Partners In Health (PIH) announced that the organization’s University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda was ranked 8th in the Sub-Saharan Africa University Rankings by Times Higher Education.

This inaugural ranking included 117 universities from across sub-Saharan Africa, with a final ranking of 88 institutions. Times Higher Education developed these rankings to evaluate universities’ impact in addressing the most pressing challenges faced in the region. The methodology assessed five key pillars: resources and finance, access and fairness, teaching skills, student engagement, and Africa impact. Universities and students collected the data directly through surveys, and bibliometric data was provided by Elsevier.

UGHE earned second place in the “Africa Impact” metric, which measured African research citations, African research co-authorship, policy, lawmaker outreach, and education. This ranking underscores UGHE’s significant contributions to research on the African continent.

Times Higher Education’s recognition of UGHE as a Top 10 Sub-Saharan Africa University is a testament to the leadership, faculty, staff, and students at UGHE and their unwavering commitment to providing high-quality education and research, as well as improving health outcomes and social systems. 

“This is a testimony of the extraordinary vision of our founder, Dr. Paul Farmer, the unwavering commitment to excellence of our staff, and the unique environment Rwanda offers as a country,” said Dr. Joel M. Mubiligi, UGHE vice chancellor and executive director of Partners In Health Rwanda.

PIH launched UGHE in 2015 with the support of the Cummings Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Government of Rwanda. The campus operates alongside PIH-supported Butaro District Hospital, the first district-level teaching hospital in the country.

UGHE and the hospital are accelerating collective efforts to increase the number of health care workers in Rwanda and around the world. At the current pace of growth, it will take three decades for the global health workforce to expand enough to meet people’s basic health needs, according to the World Health Organization.