Degrees of Change

Chapter 8Rethinking AI Accessibility in African Higher Education Institutions Through Inclusive Participation and Policy Reform

—Jeffrey Nii Armah Aryee, Patrick Davies, Godfred Abbey Torsah, and Leonard Kofitse Amekudzi, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across the Global South, particularly in Africa, offers promising avenues for socioeconomic transformation. However, evidence points to significant disparities in access, participation, and representation, particularly among vulnerable and marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities (PwDs), women, and the socioeconomically challenged. These gaps reflect broader issues of uneven policy development, infrastructural inequality, and limited institutional readiness, which threaten to widen the digital divide in AI education and workforce development.

This study seeks to understand the scope of equitable access to AI education and fluency through systemic reform in African higher education institutions (HEIs). The study employed a mixed-methodology approach: a systematic review of scholarly records from Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and Scopus databases, as well as policy documents from Africa (https://www.ai4d.ai). Also, a survey of learners and educators from some African countries was conducted to assess equity, accessibility, and inclusion across African HEIs. While country-level data was collected, the analysis focuses on cross-cutting themes that reflect shared ...