The Aga Khan University (AKU) has announced a regional expansion drive in East Africa through a raft of projects, including taking undergraduate courses to Tanzania and the construction of a Kampala campus.
Earlier this year, AKU launched the construction of a $100 million campus in Uganda sitting on 60 acres of land that will be completed in 2026.
Speaking to the Business Daily, Dr Sulaiman Shahabuddin, AKU’s President and Vice-Chancellor, said the hospital will have a 101-bed capacity in the first phase and up to 300 upon completion.
“This is one of AKU's largest investments in East Africa to date – it has a Phase 1 which is a seven-storey University Centre, a nine-storey student housing building and a University Hospital,” said Dr Sulaiman Shahabuddin.
“This will enable a significant expansion of the University's existing School of Nursing and Midwifery in Kampala and will also allow the University to begin training medical specialists in fields such as internal medicine, oncology, and surgery among others.”
The construction of the University Centre and student housing is currently underway while the hospital will start early next year.
A four-story ambulatory care building will offer outpatient care in advance of the hospital's completion.
AKU was accredited by the Commission for University Education for the offering of two new undergraduate degree programmes in Kenya from September 2023, the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and Bachelor of Science in Nursing which were oversubscribed.
“The launch of the new undergraduate programmes in medicine and nursing in Nairobi and nursing in Tanzania is also a great milestone and we will continue to introduce relevant programmes across our different campuses,” added Dr Sulaiman.
