Five African Universities Partner With WISE to Test Campus AI Integration

The Qatar Foundation's World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) and The Education Collaborative at Ashesi University have begun a joint programme across five African universities to test practical artificial intelligence applications in tertiary education, according to an announcement by the institutions. The pilot forms the second phase of a broader continental research initiative titled Harnessing Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence for Higher Education in Africa, supported technically by Educate Ventures Research.

Tailored campus deployments

The selected institutions comprise Bells University of Technology in Nigeria, Botho University in Botswana, KCA University in Kenya, the University of Kigali in Rwanda, and Université d'Abomey-Calavi in Benin. All members of the Education Collaborative network, the universities will trial interventions tailored to local campus priorities until June 2027. Bells University of Technology and the University of Kigali are deploying curriculum-bound AI tutors and early-warning mechanisms to identify struggling undergraduates. In Botswana, Botho University is implementing academic support models alongside staff training, while Kenya's KCA University is introducing adaptive learning pathways. In Benin, Université d'Abomey-Calavi is establishing governance committees and requiring formal declarations of AI use during dissertation submissions.

According to project organisers, the initiative follows a 2025 assessment conducted with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and AfriLabs across 47 African institutions, which identified fragmented uptake and institutional policy deficits. University representatives met in Nairobi in early October to finalise deployment frameworks. Findings from the five campuses will be documented as comparative case studies ahead of the Education Collaborative's annual gathering and the 2027 WISE Summit in Doha.

What it means

For African tertiary institutions navigating constrained computing budgets and uneven digital infrastructure, rigorous testing of curriculum-aligned tools offers an empirical alternative to unvetted foreign software while anchoring digital adoption in local governance.