The African Virtual University is a pan-African effort to create an open and affordable distance learning institution to serve the African continent. The AVU began in 1997 as a project of the World Bank and later developed into an autonomous institution after it was handed over to African governments in 2003. Fifteen African Governments have signed a charter establishing the AVU as an intergovernmental organization. These include Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Benin, Tanzania, Republic Of Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Mauritania. The AVU has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and a regional office in Dakar, Senegal. Over the program's lifetime, critics have questioned its efficacy as well as its neocolonial aspects.
Reasons for Creation
is a region that has experienced high rates of HIV/AIDs, political instability, and poverty. These conditions have contributed to a paucity of state-run educational institutions, an insufficient number of educators, and a surplus of students. For these reasons, many students attend universities outside of SSA which has drained the region of its educated residents. Specifically, the AVU was designed to expand the capacity of SSA institutions of higher learning to service a larger number of students. The UVA hoped that these additional spaces would lower the cost of education to more affordable levels. Furthermore, the AVU initiative desired to equip SSA students with the skills they would need to compete in the new professional jobs emerging on the continent—especially in the technical industries. The initiative hoped that the AVU could provide access to academic databases, high-quality professors, and technical curricula to close the gap between African country's economies and that of the rest of the world.
Efficacy
The AVU relied heavily on World Bank grants and did not become self-financing as it originally had planned to do. For this reason, the AVU changed into an intergovernmental organization in 2003 via an intergovernmental charter signed by 15 SSA countries. Beyond not meeting its initial expectations, critics argue that the AVU continues to inefficiently distribute educational services to the African continent. Their main critique is that higher education enrollment has increased from 200,000 in 1970 to 4.5 million in 2008. Yet, AVU claims to have trained only 63,823 students since its conception in 1997. Additionally, others have pointed out the lack of training received by AVU administrators in a study of Kenya specifically. These administrators were unable to use the digital equipment issued by the World Bank which significantly stinted the program's progress. Moreover, the AVU did not set its own admission requirements for students, but rather relied on the existing requirements of oversee universities. However, the biggest obstacle to AVU's success was the lack of infrastructure on the African continent. Since the program was administered through telephone lines that transmitted a satellite signal connecting Western partner universities to AVU-partnering universities on the African continent, the program had a difficult time spreading its resources. Lastly, the cost of to improve the continent's technological infrastructure increased the costs of AVU programs beyond that of previous programs provided by local institutions. In 2002, a year-long AVU course at Kenyatta University in Kenya cost $6,400 U.S. dollars, which was nearly twice as much as class costs at local institutions. Not only did AVU raise costs beyond that of similar programs provided locally, but it also competed with local universities. Nevertheless, others advocate for AVU. The African continent is now a dynamic e-learning environment. Some attribute this success to the World Bank's initial AVU project. Overall, the continent showed a 15.2% increase in the self-paced growth rate of e-learning from 2011 to 2016, earning nearly $250 million from e-learning in 2011. Additionally, this increase in elearining is largely responsible for spread of fiber optic cablesacross the continent.
Conditions attached to World Bank loans forced African countries to reduce spending on higher education, since higher education institutions paid lower dividends than elementary and secondary education programs. These conditions decreased the quality of education provided by African universities. Additionally, the World Bank also introduced their own more expensive alternative programs taught by western professors. These programs, especially regarding historical, cultural, and humanities-related content raised concerns about the interpretations being provided by western scholars. The origins of many African universities harkens back to western influence as well. The schools were first established by colonial governments for officer training. This began a heritage of education that was alien to the African continent. Modern western schools have reinforced this legacy of dependency through AVU's western partner universities who provide the program's content. This flow of knowledge moves in a one-way direction from the West to the East, leaving African countries with little say in the curriculum.
