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Unicaf CEO, Dr Nicos Nicolaou Barriers to education in Africa include political and security instability, costs, health and nutrition, distance to school, insufficient budgetary allocations to education, and poor-quality environments, content and processes. Such barriers widen inequality across an already unequal region with stark wealth, gender and social disparities, as well as stymie opportunity, innovation, and economic growth prospects. In a recent interview with Business Insider Africa Dr Nicos Nicolaou, the founder and CEO of Unicaf, a leading higher education online platform with students from 160 countries, set out his vision for a more robust education…

Introduction Modern technology is paving the way to an increasingly online world. Undeniably, education has, nonetheless, been part of this virtual shift, with physical libraries, teaching and research printouts and archives being replaced with e-books, online articles, e-libraries and e-archives. Covid-19 has accelerated this transition, revamping education, broadening teaching and research accessibility and essentially rendering online education and virtual classrooms the ‘new normal’. For the majority of universities, this shift happened ‘overnight’. However, unlike other institutions, Unicaf has been maintaining an online asynchronous teaching model since 2015. Unicaf’s pioneer experience in online education is reflected through its’ unique and diverse…

The evolving landscape The value of online learning has never before been written about so prolifically – why? Well, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has dominated headlines globally since March 2020, reporting the 1.2bn children who were out of schools as a result, the temporary suspension of on-campus lectures at universities around the world and the cessation of international Higher Education (HE) sojourners. For many in HE, online learning solutions are seen as the most effective way to keep student retention and maintain access to online education. However, the need to stimulate learning with methods other…

Africa is going digital, and this is happening rapidly unlike ever before. Access to digital communication technologies is now an intricate part of the lives of many people in Africa, most especially the middle class. Nigeria for instance, Africa’s most populous country, and most populous black nation in the World, already enjoys 47.1% internet penetration. Smartphone usage, including mobile internet data access, are increasing in demand. A roughly 25m – 40m people in Nigeria use a smartphone. This according to Statista, and the figure is expected to increase significantly by 2025.

Even though the majority of young people in Uganda are not yet familiar with online higher education, this type of learning may be just what they need. UNICAF, a global educational organisation, offers students in various parts of the world the opportunity to study online for internationally recognised degree programmes, at their own pace, and with minimum disruption to their professional and family life. People seeking higher education no longer need to relocate to another city, another country or another continent; nor do they have to carry the considerable financial burden, usually imposed on students by institutions of higher education…