A foundation’s
work, made
visible.

The Education Collaborative is a network of African higher education institutions committed to raising the standard of teaching, research, and student experience across the continent together. In 2025, the network grew in both reach and depth.

In 2025, the Collaborative formalized its Southern Africa hub, with Dr Naziema Jappie joining as the Hub’s director. The Hub held its first convening, hosted by Nelson Mandela University, in Johannesburg, South Africa; bringing together institutional leaders from across the region to align on shared priorities. The West Africa hub also saw growing strength among its francophone partners, including institutions in Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, bridging gaps in cross-language collaboration.

Cross-institutional coordination advanced through structured Learning Exchanges and mobility initiatives. This supported peer learning around employability systems, soft skills integration, and research culture; and surfaced exemplar practices for broader dissemination across the network.

In 2025, the Ashesi Center for Entrepreneurship deepened its engagement with student and alumni founders — building richer pathways from idea, to validation, to incubation, to community. More than 450 students and alumni participated in structured activities across the year.

The most significant programmatic shift was the introduction of four dedicated sectoral tracks — allowing standard training opportunities while making targeted connections with mentors and content experts:

Scholarships are how potential meets opportunity. They give young people the tools, the knowledge, and the platform to think bigger than their circumstances would otherwise allow; and the freedom to imagine the impact they want to have on their communities and on themselves.

In September 2025, the first cohort of students supported through our Mastercard Foundation endowment partnership began their studies at Ashesi University; receiving comprehensive support covering the full cost of their undergraduate degree.

Across the broader 239-student portfolio, roughly a quarter come from outside Ghana, representing 17 countries across the continent. Students are pursuing 10 different degree programs.

Two major builds advanced from blueprint into reality this year — the kind of physical investment that will shape what is possible for generations of students.

The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Complex reported on last year is now approximately 60% complete as of December 2025. The building structures are in place across the complex, and work has shifted to interior fittings — mechanical, electrical, and finish work that will determine how the spaces actually feel and function. Ashesi Canada staff and board members were given a tour of the work site in October 2025 to view this progress firsthand. We expect the complex to open for use in Q3 2026.

In late 2025, contractors also broke ground on the new Center for Leadership. The site has been cleared and is ready for construction to begin in earnest in 2026.

Together these additions will house new research labs, innovation and maker spaces, and dedicated facilities for leadership programs — expanding the campus’s capacity to develop the next generation of African leaders.