Type | Private |
---|---|
Established | 2005 |
Parent institution | Partners In Health |
Affiliation | Cummings Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Harvard Medical School, Tufts University, Government of Rwanda |
Chancellor | Dr. Jim Yong Kim |
Vice-Chancellor | Dr. Joel Mubiligi |
Location | Butaro , Rwanda |
Campus | Rural |
Website | ughe.org |
University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) is a health sciences university in Rwanda. An initiative of Partners In Health, UGHE is a private, not-for-profit, accredited institution.
Catalytic partners that have helped to launch the University include: Cummings Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Government of Rwanda. The Cummings Foundation committed an initial $15 million for Phase I of the University and was instrumental in raising matching funds from other sources. [1]
In 2013, the Government of Rwanda and Partners In Health were considering guilding a medical school next to Butaro Hospital. At that same time, Joyce and Bill Cummings, founders of the Cummings Foundation in Woburn, Massachusetts, visited Rwanda for the ribbon-cutting of the Butaro Outpatient Cancer Infusion Center, whose construction had been funded by the Cummings Foundation. [2] During their visit, the Cummings shared an expanded vision for the proposed medical school that would be "pan-African" and would include multiple health science disciplines, including veterinary medicine, dentistry and nursing.
Paul Farmer responded to this idea by writing in an email, "What a great vision, and one that squares with the Rwandan vision of pulling people up by building a ‘knowledge’ economy while delivering care." [3]
Launched in September 2015, [4] UGHE is a new kind of university focused on delivering the highest quality of health care by addressing the critical social and systemic forces causing inequities and inefficiencies in health care delivery. [5]
On April 3, 2017, UGHE appointed former Minister of Health of Rwanda, Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD, as Vice Chancellor of the University. [6] [7] As Vice Chancellor of UGHE, Professor Binagwaho oversees the expansion of the University’s education and research programs, cultivation of global partnerships, and further development of its Butaro campus in northern Rwanda. Dr. Agnes retired on November 4, 2022 and Dr. Joel Mubiligi assumed the role of Interim Vice Chancellor in addition to being Executive Director of PIH Rwanda. https://ughe.org/meet-the-team/joel-m-mubiligi UGHE co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer passed away suddenly on February 21,2022 while serving students and patients in Rwanda. His long time friend and PIH co-founder, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, was named Chancellor in October 2022. https://www.pih.org/press/partners-health-announces-dr-jim-yong-kim-chancellor-university-global-health-equity-rwanda
Launched in September 2015, the Master of Science in Global Health Delivery (MGHD) is UGHE’s flagship academic program. [8]
UGHE’s joint Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery/Master of Science in Global Health Delivery (MBBS/MGHD) is a six and a half-year, bachelor’s level medical degree coupled with a master’s level global health degree. [9]
UGHE’s Executive Education certificate courses develop professionals using critical competencies central to strengthening health care delivery systems. [10]
In 2016, UGHE began construction on its first permanent campus in Butaro, Rwanda. Completed in January 2019, the campus was inaugurated by the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. The university houses classrooms, teaching laboratories, a clinical simulation center, and information commons, as well as administrative, dining, and lodging facilities for staff, students, and faculty. As the university grows, a second campus will be added in Kigali at Masaka.
The university is composed of complementary rural and urban campuses. In December 2016, UGHE began construction on the 250-acre Butaro academic campus, which is embedded in a rural primary health care delivery system. The first phase of the campus opened in 2018 with classrooms, administrative buildings, a library, and dorms. The urban campus will be located in Masaka Sector, Kicukiro District in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, the heart of a planned “medical city”. In addition to leveraging two existing clinical facilities – Butaro Hospital and Masaka Hospital in Kigali – UGHE will utilize PIH-supported sites across Rwanda to enable a breadth of educational opportunities in clinical and delivery settings. These campuses were designed by MASS Design and Shepley Bulfinch, one of the oldest architecture firms in continuous practice in the United States. [11]
James Jude Orbinski, is a Canadian physician, humanitarian activist, author and leading scholar in global health. Orbinski was the 2016-17 Fulbright Visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, and as of September 1, 2017, he is professor and inaugural director of the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health Research at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was previously the CIGI Chair in Global Health Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University (2012-2017), Chair of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (2010-2012) and full professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (2003-2012), where he was the founding Saul Rae Fellow at Massey College. Orbinski's current research interests focus on the health impacts of climate change, medical humanitarianism, intervention strategies around emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and global health governance.
Central Queensland University is an Australian public university based in central Queensland. CQUniversity is the only Australian university with a campus presence in every mainland state. Its main campus is at Norman Gardens in Rockhampton, however, it also has campuses in Adelaide (Wayville), Brisbane, Bundaberg (Branyan), Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Melbourne, Noosa, Perth, Rockhampton City, Sydney and Townsville. CQUniversity also partners with university centres in several regional areas across Australia.
Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical anthropologist and physician. Farmer held an MD and PhD from Harvard University, where he was a University Professor and the chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He was professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international nonprofit public health organization founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Jim Yong Kim.
Kenyatta University (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Nairobi. It acquired the status of university in 1985, being the third university after University of Nairobi (1970) and Moi University (1984). As of October 2014, it was one of 23 public universities in the country.
Jim Yong Kim, also known as Kim Yong (김용/金墉), is an American physician and anthropologist who served as the 12th president of the World Bank from 2012 to 2019.
Ophelia Magdalena Dahl is a British-American social justice and health care advocate. Dahl co-founded Partners In Health (PIH), a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization dedicated to providing a "preferential option for the poor." She served as executive director for 16 years and has since chaired its board of directors.
Joia Stapleton Mukherjee is an associate professor with the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Since 2000, she has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Partners In Health, an international medical non-profit founded by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Kim. She trained in Infectious Disease, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics at the Massachusetts General Hospital and has an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mukherjee has been involved in health care access and human rights issues since 1989, and she consults for the World Health Organization on the treatment of HIV and MDR-TB in developing countries. Her scholarly work focuses on the human rights aspect of HIV treatment and on the implementation of complex health interventions in resource-poor settings.
The Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries (GTF.CCC) is a research and advisory initiative directed by the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington and the University of Washington Medicine to address the global burden of cancer in developing countries. This initiative, originally convened in 2009 by four Harvard-based institutions including the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, comprises a network of more than thirty leaders in the fields of cancer and global health from around the world. GTF.CCC also draws on more than 50 technical and strategic advisors, a private sector engagement group, a strategic advisory committee, and a dual secretariat of staff based at the Harvard Global Equity Initiative and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Agnes Binagwaho is a Rwandan Politian, pediatrician and co-founder and the former vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity (2017-2022). In 1996, she returned to Rwanda where she provided clinical care in the public sector as well as held many positions including the position of Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health of Rwanda from October 2008 until May 2011 and Minister of Health from May 2011 until July 2016. She has been a professor of global health delivery practice since 2016 and a professor of pediatrics since 2017 at the University of Global Health Equity. She resides in Kigali.
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The Butaro Hospital is a hospital in Burera District, in the Northern Province of Rwanda. The hospital serves as the district hospital for Burera District and surrounding communities.
University of Rwanda is a public collegiate, multi campus university based in Kigali, Rwanda. Formed in 2013 through the merger of previously independent education institutions, the University of Rwanda is the largest education institution in Rwanda. The University of Rwanda is ranked number one in the country by the Higher Education Council, an organ established by the Government of Rwanda.
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Butaro Hospital Cancer Center, or Butaro Cancer Centre of Excellence, is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Rwanda Ministry of Health.
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