Who does Africa’s “village” of higher education actually include, and who does it still leave outside the gate?
That was the question posed by University of Johannesburg (UJ) Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Letlhokwa George Mpedi, during a public lecture at the University of Oxford on Tuesday, 28 July 2026. Hosted by the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), the lecture formed part of the University of Johannesburg delegation’s strategic visit to the United Kingdom.
Speaking under the theme Enhancing Pan-African Collaboration: Strategies for Access, Digital Inclusion, and Student Success in Higher Education, Professor Mpedi argued that expanding meaningful access to higher education is the defining challenge facing Africa’s universities.
Opening the lecture, he linked South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis directly to the question of access, describing it as “the single most urgent argument” for reforming higher education across the continent. He noted that while Africa has the world’s youngest population, only a small proportion of university-age students are enrolled in higher education, limiting opportunities for economic participation and social mobility.
Professor Mpedi argued that Pan-African collaboration must move beyond institutional partnerships to developing shared solutions that expand educational access, strengthen digital inclusion and improve student success. He challenged universities to rethink traditional models of higher education, emphasising that access should not be measured simply by admission, but by whether students are able to participate fully, belong and ultimately graduate.
Drawing on UJ’s own experience, Professor Mpedi highlighted UJ Digital, the University’s fully online learning platform launched in 2025. Enrolling more than 20,000 learners in its first year, the platform has broadened access to higher education for working professionals, parents and students unable to pursue conventional campus-based study.
He said initiatives such as UJ Digital demonstrate that societal impact is one of the clearest measures of academic excellence, pointing to UJ’s position as Africa’s leading university in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which assess universities against their contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Professor Mpedi also cautioned that digital inclusion extends beyond connectivity and devices. Universities, he argued, must redesign teaching, assessment and student support to ensure that technology creates genuine opportunities rather than reinforcing existing inequalities.
Concluding the lecture, Professor Mpedi reiterated that access is not a once-off event but an ongoing institutional responsibility.
“The scholarship on capability, critical pedagogy, digital exclusion, and student belonging all converge on the same practical conclusion—that access is a sustained condition a university must keep producing for every student it claims to serve.”
The Oxford lecture formed part of UJ’s broader internationalisation programme in the United Kingdom, reflecting the University’s growing contribution to global conversations on higher education, digital transformation and equitable access to learning.
The UJ Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Letlhokwa Mpedi delivered a keynote address at the Centre for Global Higher Education, University of Oxford. He spoke under the theme “Enhancing pan-African collaboration: Strategies for access.
