Founded as a joint US–Seychelles initiative, the University of Seychelles American Institute of Medicine has been training physicians of conscience and competence since 2008.
The University of Seychelles American Institute of Medicine (USAIM) is an independent international medical university operating under charter from the Republic of Seychelles. We educate physicians, pharmacists and public-health leaders from over thirty countries — using an American-style organ-system curriculum, in classrooms and clinics anchored on Mahé Island and extended through partnerships across three continents.
USAIM was founded in 2008 as a joint academic venture between American medical educators and the Government of Seychelles' Ministry of Health, with a clear premise: that medical education at the highest standards of rigor and humanism should not be the exclusive privilege of any one nation. From our first matriculating class of 22 students to today's student body of more than 600, we have remained faithful to that founding promise.
"We do not simply train doctors. We educate physicians who lead, listen, and heal — across languages, across cultures, and across the rapidly changing landscape of global medicine."
Our community includes 60+ full-time faculty drawn from leading institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, India and across Africa; affiliated teaching hospitals in Seychelles, the United States and the United Kingdom; and a growing alumni network of more than 3,500 physicians practicing in 25+ countries.
When I joined USAIM, I came with a question that had haunted me through twenty-five years of US academic medicine: could we do this differently? Could we build a medical school where rigor and humanity were not in tension, where clinical excellence and cultural humility were taught in the same breath, where the classroom and the bedside were inseparable?
What I found, and what we continue to build, is a school that answers yes. Our students are taught the same medicine they would learn in Boston or Baltimore — and they are taught it within a community that demands something more from them as people. The Indian Ocean is a generous teacher. So is a small island where doctors and patients know each other's names.
If you are considering medicine — as a student, a partner, or a colleague — I invite you to visit. Walk our halls. Sit in on a small-group session. Watch a third-year on rounds. Then decide.
USAIM was founded in 2008 as a joint US–Seychelles educational venture. Here are the moments that have defined our journey.
Founding partnership signed between American medical educators and the Government of Seychelles. Inaugural class of 22 medical students enrolled.
USAIM signs its anchor clinical partnership with Victoria Hospital — the nation's tertiary referral center. Third-year clinical clerkships begin.
Twenty members of the inaugural class receive their Doctor of Medicine degrees. Eighteen of the twenty match into US or UK residencies.
USAIM relocates to its purpose-built main campus on Mahé Island, including the Center for Clinical Simulation and the Whitmore Library.
The Bachelor of Pharmacy program admits its first cohort, expanding USAIM into pharmaceutical sciences and clinical pharmacology.
The Master of Public Health program launches with a tropical and island-health concentration, in partnership with the WHO AFRO regional office.
The USAIM Tropical & Translational Research Center begins operations, with focus areas in vector-borne disease, marine pharmacology and NCDs.
USAIM celebrates its 3,500th living graduate. Alumni now practice in 25+ countries, with 92% USMLE Step 1 first-attempt pass rate sustained over five years.
To educate physicians, pharmacists and public-health leaders of conscience and competence — equipped for the USMLE and equivalent licensure exams, ready for residency, and committed to global health equity.
To be the leading American-curriculum medical school in the Indian Ocean — recognized internationally for academic excellence, clinical training, scholarship and the humane formation of physicians.
We hold ourselves and one another to the highest standards of honesty, transparency and ethical conduct in scholarship, clinical care and institutional life.
We educate skeptical, evidence-driven physicians and scientists — comfortable with uncertainty, hungry for the next question.
Our community spans nationalities, languages, faiths and life paths. Inclusion is not an aspiration at USAIM — it is the lived reality of our classrooms.
Medicine is a discipline of care. We teach our students to listen first, to bear witness, and to never reduce a patient to a problem set.
From the anatomy lab to the bedside to the research bench, we ask of ourselves — and our students — the very best.
Our graduates serve patients on every continent. We educate them as citizens of an interconnected world, not the residents of any one country.
USAIM is led by a senior team of physicians, scientists and educators with experience across leading institutions in the US, UK, India and Africa.
"The Office of the Dean exists to serve faculty and students — not the other way around. Our job is to remove obstacles to teaching and learning, and then to get out of the way."— Dean's Council of USAIM
USAIM operates under charter from the Republic of Seychelles and maintains the listings and recognitions necessary for our graduates to pursue licensure across the world's major medical regulators.
Chartered by the Government of Seychelles and recognized by the Seychelles Qualifications Authority (SQA) and the Seychelles Medical and Dental Council (SMDC).
Listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS) — the joint listing of FAIMER and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME).
USAIM medical graduates are eligible to apply for the ECFMG certification required for the USMLE pathway and US residency match.
Graduates from USAIM are eligible to sit the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination required for medical practice in India.
USAIM is recognized by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom for purposes of the PLAB examination pathway.
Affiliated educational partner of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, with a particular focus on small-island state health.
USAIM students rotate through, learn from, and collaborate with hospitals, universities and research institutes across three continents.
Our flagship clinical partner is the national tertiary referral center, where students rotate through Internal Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN, Pediatrics and Psychiatry alongside US- and UK-trained attendings.
More on this affiliation
Affiliated US teaching hospitals host our fourth-year students for core and elective clinical rotations across Internal Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN, Pediatrics and Psychiatry.
View US partner hospitals
Through MoUs with WHO AFRO and the Indian Ocean Commission, USAIM faculty contribute to regional public-health programs and small-island state health policy.
Public health partnerships
Faculty and student exchange programs with the University of Mauritius, the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences, AIIMS Delhi, and several US schools of public health.
Exchange opportunities