Afrigather 
Entry to high quality schooling is without doubt one of the most prevalent issues in Africa. Solely 9% of the sub-Saharan inhabitants eligible for increased schooling is at school, and even for them, the standard of schooling leaves a lot to be desired. Most universities supply outdated courses that don’t put together college students for the digital world that we reside in at this time.
A scholar of pc science on the College of Lagos instructed TechCabal that the division is “within the GSM age, whereas the remainder of the world is within the smartphone age,” citing how many of the coursework is paper-based. The state of most universities has made African college students a number of the most cellular on this planet. In accordance with a current report, virtually 500,000 sub-Saharan college students are in universities overseas, representing a 21% enhance in 5 years. This reveals that Africans continually search high quality schooling.
It’s in opposition to this backdrop that Nexford College, a US-accredited on-line college, is offering high quality schooling at an inexpensive fee. The college offers its college students with a totally on-line curriculum and what it calls “schooling that’s related to at this time’s world.”
On the undergraduate degree, Nexford presents programs like constructing a tech startup, synthetic intelligence, and e-commerce, whereas programs like hyperconnectivity and enterprise administration are supplied on the postgraduate degree. Last year, over 400 Nigerian college students graduated from the college. Since its inception, Nexford has enrolled greater than 8,000 learners throughout over 100 international locations across the globe, who’ve accomplished over 33,000 programs, together with 1,500 levels.
The college has now gained full accreditation from the Distance Training Accrediting Fee (DEAC). Previous to buying the accreditation, Nexford was solely licensed, however now, their levels can be extra well known by different academic establishments in addition to employers internationally. In some international locations, a Nexford diploma might also assist with immigration.
Fadl Al Tarzi, Nexford’s founder, instructed TechCabal final yr that the method of getting accreditation may be very stringent and takes 4 years, involving making use of to sure our bodies which might be accepted by the Division of Training in the US. In accordance with Tarzi, the method is that this stringent as a result of the approval physique has to guarantee that Nexford is sustainable and academically sound.
When requested how Nexford was capable of lastly get accredited, Al Tarzi instructed TechCabal that the method took three years and the college proved to the accreditation physique that it adhered to insurance policies, processes, and requirements that will profit learners who studied and graduated from Nexford. “Whereas it’s a advanced course of, we’re assured that the rigour of the accreditation course of indicators to our learners and to others within the trade that establishments can supply inexpensive applications with out compromising on high quality,” he mentioned.
Talking in regards to the high quality of the schooling supplied at Nexford, Al Tarzi mentioned, “Our skills-focused curriculum is designed to match fashionable employer wants, utilizing synthetic intelligence to research hundreds of thousands of job vacancies to higher perceive present developments and necessities of employers. During the last 4 years, Nexford graduates have secured jobs at main multinationals, together with Microsoft, Google, KPMG, Fb, EY, and WeWork.”
Nexford levels are additionally extra inexpensive than the typical annual tuition for levels in the US. Grasp’s levels from Nexford value $3,240, which is significantly lower than the $36,000 to $150,000 nationwide common for the US. Bachelor’s levels from Nexford value $4,320, whereas the typical nationwide common in the US is over $100,000.
Though Nexford’s levels is likely to be cheaper than the nationwide common in the US, they may characterize an costly choice for Africans. Al Tarzi defined to TechCabal that Nexford has teamed up with corporations like Piggyvest and Sterling Financial institution to supply scholarships, web centres, and monetary help in an effort to deal with this.
Establishments like Nexford, the place digital studying is being adopted, could function the perfect coaching floor for Africans to prepare for all times after college in a post-pandemic world the place most transactions and companies are actually performed on-line.
