Fred Swaniker plans to build 25 ‘world-class’ universities but not how you think

Fred Swaniker, the founder of the African Leadership Network (ALN), has plans to launch 25 world-class, African-focused universities in the next 25 to 30 years, which he estimates will be educating around 250,000 people at any given time.

“Let’s not just copy a model from other parts of the world. Let’s take a clean slate, ask what the university of the 21st century should look like – and just throw away any convention and start from scratch. And that’s exactly what we are doing,” said

Swaniker is also the founder of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg, a two year pre-university programme for the brightest young leaders across the continent.

“I believe the only way we will bring out our full potential is by developing the intellectual and human capabilities we have,” he told How We Made It In Africa.

“So just looking at the massive shortage of tertiary education on the continent… we need a radical and innovative solution that can help increase the number of [higher education graduates] who can really help drive innovation within healthcare, education, infrastructure, technology, and all the different things we need to do throughout Africa.”