After becoming the first US university to offer a Master’s degree programme taught by full-time faculty residents in Africa, the Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU’s) satellite campus, in Rwanda, has graduated its first class of students, awarding 22 students with Master’s degrees in information technology (IT).

The university said the graduation, which took place on Thursday, underscored the CMU and the Rwanda government’s commitment to educating engineers and entrepreneurs in East Africa.

“Being present in East Africa is the only way to understand the region’s technology needs,” commented CMU East Africa inaugural director Bruce Krogh.

“Creating a long-term education programme is critical, because it gives students time to analyse problems and develop solutions in the context in which they occur.”

He added that CMU students based in Rwanda received a world-class education enriched by the institution’s history and tradition of excellence, which began in the US in 1900.

Rigorous coursework, practicums and internships provided students with critical skills.

To ensure that its research and curriculum in Rwanda remained relevant to Africa, the university’s faculty and students engaged with local companies and multinational corporations on a continual basis.

Companies that had subsequently recruited CMU students for internships in East Africa included General Electric, IBM, Marriott, Microsoft, Visa and Voxiva.

“It is important that students stay in East Africa instead of studying in the US or elsewhere. If Africa’s best students leave to study abroad for two years, it becomes problematic. At CMU, students remain plugged into the region’s rapidly evolving technical and business networks,” Krogh asserted.

CMU offered two graduate degree programmes in Africa: its founding programme, the Master of Science in IT, and a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, which it would launch next month.

The founding programme currently had 43 students and eight faculty members.