Ghanaian scholar lists 40 achievements in first 100 days as Kigali varsity deputy VC

A leading Ghanaian marketing scholar with manifold international footprints has published a list of his achievements within the first 100 days of his appointment as deputy vice chancellor-academic at the University of Kigali (UoK), Rwanda.

Robert Ebo Hinson joined UoK on September 1, 2021, from his position as acting director of institutional advancement in the office of the vice-chancellor, University of Ghana, Accra.

He was also recently appointed an honorary marketing professor of Durban University of Technology, South Africa and, a few months earlier, a visiting professor at the Lincoln International Business School in the United Kingdom.

“In the academy, we are bad at chronicling things, so I never leave my professional achievements to the whims of somebody who likes or does not like me,” said Hinson while explaining the rationale for publishing what he calls “40 Wins in First 100 Days”.

Although the concept of “Hundred Days” or “Cent Jours” reportedly began in France and referred to the period in 1895 “between when Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris from exile on the island of Elba and his final defeat at the Battle of Wateloo”, it was United States of America’s President Frederick Delano Roosevelt (FDR) who — in the first 100 days of his presidency in 1933 — ran his new deal programmes which included 15 major pieces of legislation in the first 100 days.

Hinson’s achievements are divided into six areas namely: Faculty development and recruitment, international partnerships and MOU development, student experience and management, policy, strategy and framework development, research intensity and marketing and communications.

International partnerships and MOU development and policy, strategy and framework development have the highest score of 11 achievements each.

One of the highlighted achievements is the new university academic integrity, plagiarism and sexual harassment policy for the University of Kigali which is already in use.

Hinson noted that he drafted the policy from start to finish, in response to global developments with notable contributions from the board of promoters and other members of the university senate.

At the ceremony in Kigali on November 26, where the policy was signed and made effective, Tombola M. Gustave, vice-chancellor, stated that the policy would be binding on the staff and students.

“There is a need to promote and maintain an elevated level of academic integrity and place equal responsibility for appropriate workplace behaviour on all University of Kigali communities,” he said.

In his remarks, Philibert Afrika, chairman of the board of promoters, said the “the promotion of intellectual honesty is a fundamental value our university offers to the community.”

“We are training students who should become responsible citizens with the right skills and possess a willingness to be accountable wherever they find themselves.”

AbdulRasak Oniye, a doctor who joined UoK in March from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and is the dean of the School of Education, also commended Hinson for a “marvellous” job.

He also wished him “more powers to (his) elbows.”

Another listed achievement under the “student experience and management” category is “superintending over the largest graduation ceremony in the history of the UoK.”

Hinson explained why this happened, saying: “We used a multichannel approach to encourage students who had impediments to graduating to complain to the Associate DVC personally and electronically and this exposed challenges to have them addressed; special Viva dispensations were granted students who had outstanding vivas as an impediment to graduation and schools, departments, Registrar’s Office, Examination Office were compelled to work overtime to clear backlogs of students from 2021 and earlier years to facilitate their graduation.”

Fully accredited and chartered by the Government of Rwanda, UoK started operations in October 2013. It currently has at least 6,000 active students drawn from no fewer than 30 nationalities