The Education Collaborative
The needed scale and speed for delivering transformation in higher education in Africa is beyond any single institution’s capability. It requires a collective with a shared agenda, mutual accountability, and uncompromising dedication to the vision for transformation.
In 2017, Ashesi University started the Education Collaborative initiative. The initiative leads a collaborative of Higher Learning Institutions in Africa to collectively and sustainably raise the bar for higher education outcomes. Built on the values of collaboration, ethics, leadership, and community, the Education Collaborative prioritizes providing the mentorship, support, and funding that higher education institutions will need to build lasting systems as centers of excellence on the continent.
Mission
Our mission is to leverage collaboration and mentorship to build a network of higher education institutions that are uncompromising in achieving excellence in quality student outcomes in Africa.
Vision
Our vision is to improve educational systems and outcomes on the African continent through an institutional and collective effort to achieve systemic transformation.
Our Target Areas for Transformation
We support the development of exemplar institutions to achieve successful models and relevant accountability systems. Through partnerships and other engagements, we create an ecosystem for these institutions to mentor each other and lead regulatory and policy reform from the inside out. Together in the network, we are working to achieve extraordinary education outcomes through focus on these Transformation Goals:
Ethics & Leadership Development
Through engagement in network programs, member institutions maintain a system and culture that empowers individuals and community for ethical action, empathy, teamwork, leadership and influence.
Training Students with Relevant Career Readiness
Through engagement in network programs, member institutions are well-equipped to train and provide all students with the competencies, knowledge and resources to prepare graduates for a smooth transition into successful careers, entrepreneurship, and graduate school.
Enabling an Active Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
Member institutions have the tools and know-how to create and sustain a range of institutional and infrastructural support systems that nurture creative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit in students to solve problems.
Defining Metrics for African Higher Education Ranking
Developing a context-specific ranking system focused on outcomes that contribute to Africa’s development.
Faculty Development and Research
Member institutions build their institutional capacity through faculty training, research and development across disciplines and focus areas.
Impact through Regional Hubs
By leveraging regional clusters, the Education Collaborative looks to scale its impact through partner institutions across the continent.
Explore our regional hubs below:
See where institutions we have engaged are:
Speedily raise a productive and entrepreneurial youth
This project of transforming Africa is not going to be done not by one institution, but by a thousand. We need to build a network of like-minded institutions. Ashesi is a self-contained system, and in order to transform African leadership, we need entire systems working together.
– Dr Patrick Awuah, Founder Ashesi University
Tackling Africa’s Higher Education Challenge
The challenge of an exploding youthful population
By 2050, Africa’s population will reach 2.5 billion, of which 50% will be youthful (UN, 2017)
The challenge of unemployment
Africa needs to create a minimum of 12 million jobs annually to provide jobs for the 30 million youth who will enter the labor market by 2030 (ADB, 2016)
The challenge of economic development
263 million young people will lack an economic stake in the system by 2025 (ADB, 2016)
Rose A. Dodd
Director
Rose has taught entrepreneurship, design thinking, GVV and the Leadership seminar series at Ashesi University since 2015. She has an MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a Master of Philosophy candidate in Development Policy and Practice at the University of Cape Town. Rose currently leads the development of the Education Collaborative’s 10-year strategy to directly impact over 1.1 million students.
A progressive thinker, Rose would like to see Higher Education Institutions in Africa churn out ethical and entrepreneurial individuals who are well equipped for the global job market.