UNICAF

Founded in 2012, (Unicaf; /ˈjuːnᵻkɑːf/) is an online and blended learning higher education platform in sub-Saharan Africa that is dedicated to making higher education of international standard accessible to African professionals and young school leavers.

Unicaf
Established2012
FounderDr Nicos Nicolaou
HeadquartersLarnaca, Cyprus
Staff
500+
Websiteunicaf.org

History

Unicaf’s headquarters is in Europe and was founded in 2012,[1]. While initially focusing solely on Africa, it has been expanding[1] its range to offer scholarships to students worldwide, provided they meet certain eligibility criteria. Unicaf has established a number of branch campuses and learning centres in Africa, such as in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Egypt, Morocco, Somalia, South Africa, Zambia and Malawi. Already more than 30,000 have taken advantage of the Unicaf scholarships and registered to one of the partnership programmes. The number of students is estimated to increase to 100,000 by the year 2023.[2] The learning centres are set up to include digital libraries, computer labs, internet, generators and make students less prone to the studying in areas with partially inadequate infrastructures.[3]

“While education in Africa is rising and demand for skilled people also ascends, there are serious challenges to Africans reaching quality Higher Education (HE) levels that are recognised by the world's employers. The gap in the market needs to be addressed now... if the 2040 African labour force is to have global value.”[4]

Eligibility requirements

Applicants have to meet the general eligibility requirements for the award of a scholarship and additionally specific academic qualifications must be met in order to qualify for the relevant degree programmes.[5]

Programmes offered

Currently, Unicaf offers a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in a number of areas such as business, computing, education, mass communication, psychology and LLM Laws.[6]

Unicaf University
Unicaf University

Unicaf University has a physical presence in eleven African countries and a number of branch campuses such as the one in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia[7][8] to service south-eastern Africa. Unicaf University is accredited by the British Accreditation Council in the UK (BAC)[9]. The campuses aim to provide a number of student services and face-to-face tutorials to support the online delivery model. Although founded by Unicaf, Unicaf University is treated as a partner university[7] with scholarships provided for students taking the courses, whether online or in the form of partially on-campus learning. According to Dr Kevin Andrews, Vice-Chancellor,[7] Unicaf University is currently in the process of opening additional campuses in several locations in Africa.

References
  1. News, The PIE. "International Education News l The PIE News l African tertiary education can't meet demand".
  2. "'Higher education needs to be more affordable for Africa to grow' - Vanguard News". 3 November 2016.
  3. "African online market 'interests UK universities' due to Brexit". Times Higher Education (THE). 23 November 2016.
  4. Munford, Monty. "Unicaf Offers University Degrees To Africans for 20% Of Western Price". Forbes.
  5. "Unicaf Scholarship Eligibility - Study Online Graduate On Campus".
  6. "Programmes offered - UNICAF - Scholarships Schemes". 3 February 2015.
  7. "New Branch Campus by Unicaf University - IT News Africa – Africa's Technology News Leader". www.itnewsafrica.com.
  8. "Serious skills, education challenges for growing African labour force met by innovative higher education e-learning solution - Vanguard News". www.vanguardngr.com. 5 October 2016.
  9. https://www.the-bac.org/directory/19213/unicaf-university/

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