About 600 University of Rwanda students, including 490 Mastercard Foundation Scholars, participated in the 2025 Summer Camp in Huye, where they received leadership training and were challenged to become agents of change in their communities.
KIGALI – The University of Rwanda has been awarded a $3 million prize by the Mastercard Foundation after being recognized as one of five African institutions leading the transformation of higher education across the continent.
The award is part of the newly launched Africa Higher Education for Transformation (AHEFT) Prize, an annual initiative backed by a $500 million commitment over its first decade to recognize universities driving systemic change and expanding opportunities for young people in Africa.
The University of Rwanda received the award in the Excellence in Health category for its contribution to strengthening Rwanda’s health system and workforce.
The University of Rwanda (UR), the country’s largest public university, was established in 2013 through the merger of seven public higher learning institutions. It educates tens of thousands of students across nine colleges and is Rwanda’s leading institution for higher education, research and innovation.
According to the Mastercard Foundation, the university has trained more than 26,000 health professionals, while its community-based training model reaches nearly 500,000 people through clinical placements, outreach programmes and university health services.
The foundation also cited the university’s growing leadership in digital health, vaccinology, biomedical engineering and health systems innovation.
Each of the five inaugural winners will receive $3 million to expand their transformative work through initiatives agreed with the Mastercard Foundation.
The other award recipients are Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, recognized for excellence in research and innovation; the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE) in Burkina Faso for excellence in teaching and learning; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana for excellence in research and innovation; and Muni University in Uganda for its work in helping students transition into employment.
Announcing the prize on Monday, Mastercard Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Sewit Ahderom said the initiative aims to support African universities as drivers of opportunity for young people.
“For twenty years we have seen African institutions rethink what higher education can deliver,” she said. “The AHEFT Prize turns that proof into momentum: we are backing homegrown excellence with a decade-long commitment, so that universities across the continent become engines of opportunity for millions of young people.”
Over the next decade, the AHEFT Prize will recognize at least 150 higher education institutions across Africa in areas including teaching and learning, research and innovation, entrepreneurship, climate, agriculture, health, and science, technology and artificial intelligence.
The inaugural winners will officially receive their awards during the Higher Education Transformation Convening in Accra, Ghana, on September 22, 2026.
