Ghana’s Robert Hinson appointed acting VC of Kigali varsity

The University of Kigali (UoK) has named Robert Hinson, the Ghanaian scholar, as acting vice-chancellor.

The Rwanda varsity announced Hinson’s appointment in a statement on Friday. It added that the appointment takes effect from January 19.

Hinson’s ascension as acting VC follows the exit of the UoK’s vice-chancellor (VC).

Hinson, who is a professor of marketing, joined UoK in September 2021 as deputy VC (academic).

Prior to his appointment, he was director of institutional advancement at the University of Ghana where he had started his academic career in February 2003 as a lecturer.

Last December, the professor had published what he called ‘40 Wins in 100 Days‘, a list of his achievements within the first 100 days of his appointment as UoK’s DVC academic.

These achievements are in faculty development and recruitment, international partnerships & MOU development, student experience & management, policy, strategy & framework development, research intensity, and marketing & communications.

One of them is the academic integrity, plagiarism and sexual harassment policy now being implemented in the university to promote intellectual honesty and accountability by staff and students.

Under his supervision, the university recorded its largest-ever convocation.

Speaking on this, Hinson said: “We used a multichannel approach to encourage students who had impediments to graduating to complain to the Associate DVC personally and electronically.

“This exposed challenges to have them addressed.

“Special Viva dispensations were granted students who had outstanding vivas as an impediment to graduation.

“Schools, departments, registrar’s office, exam office were compelled to work overtime to clear backlogs of students from 2021 and earlier years to facilitate their graduation.”