A United Nations online university for the poorest countries in the world: dream or reality?

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Reference:

United Nations (2025): ‘Online university or other equivalent platform to support university-level science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in the least developed countries‘ New York: Secretary-General A/80/426

Report of the Secretary-General

The United Nation’s Secretary-General has recommended that the UN should take the necessary steps to ‘launch an Online University for the Least Developed Countries  in March, 2027.’ 

What are the LDCs?

The least developed countries, which currently number 45, are home to approximately 14 per cent of the global population. Almost one third of the population of the least developed countries live in extreme poverty.

The UN notes that [LDCs] are in a vicious cycle of low income and low educational opportunities and attainment that results in lack of decent and productive employment. Higher education systems across all least developed countries are characterized by low enrolment rates, limited institutional capacity and significant disparities in access and quality.

LDCs range in size from Bangladesh (176 million people), to tiny island states, such as Tivalu in the South Pacific (just over 9,000 people). 32 of the LDCs are in Africa.

However, the working-age (15–64 years) population in least developed countries is expected to double from 610 million in 2020 to 1.2 billion in 2050. In recent years there has been rapid expansion of high school education in many of these countries. This rapid growth makes investing in tertiary education a priority.

In contrast, from 2019 to 2023, the gross tertiary education enrolment rate in least developed countries had stagnated at 11.2 per cent, compared with the global average of 43.3 per cent. As at 2025, least developed countries have an average of only 0.61 universities per 100,000 young persons aged 15–29, far below the levels in Europe (4.07), North America (3.20) and Latin America and the Caribbean (2.37).

How did an online university for LDCs come to be proposed?

The idea originated at the fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Doha in 2023. With some financial support from Qatar, the UN’s Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) was requested to develop a feasibility study for an online university for LDCs. UN-OHRLLS in turn appointed a high-level expert group meeting on the feasibility of establishing an online university for the least developed countries. 

I was appointed a consultant to UN-OHRLLS to help write the feasibility study, which was ultimately based on a desk review by UN-OHRLLS, the report of the expert group, an analysis of existing initiatives, consultation with other relevant UN agencies, and feedback from UN representatives of several least developed countries. The feasibility study  recommendations have since been incorporated into a draft General Assembly resolution currently under negotiation, which is expected to be finalized in December. Subsequent actions will follow once the resolution is adopted.

Although the recommendations in the report have still to be finally adopted by the UN General Assembly, they are on track to being accepted early next year. Although the development of a UN Online University is not yet a done deal, it is pretty close, with a firm target date of March, 2027 for its start.

What are the main recommendations?

• Elaborating the structure and governance mechanisms, addressing institutional matters, and sample mapping of in-country assessments for a UN Online University;
• Establishing a task force to provide strategic direction towards full operationalization of the online university;
• Advancing the modalities of the Online University by strategically leveraging existing facilities and resources;
• Formally launching the Online University for LDCs at the Midterm Review of the Doha Programme of Action in March 2027, in Doha, Qatar.

The main conclusion of the feasibility study was that a UN-led online university was needed, and was feasible, but only if a number of challenging conditions were met.

What will the UN Online University look like?

That is a very good question, to which, at the moment, there is no definitive answer. There are several key goals for the UN Online University, which will ultimately determine its final shape and form:

• rapidly increase higher education enrolments in LDCs, particularly in STEM education
• widen access to higher education in LDCs, and in particular increase the proportion of female and marginalised STEM students
• radically improve the existing quality of higher education programmes
• increase LDC’s institutional capacity for quality STEM education.

In essence, there were three possible scenarios presented in the feasibility study:

1. a new, independent, autonomous, degree-granting institution operated by the UN
2. contracting out: handing over the initiative to an existing organisation that already provides online education in developing countries, such as the University of the People, or the Bangladesh Open University, and providing money to help such an institution widen access to STEM education across all the LDCs
3. partnership: the UN working with LDC governments and higher education institutions to strengthen and widen access to quality STEM programs through online learning, i.e. building local capacity, through partnership with the UN and quality universities in more developed countries.

What it will clearly NOT be is Option 1: a new, independent, autonomous, degree-granting institution. One major argument against Option 1 is that it would take too much time and money to become operational, and it would be seen as not being ‘owned’ by the LDCs. In particular it would not enable the LDCs to increase their own capacity in developing quality STEM education.

