Huye campus students decry the lack of internet accessibility and slowness of the available one, but when a solution is coming is still unclear.
In the middle of academic year 2018-2019 some sites of Huye campus at University of Rwanda (UR), such as Mamba and the Ex-rectorat, the internet accessibility ceased. Now several students express the importance of internet connection in their research and their daily courses.
“I wish for an upgrade of the public wifi because it is so slow,” said Mukama Eric, a student
from UR’s School of Pharmacy.
Jmv Maniragena, a student from the UR’s School of Journalism and Communication, said,
“the research that we are supposed to do requires internet accessibility. We need it to make good research.”
After listening to the students’ opinions, Kaminuza Star approached the UR administration to seek for more information about this issue. Jean Claude Hakizimana, the networking officer in UR-Huye campus explained that the Wi-Fi router was moved but that a new one shall be installed soon. “The public Wi-Fi from the Ex-rectorat was moved to the library because there was no longer computer lab in library to support researches. But at Ex-rectorat nowadays they have to use the computer lab until we install new materials.”
Regarding the slowness of the available internet networking officer Jean Claude Hakizimana
replied that the students themselves make it so because they are keen on social media instead of researching academic related information. Using YouTube in particular makes it slow.
Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is one of the engines that excel students’ knowledge via researches on internet. In regard to this, UR administration introduced Wi-Fi in UR Huye Campus to enhance researches. Huye campus is one of the campuses of University of Rwanda around the country. Out of UR Huye campus, three main branches: Batma, Ex-rectorat and Mamba, only Batma is said to have public Wi-Fi access.