New report on digital education in Africa
© 2025 EPFL
At the end of 2024, we published our latest report: “Accompanying the Transition of African Universities to Digital Education”, a collaborative project of the EXAF Center in partnership with several African universities. This report offers an in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to digital education, a key transformation for the future of higher education in Africa.
A rapidly changing context
Digital education is not just a temporary solution adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a sustainable response to the major challenges facing higher education in Africa:
- Increasing access to education to respond to the rapid growth of the student population.
- Improving the quality of teaching through modern pedagogical tools and methods.
- Adapting training to the needs of the labor market by promoting essential digital skills.
By 2035, a quarter of young people aged 20 to 24 will live in sub-Saharan Africa, but today only 9% of young Africans have access to higher education, compared to 40% worldwide. To meet this demand, the current capacity of universities would have to be increased 12-fold!
An innovative approach: the Centers of Competence in Digital Education (C-CoDE)
In response to these challenges, the Excellence in Africa program run by the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the EPFL has set up the C-CoDE, centers dedicated to digital education within African universities. Their mission?
- To train experts and technicians specialized in digital education.
- Supporting teachers in the adoption of new teaching methods adapted to digital technology.
- Developing educational content and resources accessible to all.
Since 2020, 12 African universities have already benefited from this initiative, with a tangible impact on the integration of digital technology in higher education.
The impact of the program and the inclusion of women
Although fewer women enrolled in digital education courses, 61% of them obtained their certification, compared to 44% of men. Encouraging the participation of women is therefore a priority to maximize the impact of the project!
Future prospects and actions
We want to go further by:
- Extending the C-CoDE model to other African universities.
- Encouraging the creation and sharing of open digital educational resources.
- Increasing the number of training courses for teachers in order to promote a sustainable transformation of education.
- Developing online training courses to meet the needs of students far from university campuses.