Business school offering managers full MBA scholarship

Two months down the line Rwandan Domina Undoyeneza has already learned the key lesson: time management "Effective education is the foundation of the long run development of countries. Once my country Rwanda has the qualified, talented and experienced staff in certain areas, our country surely will develop a lot quicker than it has been doing."

As Director of Administration and Human Resources for Rwanda's Agriculture Board, Domina Undoyeneza currently manages over 500 government employees. It's her wish to contribute to the development of her country as well as reducing the high unemployment rate. Doing her MBA with Business School Netherlands will help her fulfil that dream.

Domina (33) started her MBA last October. ‘Expanding her studies and her experiences' was one of the key drivers for her to register. The aspect of doing part of the MBA abroad also influenced her decision. "I wanted to meet people from different areas with different cultures and experience, for us to share all of that." BSN offered just that. "And the Action Learning approach, that too," Domina adds. "It enables me to learn while still keeping my job and getting to spend time with my family." Albeit less, because these two months have been challenging for the mother of two. "It's definitely not an easy task! But seeing I am ambitious and self-committed by nature, I am sure I will be able to finish the MBA successfully, without doing any harm to my job or my family. It's mostly a matter of planning and organising things as to ensure that not one minute is wasted. Only two months into the programme, I have already learned one of the key lessons: time management," grins Domina.

However, before there was an MBA, there was the need for funding. Given her financial situation, financing the programme would not have been an option. Through a colleague she found out about the possibility of applying for a Nuffic scholarschip. "My colleagues, friends and family all encouraged me to apply, and so I did. When I was granted a scholarschip worth about 30,000 euros, I was over the moon. That equals ten years of salary for me!"
 
When we tell her BSN is soon about to offer the International Action Learning MBA with a major in Food Security and Water Management, Domina is very excited. "There is such an enormous need for this type of education, since it is one of the major concern areas for our continent. Especially for Rwanda where we have an EDPRS (economic development and poverty reduction strategy) it's a core point of focus. Ensuring food security is one of the poverty reduction strategies that Rwanda has adopted. So educating Rwandans in that field can ultimately lead to great achievements. At present, we don't have a university where they teach Food Security and Water Management – nor at secondary , nor bachelor level. Our strategies to reduce poverty won't work when we don't even have a solid strategy to manage water. Due to uncontrollable climate change, it is a big challenge that not only Rwanda, but Africa as a whole faces."

Domina has big plans for the future. Besides being a better director for her government, she also dreams to start her own business one day. "I dream of running my own cleaning company, a private company offering both cleaning products and services. Next to skilled people, it should also employ unskilled Rwandans who are currently jobless, enabling me to reduce the number of jobless people in my country. That's my goal."

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Business School Netherlands, in partnership with Nuffic is offering managers a full (100%) MBA scholarship programme. Managers from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda and 46 other countries are invited to applyfor this full scholarship before the 6th of May 2014.