The African Leadership University (ALU) has launched its Kigali Learning Hub in Rwanda. It comes after two previously launched in Nairobi, Kenya and Kampala, Uganda. As part of the ALUs five-year strategy announced last year, learning hubs will be established across Africa to educate a generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders for the continent. The new strategy is based on increasing accessibility, directing students toward missions rather than majors, and allowing them to learn by doing. Contrary to traditional educational models, ALU founder Fred Swaniker stated that learning hubs will allow students to learn primarily within their communities and face-to-face with real-world challenges. The hub model was developed in response to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Online learning was proven to be lonely and less efficient when it comes to student engagement. We needed something that was COVID-proof, allowing students to interact with their peers, at least in small groups, he said. They were designed, according to Swaniker, to facilitate social learning, peer-to-peer work, and community building in close proximity to the communities that students are supposed to serve through their missions. Hubs are part of ALUs five-year strategy announce to have learning spaces across Africa One of the challenges in Africas education sector is poor infrastructure. Here, young leaders have access to infrastructure at a lower cost than when they travel to the mother campuses in Rwanda and Mauritius, he continued. Also, they have the opportunity to engage with local industry experts, and visiting faculty, he added. This new model allows us to further optimize for learner-centricity, peer and experiential learning, said Veda Sunassee, CEO of the African Leadership University, at the launch ceremony. We are confident that we are preparing our students for the real world by empowering them to take ownership of their learning, bringing them closer to the systems in which they intend to effect change, and distributing our pan-African community throughout Africa and elsewhere. At the launch ceremony A select group of ALU students is currently participating in a three-month experiential learning program in collaboration with Design Hub Kampala. In collaboration with the Carnegie Foundation, another group of ALU students will, from July to August, also take part in a uniquely immersive program in Silicon Valley, California, where another hub will also be opened. “I’m very excited about going to Silicon Valley and I hope to network with the world’s biggest pool of entrepreneurs during my stay,” said Kelly Jessica Hirwa, a second-year student at ALU. “At first we didn’t understand how this works but now we know this is just another space for us to be closer to our missions and easily access the internet and other learning materials. This will also give value to our degrees since we’re equipped with outside classroom experience,” she added. Students admitted to ALU will spend four months at the mother campuses, taking in-person classes, then return to their countries/cities to continue their program online and at hubs. ALU intends to establish multiple hubs per country, in refugee camps as well as rural areas, to increase education accessibility, and students will be able to access any hub on the continent. Learning hubs are COVID-proof
