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Under the leadership of the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), a new ambitious plan is afoot to expand access to higher education, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the least developed countries (LDCs).
This plan, formally communicated at the convening of a High-level Expert Group Meeting on an Online University for the LDCs, is intended to establish an online university that can provide a rapid response to the dismal numbers of citizens with access to higher education in these regions.
The vision stems from Sustainable Development Goal 4, which has an overarching vision to enable all learners to acquire the knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development. Exploring the feasibility of establishing the university is in accordance with a call from member states as stipulated in the Fifth UN Conference for Least Developed Countries which adopted the Doha Programme of Action for the LDCs.
The meeting drew experts mainly from the LDCs, including the authors of this article, and was clear about the need to map existing initiatives, identify viable modalities, assess resource needs, establish accreditation mechanisms, and build strategies for sustainable funding.
Rationale
Over the decades, higher education in the LDCs has expanded in leaps and bounds. Yet still that growth and the quality of provision have not been sufficient to meet the UN development goals and the respective development agendas of individual nations. As a whole, providing free, quality and equitable mass higher education continues to remain a chronic challenge in these countries.
STEM has been fully recognised as a crucial factor for LDCs to drive socio-economic development and catch up with more advanced economies. And yet, they are falling behind in tertiary and STEM education access. The gross tertiary enrolment rate in LDCs is just 11%, far below the global average of 40%.
Only 4.6% of STEM courses offered by higher education institutions are in the LDCs. This compares with around 60% of the global youth population being concentrated in LDCs. Only 21.7% of LDC graduates were in STEM fields in 2022, compared to 41% in China and 36% in Germany.
LDCs possess rich renewable energy and human potential but lack the capacity to harness these for development. Investment in STEM education is thus essential to unlock this potential and ensure the demographic dividend, with the working-age population in the LDCs expected to double by 2050. Prioritising STEM education for LDCs is not only critical to ensure the future jobs market and sustainable development but also for countries to graduate from the LDC category.
Access, quality and equity
LDCs face three interwoven and persistent challenges in higher education: access, quality and equity. Over the past few decades, the expansion of access has been a defining feature of the higher education landscape across many LDCs. However, despite significant growth, participation rates remain discouragingly low relative to global benchmarks.
While this expansion can be cautiously regarded as a milestone, it is overshadowed by the persistent and profound crisis of quality.
As enrolments have surged, the capacity of higher education systems to deliver meaningful, high-quality learning experiences has been severely strained. Rapid and often unregulated expansion has led to overcrowded classrooms, overburdened faculty, declining investment in critical infrastructure such as laboratories and libraries, shrinking academic activities, and the deterioration of facilities.
These conditions have collectively fuelled a downward spiral in the quality of teaching, learning and overall academic engagement – a perfect storm that threatens the very foundation of higher education in these contexts.
On the question of equity, the picture is complex. While there have been encouraging strides toward gender parity in some LDCs, substantial gaps remain – particularly in specific disciplines such as STEM, where female participation continues to lag.
Importantly, equity concerns have evolved beyond the traditional male-female dichotomy. For example, in countries like South Africa, women now constitute the majority of higher education enrolments, a trend increasingly mirrored in parts of the Arab world.
As efforts move toward shaping new educational enterprises and delivery models, it remains of paramount importance to maintain a careful and deliberate balance among access, quality and equity. Prioritising one at the expense of the others risks entrenching the very disparities and inefficiencies that higher education seeks to overcome.
Potential modalities for the online university
The expert group considered various options for a possible online university for the LDCs. In doing so, it recalled Jamil Salmi’s distinctive approaches to establishing institutions, though he is focused on research universities.
The first modality in establishing a new institution, Salmi, in his 2009 book, The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities, described a clean-slate approach, where a new institution is built from scratch. The hybrid approach envisages a number of existing institutions merging and transforming into a new university that can achieve the type of requisite synergies. The third option is upgrading a small number of existing universities that have the potential to excel, which Salmi describes as picking winners.
To be sure, each one of these approaches has advantages and shortcomings when superimposed on envisaged scenarios.
Clean slate
If the UN were to create the United Nations Online University (UNOU) to deliver its own programmes for LDCs, it would mean establishing a brand-new entity from the ground up, from administrative, financial, legal and accreditation processes to institutional culture.
This approach offers a clean slate for innovation. It allows for fresh institutional design, free from legacy constraints and branding. New curricula and programmes (unencumbered by and-or responsive to technological transformation), governance models and transformative pedagogies can be introduced without resistance.
Of course, this approach would also be a huge signal of commitment to the advancement of higher education as a direct, powerful and political response to the agenda as set in the Doha Programme of Action in particular and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in general.
This approach is not without its weaknesses – a number of them, for that matter. There are high costs and long timelines involved for building infrastructure, recruiting staff, securing accreditation and setting up systems. A lack of reputation or networks besets new institutions, meaning they may struggle initially with credibility and recognition, though the UN brand could and may surmount this challenge.
This approach faces governance and sustainability risks as well. Without careful planning, new institutions may face operational inefficiencies or funding gaps. Finally, duplication and competition may confront new initiatives. There are risks involved in replicating the functions of existing institutions, leading to redundancy or resource wastage in a widely deprived environment.
Hybrid
A hybrid form would draw together a consortium of higher education institutions from LDCs and elsewhere and establish their own board and shared governance, funded and supported by the UN.
While it is possible to establish such a consortium of universities, the how and who of drawing it up may be contentious and become an issue that needs to be managed, given the proclivity towards regional preference, language barriers, cultural dimensions and issues of accreditation, among other things.
Select and upgrade
This model lends a new initiative an established infrastructure and identity by leveraging existing physical, academic and administrative systems, public recognition, a track record, and networks.
