Kinshasa, February 2rd, 2023 (CPA).- The work of developing the five-year action plan for the emergence and modernization of the Christian University of Kinshasa (UCKIN) was officially launched on Thursday in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo by Reverend Maurice Mondengo, representative of the President of the Church of Christ in Congo (ECC).
« Faced with these multiple challenges on the one hand and the unbridled proliferation of new universities in our environment on the other, we feel compelled to stop for a moment to reflect on how to ensure the emergence, modernisation, competitiveness and sustainability of our university. This is the overriding motivation behind the organisation of this workshop, » he added.
The rector of UCKIN said that this five-year plan will be composed of 10 axes, including management, digital, cooperation, quality, training, research and publication, administration, and logistics and infrastructure.
« Each axis includes well-defined objectives to improve the quality of education and working conditions within UCKIN, with a view to modernising and standardising its governance system, » he added.
He noted that when UCKIN was established in 1967, it was the work of missionaries from six religious communities. For years, we know that a tumultuous climate had taken up residence here, and this did not favour the development and modernisation of UCKIN like its sister, the Protestant University in Congo created 10 years later. He felt that perhaps there was a lack of a clear strategic action plan, developed over time.
« We encourage and support the new management committee for the commendable initiative to provide this university with a strategic action plan, five years for its development, its flight to modernization, « said the representative of the national president of the ECC, Maurice Mondengo.
He invited the management committee, as well as the academic and administrative bodies to invest in the quest for peace, internal cohesion, tolerance, and the commitment of all in the promotion of the common interest despite their differences.
« My brothers and sisters, stop hurting your, our university and all of us. But rather work in unison for the sole glory of God, » he said, before calling them to a high sense of patriotism.
« Let us always strive in collaboration and not in competition, in rivalries. Let’s get out of our clans and ethnicities, let’s be partners, let’s work together, hand in hand for the development of our university, because it is not money that creates projects, but it is development projects that create money. Work, work hard so that our university is counted among the best nationally and internationally, » concluded Mr Mondengo.
Conflicts of social interest, causes of the non-development of UCKIN
For his part, the rector of UCKIN, Prof. Faustin Alipanazanga stressed that the history of this university, which has lasted for over 50 years, has been more marked by conflicts of social interests that have so long delayed its development.
« By taking over the university since December 14th, 2022, the new management committee inherited a heavy liability which, at this stage, will not promote its rapid take-off if nothing is done hic et nunc, » he said.
Prof. Alipanazanga noted that these challenges are related to salary arrears, unpaid final settlements to widows of professors and agents of UCKIN, legal disputes, dilapidated infrastructure, the spoliation of the UCKIN concession, as well as financial insecurity.
It should be recalled that at the end of this work, the technical office of this institution will produce a summary document in which urgent actions will be taken and will constitute the priorities of this new committee for the first year of their mandate.
