Burundi University

University of Burundi

Université du Burundi (UB)
Former name	Official University of Bujumbura (1964-77)
Motto	Le Grenier du Savoir ("The Breadbasket of Knowledge")
Type	Public university
Established	1964 (1964)
Rector	Gaspard Banyankimbona
Students	13,000 (2017)
Location	Bujumbura, Burundi

The University of Burundi (French: Université du Burundi, or UB) is a public university located in Bujumbura, Burundi. Founded in 1964, it comprises eight faculties and five institutes and has a student enrollment of approximately 13,000. It is based in three campuses in Bujumbura and a fourth in Gitega. It took its current name in 1977 and is Burundi's only publicly funded university.

The origins of the University of Burundi can be traced to the Agronomy Institute of the University of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi. In 1960 this became the Agronomical Institute of Ruanda-Urundi (Institut agronomique du Ruanda-Urundi) and moved to Bujumbura, becoming the country's first major centre of higher education. Under the initiative of the Jesuit missions, three other specialist institutions subsequently emerged in Bujumbura after Burundi's independence in 1962. These institutions were merged to form the Official University of Bujumbura (Université officielle de Bujumbura, or UOB) in January 1964. In 1977, the UOB merged with two vocational institutions to create the University of Burundi (Université du Burundi, or UB).

Teaching at the university has been significantly disrupted by political upheaval elsewhere in Burundi since independence. The Burundian Civil War (1993-2006) created particular problems, as did the accompanying socio-economic crisis which led to strikes, funding problems, and a brain drain of academic staff overseas. On 11-12 June 1995 ethnic Hutu students were massacred at the university by ethnic Tutsi.

UB is affiliated to the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), and the Conseil Africain et Malagache pour l'enseignement supérieur (CAMES).