Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh announced that it is establishing a campus in Kigali, Rwanda. Students at the institution will be offered master degree programs in information technology and electrical and computer engineering. Students are expected on campus in August 2012. About 40 students are expected to enroll next year. By 2017 the university hopes enrollments will reach 150 students. All courses will be taught in English.
Instructors at the Rwandan campus will spend at least one-year at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh to familiarize them with the culture of the university.
The university will initially hold classes in a building in downtown Kigali. A new campus is planned for the outskirts of the city with construction expected to take two to three years.
Here is a video of a presentation made on the campus of Carnegie Mellon announcing plans for the Rwandan campus. Rwandan president Paul Kagame participated in the announcement. During the presentation, a group of 40 protesters, belonging to a group called Friends of the Congo, gathered outside the building where the ceremony was being held denouncing Kagame as a “dictator” and “war criminal.”
