CoVAB Staff Embrace RIMS to Strengthen Graduate Student Supervision and Completion Tracking
Staff of the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB) have been introduced to the Research Information Management System (RIMS), a digital platform aimed at strengthening the monitoring of graduate students’ academic progress, enhancing supervision accountability, and improving access to reliable completion statistics.
The training, held on Thursday, November 12, 2026, was jointly organised by the Directorate of Information and Communication Technology Support (DICTS), represented by Arthur Opio, and the Directorate of Research and Graduate Training (DRGT), represented by Professor Julius Kikoma.
The session equipped staff with knowledge of the system’s functions, access requirements, and the respective responsibilities of registrars and academic supervisors.
Prof. Clovice Kankya, CoVAB Principal, stressed the importance of RIMS in documentation and reporting on graduate students
According to Professor Kikoma, RIMS was developed to address a gap in graduate student tracking after examination results are uploaded into the Academic Management Information System (ACMIS). The platform will enable the university to monitor students beyond examination results processing, providing information on their progress from concept development and proposal writing to thesis submission, defense, and graduation.
RIMS integrates with ACMIS and the Electronic Human Resource Management System (EHRMS), from which it retrieves student and staff records. Consequently, students and staff must be registered in the respective systems to gain access to RIMS.
Under the new arrangement, college and school registrars are responsible for recording supervisor assignments, a process that enables students and their assigned supervisors to access the platform. Supervisors will use the system to document meetings, assign academic activities, and monitor progress and review students’ work.
University management intends to make RIMS mandatory for graduate supervision and reporting. Evidence of supervision and students’ academic progress will increasingly be verified through records maintained on the platform, reducing reliance on paper-based documentation.
The system will also support the verification of graduation lists, with digital records serving as an important source of evidence when confirming students’ academic progress and readiness for graduation.
Prof. Kikoma explained that RIMS was developed to address a gap in graduate student tracking
In addition, RIMS is expected to provide real-time statistics to support college and university management in monitoring students’ academic stages, assessing completion rates and making informed decisions about graduate training.
Addressing staff during the training, the College Principal encouraged both staff and students to embrace the system, noting that it would ease the monitoring of academic progress and simplify the generation of reports at departmental and college levels. The rollout marks an important step towards strengthening digital graduate supervision, improving accountability and enhancing the university’s capacity to track graduate student completion.