Option 2 has some advantages: these initiatives already exist and could be expanded relatively quickly and economically. However, again they would not be ‘owned’ by LDCs and would be seen as coming from ‘outside’ and more importantly, they would not so easily facilitate the development of local capacity. Also the qualifications of such external institutions may not be recognised locally.

Option 3 is the least dramatic of the three options, but it has the advantage of being able to start quickly, of building on existing initiatives, and of strengthening local capacity. The UN can assist in accessing the expertise or support for online course design and delivery from institutions world-wide, while local LDC governments are given the responsibility for supporting local higher education institutions in providing online programs and locally recognised qualifications, thereby building their internal capacity for quality STEM education.

Necessary conditions for success

However, the feasibility report also laid out a number of challenging conditions that must be met for a UN Online University to be successful. These were divided into three levels of responsibility.

Governments of LDCs

Expand local Internet access LDCs must work with private telecoms and local universities to ensure that there is adequate, easily accessible Internet access for any students enrolled in UN-supported online programs.

It was recognised that the digital divide in LDCs is very wide, but there are a number of actions that LDCs can take to increase Internet access, such as greater use of satellite transmission, partnership with telecoms to support student digital costs, provision of easily accessible local centres with Internet access, and a national digital literacy strategy. Expanding Internet access and digital literacy is essential not only for higher education but also for economic development in LDCs. The provision of adequate Internet access for local UN Online students should be a minimum requirement for partnership with the UN Online University.

Designate  and support partner universities. The local LDC government will need to identify and work with one or more specific universities as partners for the UN Online University, with the goal of developing sustainable capacity in the chosen universities for high quality UN Online STEM education. This should be part of a broader national higher education policy to expand access to quality STEM education. The UN should set benchmarks to determine continuation of support for the Online University in each LDC.

Funding. LDCs in general have funded higher education at significantly lower levels per capita than non-LDCs. The UN Online University should focus on supporting LDCs with a clear policy/strategy for widening access and developing better quality higher education programs, accompanied by appropriate local financial support.

Business and community support. Local governments should work with the partner university, local businesses and communities to explain, support and validate the qualifications of those taking UN Online programs.

Local universities

As well as partnering with the UN Online University, local universities must commit to supporting the delivery of quality STEM programs, ensuring that academic departments have the necessary minimum core staff to support the programs, and a long-term strategy for increasing the quality and number of STEM graduates. Local universities must agree to award qualifications for students taking UN Online courses at least equal to those awarded to their on-campus students.

Local partner universities must work to ensure there is adequate Internet access and financial support for students taking courses through the UN Online University.

Local partner universities will also need to agree to work in partnership with quality institutions in more developed countries through the UN Online University, to support and develop local scientific expertise and to provide international study opportunities for graduates qualifying through UN Online University support.

The UN Online University

One major responsibility for the UN Online University will be making contract agreements with LDC governments and universities along the lines of the responsibilities outlined above.

Another main responsibility of the UN Online University will be quality assurance. The UN Online University aim should be to promote local capacity, but initially it will require its own staff to develop ‘model’ quality online programs in collaboration with LDC partner universities. For instance, the UN Online University could provide a general course template which would be ‘filled’ with locally-produced material, monitored by external content experts.

Lab work would be primarily conducted at the local university’s facilities, enhanced by some of the online labs being developed by UNESCO.

The UN Online University will also need to contract with respected science academics in developed countries to provide content guidance and partnership with partner universities in LDCs.

The Online University will need to work collaboratively with other UN agencies, such as UNESCO and the UNU, to avoid duplicating services and to draw on already existing expertise.

Dream or reality?

When I drafted the first version of the feasibility report I made three conclusions:

1. A UN Online University or something similar is very much needed; the current gap between demand and supply for STEM graduates in LDCs cannot be met by just expanding the on-campus system.
2. It is feasible to develop a global online system – a UN Online University – that will cost-effectively support and increase quality STEM education across all the LDCs.
3. Nevertheless, it will be difficult to do, because so many challenging conditions must be met.

I have laid out some of these conditions above. You can probably think of more. If asked for the odds of a successful initiative, I would put them at somewhere between a 10% and a 30% chance of success, even if the funding is made available. Nevertheless, the need is so great it is worth taking the chance, even at these odds. What do you think?