Evidently, this approach appears to be more cost-effective, as retooling and re-adapting may be less resource-intensive than building from scratch. This model also offers scalability and reach, as existing institutions usually have broader access to students and networks, enabling faster impact.
This approach, however, may result in institutional resistance to change, as faculty and administrators may contest reforms that they consider threaten long-standing norms. Likewise, outdated structures and bureaucracy and legacy systems may be difficult and expensive to modernise.
Given that a number of traditional, conventional public and private institutions are now involved in an online delivery mode, further cluttering the landscape of choice, identifying participating partner institutions may be problematic.
Best practice
It was therefore proposed that the UNOU would partner with existing universities to facilitate – politically, financially and technically – the delivery of online higher education systems in STEM in LDCs, along the lines of “select and upgrade”.
This model was considered for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness as well as its significance in minimising duplication and overlaps and bringing a speedy response.
Proposed as a quality broker for best practice, it is anticipated that the UNOU will establish an appropriate governance structure that is inclusive, transparent and adaptable to the unique challenges of the LDCs. A strong joint collaboration between governments, international organisations, academia, the private sector and philanthropic organisations, which will be convened under the umbrella of the UN, was envisioned.
Despite anticipated major challenges in providing STEM education online in LDCs, a strong sense of optimism – that these challenges can be overcome through the use of technology, good governance and partnership – was evident.
Money: The elephant in the room
There is no doubt that higher education is an inherently costly enterprise, demanding significant and sustained investment. While some may contend that online delivery is less expensive than traditional, campus-based models, it is crucial to acknowledge the substantial costs involved in establishing, maintaining and effectively delivering quality online education too.
These costs are particularly formidable when the goal is to reach diverse, often under-served and marginalised populations, which are widely represented in the LDCs.
A pressing question, therefore, is who will underwrite such an ambitious initiative on a sustainable basis – at least until it becomes self-sufficient. Although the idea has been met with some initial enthusiasm, the challenge of securing consistent, long-term funding remains formidable.
In addition to the critical issue of funding, experts underscored the need for contextual and blended technology solutions that involve a mix of print, radio, TV, mobile and digital platforms that are tailored to local realities; AI and digital tools support; provision of open digital spaces for students with no connection to the internet, and the power to bridge the digital divide.
Infrastructure and access issues as major barriers in LDCs are widespread. Proposed solutions included establishing local learning centres with digital access, partnerships with telecom organisations, private sector support for equipment and costs, and a focus on expanding digital literacy, especially for women and marginalised groups.
In addition, building the digital literacy of teachers, education providers and students, and promoting offline and low-bandwidth solutions, as well as content in local languages, were proposed as necessary means of reaching the most vulnerable.
Given the diversity of practices in LDCs, the issues of curriculum development and accreditation and recognition were also strongly emphasised as important factors in implementing the UN’s new plan. Collaboration with local governments and industries highlighted culturally-, technologically- and market-responsive curricula.
While the need for incorporating virtual internships and job placement support was emphasised as part of the online university programme to help graduates find employment, a proposal was made for creating a repository of online resources on STEM from different countries and for partnering with key universities in LDCs for national accreditation processes.
In terms of accreditation and recognition, using UNESCO’s Global Recognition Convention schemes and the development of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) were advised. In addition, a dual and phased approach was recommended, with short-term programmes offered for rapid skills acquisition and formal degrees for employability, with micro-credentials forming a continuum towards full recognition and accreditation, proceeding from national towards regional and global levels.
Promising signs
The establishment of a UNOU for LDCs is regarded both as a moral imperative and an economic opportunity that is central to the Doha Programme of Action and the SDGs. Considering the scale, complexity and need for global coordination, it is difficult to envision many other institutions with the kind of global infrastructure, presence and mandate that the United Nations has to execute such an initiative robustly.
Perhaps only a United Nations-led initiative can deliver the credibility, global branding and universal recognition necessary to ensure that degrees and qualifications are trusted by governments, employers and students alike, making this platform essential for bridging the digital and educational divide and fulfilling the UN’s commitment to leave no one behind.
With mounting evidence indicating that the SDGs may fall far short of full realisation by 2030, one might strongly argue that bold and transformative actions such as this should have been purposefully embedded at the very heart of the SDG agenda from the outset.
As we have emphasised before, including in the article “Higher education and the SDGs: more of the same?”, overlooking higher education as a central pillar of sustainable development was a missed opportunity – an omission that mirrors the critiques once levelled against the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which effectively sidelined higher education in global development strategies.
These historical contexts are critically important, as they hold the potential to serve as a compelling impetus for positioning higher education at the core of the next generation of global development agendas and targets in the post-SDG 2030 era.
It is hoped that the lessons from past omissions and under-estimations can meaningfully influence how higher education is centrally embedded as both a driver and an enabler of sustainable development moving forward.
In conclusion, the effective implementation of this potentially enormous and ambitious initiative can doubtlessly move the levers of success towards meeting the SDGs some notches forward.
However, it should be emphasised that achieving the vision requires coordinated action across governments, the private sector, international development partners and philanthropic organisations to advance access, ensure quality and recognition, and promote equity and inclusion in STEM education in LDCs.
Damtew Teferra is a professor of higher education, founding director of the International Network of Higher Education in Africa and the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of African Higher Education, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He co-coordinates the Higher Education Cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa. He may be reached at teferra@ukzn.ac.za and teferra@bc.edu. Wondwosen Tamrat (PhD) is an associate professor of higher education and founding president of St Mary’s University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is the coordinator of the Private Higher Education sub-cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) and a board member of the International Association of Universities (IAU). He can be reached at preswond@smuc.edu.et or wondwosen@gmail.com.
This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.
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