Aare Afe Babalola SAN, legal luminary and educationist recently donated £10million to establish African learning centre at King’s College, London. This financial grant to King’s College is a landmark donation by an African. With the donation, Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education, is to be established. This center will enable young Africans to access education.
The Cable news report that King’s College had said the new centre would offer blended and online programmes, and also offer post-graduate level modules which can be brought together to create professionally recognised qualifications from diplomas to master degrees. A statement by the UK university reads, “A bespoke programme for Africa will be developed in partnership with the University of London and an alliance of leading African universities,”
Chief Afe Babalola commented that the initiative was inspired based on his experience as a distance learning student. His ability to remotely secure a degree from the University of London as he did not have an opportunity to attend physical classes. Without which he certainly would have ended up an unsung farmer or at best the secretary of the local motor union.
The Cable reports that the president of King’s College, Shitij Kapur, applauded Babalola’s initiative saying the new centre was timely and would strengthen ties between European and African education partners. “We are delighted that Aare Babalola’s donation provides a valuable opportunity to strengthen and grow our work with partners in Africa and deliver transformative education within the region.”