A more mature and newsworthy angle is not “students should not study for money.”
That sounds moralistic and overlooks the legitimate economic pressures students face.
The stronger point is the growing disconnect between obtaining a university degree and acquiring the competence to create economic value.
The speaker’s argument is essentially that education should produce problem-solvers, not simply job-seekers.
I would frame the story around that:
Rwanda’s university students have been challenged to rethink the purpose of higher education, with a leadership expert warning that academic qualifications alone will have limited value if graduates cannot use their knowledge to solve real problems and create economic value.
Faustin Bagabo, a lawyer and head of Loyal Leadership Institute, said students should not measure the value of their university education primarily by the salary they expect to earn after graduation.
He was speaking at the University of Rwanda’s Huye campus during a leadership session dubbed “Your Next Destiny”, organised by Loyal Leadership Institute in partnership with the university.
Bagabo said the more important question for a university student should be what problems their education will enable them to solve, rather than how much money a particular degree could eventually generate.
“Do not study because of money,” he told the students. “If you look at the money your parents have already spent on your education, you cannot recover it simply through the salary you will receive.”
His argument points to a wider challenge facing higher education: the difference between graduating with a qualification and developing the competence required to perform, innovate and respond to real-world problems.
Bagabo said students in fields as different as medicine, agriculture and technology can build successful careers if they develop deep knowledge and become excellent in their chosen disciplines.
He urged students to start planning their futures early and to regard graduation as the beginning of their professional journey rather than the end of their education.
The discussion comes amid financial concerns among university students, some of whom have called for their living allowance to rise from Frw40,000 to between Frw80,000 and Frw100,000.
But Bagabo’s message was that financial expectations should not become the defining measure of the value of education.
For him, students who develop the ability to identify and solve problems are more likely to create lasting economic opportunities than those who simply pursue qualifications in anticipation of a particular salary.
The challenge, therefore, is not simply how many young people graduate from university, but what they are capable of doing with what they have learned once they leave it.
