Founded in 1964, it comprises eight faculties and five institutes and has a student enrollment of approximately 13,000.

[1] Under the initiative of the Jesuit missions, three other specialist institutions subsequently emerged in Bujumbura after Burundi's independence in 1962.

[2] Teaching at the university has been significantly disrupted by political upheaval elsewhere in Burundi since independence.

He studied physical education and later held a post as assistant lecturer at the university before, as a Hutu, being forced to flee in 1995.

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