD Programmes, buying equipment(laptops, scanners, projectors etc), books and journals and for exchange visits(North-south and south-south visits). The financial support for training staff is valid only for former KIST because NUR used to get a strong support from SIDA SAREC for capacity building.

c) What would you say that the ISP support to the network has contributed with to your department? (Both in material and immaterial terms).ISP has been highly supportive in terms of capacity building, especially for former KIST, both in training and increased research activities as well as material support.

d) What are your experiences of the network collaboration? What has worked well and what can be improved?.

The network has allowed its members to share information and interact with colleagues in the region and abroad. The staff exchange between different nodes should have to be improved.

e) How can the ISP support be improved to benefit you more? ISP should have to organize retraining of lecturers in order to raise the level of students at the undergraduate level.

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6. Funding

a) What funding for postgraduate activities does your department currently have besides ISP? Please list the funding received for year 2015 in USD below. (Including university funding, and national, regional and international funding).

Source of grant (Besides from ISP) Amount/Currency

Centre for International Mobility( CIMO) Not specified-offers MSC and PhD scholarships

Higher Education Institutional Cooperation Instrument Not specified-organizes workshops

UR-Sweden Programme for Research and University Institutional Advancement

Not specified

b) What activities is ISP support mainly used and needed for and what can be done without ISP support/with other sources of funding?MSC and PhD training, Organization of schools/workshops and conferences, purchasing of Equipment and scientific exchange/ research visits. The other main sources of funding are the Government of Rwanda and UR-Sweden Programme for Research and University Institutional Advancement

c) Does your department have an “exit” strategy if and when ISP phases out the support? Please describe. Actually besides ISP the department is also functioning with a support of SIDA through UR-Sweden Programme for Research and University Institutional Advancement

d) How would you describe the government’s attitude towards mathematics? (Highly supportive, supportive, weakly supportive, or unsupportive?Briefly describe).

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Highly supportive. The Government’s Educational Policy puts a lot of emphasis on Science and Technology and so Mathematics is regarded as an important subject right from primary school

e) How would you describe the university administration’s attitude towards mathematics?(Highly supportive, supportive, weakly supportive, or unsupportive?Briefly describe). Contrary to the Government of Rwanda the University administration is not always co-operative and the job of EAUMP coordinator is not always facilitated. Some times teaching facilities are lacking.

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7. Outcomes

Graduationsa) How many PhD graduates have graduated from your department since you joined the network until today? (Indicate total number and

number with ISP support).Total:6 With ISP support:0Comments: Two are from former KIST and four are from former NUR

b) List all PhD graduatesfrom your departmentsupported by ISP, since you joined the network until today. Please also provide the additional information requested.

Gender(F/M)

Academic title, Full name and email

Start. year

Grad.Year

Univ. of grad.

SWH/LOC*

IF SWH: Country, host institution and name of host supervisor

No of SWH visits

Total no of months in host country

Present position, affiliation and country

*SWC = Sandwich, LOC= Local

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Gender(F/M)

Full name Grad. year

No of pub. in int. journals

List publications

c) For the PhD graduates supported by ISPplease also list publications in international peer-reviewed journals,since graduation.

d) How many MSc graduates have graduated from your department since the start of your membership in the network until today? (Indicate total number and number with ISP support).Total:20 With ISP support:1Comments: 7 graduates from former NUR and 13 from former KIST

e) List all MSc graduates from your department supported by ISP, from the start of your membership in the network until today.

Gender(F/M)

Academic title, Full name and email

Grad. year

Univ. of Grad.

If possible, present position, affiliation and country

M Mr. Uwimbabazi Ruganzu Leon Fidele (Ass.Lecturer)

University of Nairobi

f) In your opinion, is the number of Master’s and Doctoral graduations since your joined the EAUMP network over or under the expected number of graduations? Please comment and explain.At former NUR, the number of Master’s graduations is under the expected number of graduations. In fact NUR recruited no tutorial assistant for the department since 2008.

g) Approximately how many students have left the MSc or PhD program since you joined the network?(Indicate both total and ISP supported students).

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Total:0 With ISP support:0

h) What were reasons for students leaving the program? And where did they go?N/A

Postdocsi) If applicable, please list all EAUMP postdocs from your department.

Gender(F/M)

Full name No of months

Year Country, host institution and name of host supervisor

N/A

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8. Outreach activities, application of results, assignments and awards

a) Outreachactivities: Describe any interaction (meetings, participation in committees, etc.) with government/society/industry/NGOs in the country, in the region or in global conventions, etc., including unpublished reports to authorities, media exposure and public lectures etc. (Were the outreach activities on your initiative or by invitation? Give account for any tangible or expected effects of outreach activities, including possibilities for policy influence.).

b) Application and use of research results: are there research results that have come to use in practice or have influenced policy? (Describe any documented use of research results, including in teaching, and any impact or possible influence on policy/practices, any results used in patents and/or in practical/industrial use, etc.).

c) Give examples on how activities and outcomes have strengthened and benefitted researchers and stakeholders nationally and regionally. (including new assignments. E.g. List staff members who took new positions in 2014, received awards, were given other honors, or were appointed to boards, government committees, etc. For staff members, who took new positions, please give new affiliation and email address. How have stakeholders benefitted, for example the public, collaborators, and any group affected or concerned by the research activities?).

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9. Additional information and comments

a) Is there anything else you would like to add about the ISP collaboration or EAUMP in general?

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