Minister for Education Papias Musafiri has said the Global Health Equity University’s new medical school will act as a vehicle to quality education and service delivery in health in rural areas.

Musafiri made the remarks last Saturday at the ground-breaking phase of the new institution at the Butaro campus in Burera District.

Like Carnegie Melon University and African Institute of Mathematics and Science, Global Health Equity and others, he said, have good missions to raise institutional capacity and quality of education in Rwanda.

"We are proud that this comes to students but will also empower the citizens’ development in general,” he said.

"Transformation of the community to reach knowledge-based economy through education is what we look for and I am confident that we will develop a generation of the healthcare professionals in Rwanda and around the world by doing this,” he said.

However, Musafiri emphasised many universities are in the cities, the reason locating this campus in Butaro is essential, so that it can serve communities far away from the existing institutions.

Burera District mayor Florence Uwambajemariya said the university will bring many benefits to the district and the country at large since it will be the first one in the area.

"Primarily, it will not only enable our students to be trained to treat the sick, but the university will also bring jobs for lecturers and other staff,” she said.

The advisor to the Governor of Northern province, Ferdinand Karakye, noted that it has been expensive for students from the area who used to travel to study in Gicumbi and Kigali, saying the cost of their education will reduce fundamentally.

Dr Paul Farmer, the co-founder of Partners in Health and Harvard University professor, said the university will develop a workforce of health leaders and experts at delivering healthcare in low resource settings.

"The institution will contribute to the local workforce and nation’s growing economy,” he said.

Martin Bucyekabiri, an area resident, was optimistic that with the new university, they would get onto the grid because they had no electricity.