An African proverb says “If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.” As women around the world, who continue to strive for equal rights and opportunities in career and in society, have been hit the hardest by the economic effects of the pandemic, access to affordable and flexible higher education has become essential to help more female leaders climb to high positions in the corporate world, and in government.
The Unicaf organisation, always ready to support equal access to higher education for all, is taking real steps to help more women study for internationally recognised undergraduate or postgraduate degrees. Under an agreement, signed this month between Unicaf and the African Women in Leadership Organisation, fifty 75% scholarships will be awarded to an equal number of members of the AWLO, in all countries where AWLO is present, to enable them to pursue degree programmes online, with any one of Unicaf’s partner universities. Unicaf’s partners include the University of Suffolk, Liverpool John Moores University and the University of East London in the UK, plus multi-campus Unicaf University, which is accredited by the British Accreditation Council in the UK (Zambia and Malawi campuses).
An exciting range of Bachelor, Master’s and Doctoral degrees in a variety of modern disciplines are offered by Unicaf’s partner universities, who award the respective degrees. Online study is facilitated by Unicaf’s cutting edge digital platform, hosting the Virtual Learning Environment. Through the VLE students have 24/7 access to study materials and an expansive e-library, they can communicate with tutors and network with fellow students in 156 countries across the globe.
The African Women in Leadership Organisation (AWLO) is a non-profit organisation with a membership that is open to all women leaders across Africa and the African Diaspora. Its flagship programme is the annual African Women in Leadership Conference. The AWLC aims to harness and enhance the leadership potential of women in Africa as a whole and to channel them towards the unity and development of the region.
This agreement is seen by both parties as the beginning of a closer collaboration aiming to increase affordable and flexible higher education opportunities for African women, to allow them to combine higher academic studies with their other important roles as women in leadership. The aim is to help women acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to compete equally with men in the professional arena and rise to higher positions in the corporate world and in government.
For more information about the Unicaf Scholarship Programme you can visit http://www.unicaf.org/awlo
For more information about the African Women in Leadership Organisation you can visit http://www.awlo.org/