According to media reports, Daystar University in Kenya has begun a partnership with OneUni to launch what they call the first smartphone based degree programmes in Africa.
The programme will reportedly allow prospective students to acquire a degree without having to be in a physical school.
Daystar is a Christian liberal arts university in Nairobi, Kenya. Daystar’s original campus is close to Nairobi city centre, but there was no room to expand at that location.
Therefore, in the last decade a new campus has been built at Athi River, some 40 km to the south-east of the city, on the Mombasa Road. This development has been largely as a result of work of the vice chancellor of Daystar, Professor S. Talitwala.
After Kenyatta University launched a similar initiative, Kenya’s Daystar University has launched the Daystar Mobile in partnership with OneUni, a Silicon Valley edtech startup to enable students to earn Daystar University delivered degrees and diplomas primarily via their smartphones from wherever they are.
Can Nigeria Take a Cue From This Initiative?
In Nigeria, securing admission into tertiary institutions of learning has become a herculean task. Per year, the number of admission seekers far outweigh the spaces in the universities.
This has forced many to consider other alternatives like the polytechnics and the colleges of education, while some abandon the idea of a formal education altogether.
Easy accessibility to quality education would undoubtedly, afford recipients the requisite knowledge, which will, in turn, propel national and regional development.
On this note, quite a number of people may be open to the idea of learning via their smartphones. Interestingly enough, mobile internet adoption is gradually finding its root in Nigeria.
According to the statistics by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the number of mobile internet users in Nigeria currently stands at 97.21 million.