Carnegie Mellon University

CMU Partners Globally to Advance Education

CMU’s mission, vision and values inform all our educational undertakings. CMU has a proven record of successful collaboration with governments on achieving national mission-driven goals and with institutional partners.

Our educational partnerships address national educational and human capital goals in alignment with unique strengths of CMU.

Engineering student of Carnegie Mellon University in Africa, touching mechanical equipment.

Carnegie Mellon University in Africa | CMU-Africa

Graduate education abroad in Kigali, Riwanda

In 2011, upon the invitation of the Government of Rwanda (GoR), Carnegie Mellon and the GoR signed an agreement to establish a new CMU location in Kigali, Rwanda. CMU-Africa’s vision is to educate and empower the next generation of African leaders and innovators by delivering a world-class educational experience. Our mission is to produce creative and technically strong engineers, who have been trained in the African context and prepared to make a transformative impact in their communities and the world.

In 2022, CMU announced a $275.7 million partnership with the Mastercard Foundation to significantly expand advanced engineering and technology education at CMU-Africa. The investment from the Foundation includes a $175 million endowment to perpetually fund Carnegie Mellon Africa and $100.7 million to establish CMU-Africa's Center for the Inclusive Digital Transformation of Africa.


Students walking with a robot, monitoring data on a laptop, at Carnegie Mellon University Portugal.

Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program | CMU Portugal

Dual Ph.D. Program in Lisboa, Portugal

Launched in 2006, this partnership is a platform for education, research and innovation that brings together CMU and several Portuguese universities, research institutions and companies. CMU Portugal’s mission is to place Portugal at the forefront of research and technological development in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), by promoting an innovation ecosystem with a tight coupling between cutting-edge research, world-class graduate education and highly innovative companies in the data-driven economy.

Outcomes include large scale collaborative research projects, dozens of dual degree and affiliated PhD students and graduates, exploratory research projects, robust exchanges of faculty, researchers and students, as well as the establishment of start-up and unicorn companies.


Students from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar around a table, looking at papers and a physical model.

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | CMU-Q

Undergraduate education abroad in Doha, Qatar

In partnership with Qatar Foundation, CMU-Qatar opened in 2004. CMU-Q offers select undergraduate programs in biological sciences, business administration, computer science and information systems. With identical degree requirements to those at the Pittsburgh campus, more than 1,200 alumni have graduated from CMU-Q. Today, more than 450 students from 61 countries call CMU-Q home.

Our innovative model at CMU-Q reaches a student population that we otherwise could not reach, provides access to research problems that are otherwise inaccessible, impacts an important global region particularly in the education of women and extends our brand internationally. Supported substantially by the Qatar Foundation, CMU is mindful of Qatar’s National Vision 2030, and in particular to the pillar related to developing human capital.