The Qatar Foundation’s WISE and The Education Collaborative at Ashesi University are working with five African universities to develop and test approaches to artificial intelligence and share practical lessons with higher education institutions across the continent.
This story is written and edited by The Education Collaborative
The universities, all members of the Education Collaborative network, will address priorities in teaching, student support, and the governance of AI use. By documenting their experiences and sharing findings, the initiative aims to help other institutions make decisions about AI integration and assess approaches they could adapt to their own settings.
The work forms the second phase of Harnessing Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence for Higher Education in Africa, with technical and methodological support from Educate Ventures Research.
The initiative builds on a 2025 study, undertaken with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and AfriLabs, that drew on responses from 3,875 people across 47 African higher education institutions. The study found that AI adoption remained fragmented, with gaps in institutional policy, staff capacity, and infrastructure. This second phase supports universities to develop practical responses to priorities they have identified on their campuses and document what implementation reveals.
“We wanted to grow understanding of how universities are adapting to AI, from leadership to students,” said Selma Talha-Jebril, Director of Research and Policy at WISE. “We look forward to sharing what we learn at the WISE Summit in 2027.”
Teams from the five participating universities met in Nairobi on October 2 to work through their designs with program partners. Implementation begins this month and continues through June 2027.
The proposed work reflects each university’s priorities:
- Bells University of Technology, Nigeria, proposes an AI assistant designed to work only with the university’s approved curricula. It would provide regular information on class progress to help lecturers identify and support students who are struggling before examinations.
- Botho University, Botswana, proposes a coordinated approach combining university-wide AI governance, a structured staff development program, and a model to help program mentors identify students who may need support earlier. The model would be designed to make the basis for its assessments understandable to mentors.
- KCA University, Kenya, proposes an adaptive learning pathway within its existing learning platform, guided by lecturer-approved rules. The approach would alert lecturers when students are struggling so they can determine what support is needed.
- University of Kigali, Rwanda, proposes an AI tutor based on lecturers’ own course materials, alongside an early-warning process that would refer students to advisers for human review.
- Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Benin, plans to put its adopted AI strategy into practice through governance bodies, a network of AI champions, and declarations of AI use when dissertations are submitted.
The universities will receive funding and coaching and take part in network webinars during implementation. Emerging findings will be shared at the Education Collaborative’s June 2027 convening, with each institution expected to complete a case study in July. Case studies from across the cohort are also expected to be shared at the WISE Summit in Doha later in 2027.
“The Collaborative builds networks and platforms for African higher education institutions to share, learn, and grow together,” said Rose Dodd, Executive Director of The Education Collaborative. “Working with these five universities, all members of our network, will generate lessons and case studies that other institutions can use to inform their own approaches to AI adoption.”
This article was originally published by The Education Collaborative and is republished here with permission. View the original article.
The Education Collaborative is a pan-African network of education leaders, researchers, and practitioners convened at Ashesi University in Ghana. The Collaborative works to strengthen education systems by fostering collaboration, advancing locally grounded research, and elevating African perspectives on education leadership and reform.