Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the Mastercard Foundation, in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda, announced a transformational investment in higher education and innovation in Africa.
The partnership, which was signed on Thursday, September 8, aims to catalyse opportunities for 10,000 young people from economically disadvantaged communities.
The 275.7 USD million investment from the Mastercard Foundation includes a USD 175m endowment to perpetually fund CMU-Africa, and 100.7m to establish CMU-Africa’s Centre for the Inclusive Digital Transformation of Africa.
Specifically, through the partnership, CMU-Africa will expand instructional capacity, including introducing a new degree in engineering artificial intelligence, and online learning programs, as well as grow the annual cohort of students enrolling in CMU-Africa by more than 33 percent.
The partnership will provide additional financial assistance to more CMU-Africa students, and grant direct scholarships support up to a total of 300 students.
It will also ensure that academic programs recruit and provide opportunities for marginalised groups, including women, people with disabilities, and displaced people.
Among other things, the partnership also aims to strengthen Africa’s research, entrepreneurship, and innovation ecosystem more broadly, through a number of ways including, establishing a network of higher education institutions in Africa that will work with the private sector and governments to create the conditions for inclusive digital transformation.
Carnegie Mellon is the only U.S. research university with master’s degree programs and full-time faculty, staff, and operations on the continent.
CMU-Africa was established in 2011 through a partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and the Government of Rwanda.
Speaking about the partnership, Farnam Jahanian, the president of Carnegie Mellon University, stressed the importance of high tech education in creating opportunities for African students.
"The key to creating opportunities for promising African students from all socioeconomic backgrounds is access to education in the high-tech fields that are driving the economies of the future,” he said.
"With this new collaboration, we will accelerate our shared mission and provide life-changing educational and career experiences for students across the continent,” he added.
Reeta Roy, president and CEO of the MasterCard Foundation said the "initiative will strengthen the role of African universities in developing the continent's scientists, innovators, and problem-solvers as well as generating knowledge that will benefit society more broadly."
Valentine Uwamariya, the Minister of Education, said such strategic partnerships with the MasterCard Foundation are key in supporting the development of a critical mass of skills in science and technology, particularly in ICT, required by the knowledge economy and to help accelerate Rwanda’s and the region’s socioeconomic transformation.