**1. Introduction**

Zimbabwe like most African countries is undergoing a major transformation in higher education. The outbreak of Covid-19 has accelerated the changes taking place in higher education including online and e-learning programmes. Private higher education is not new in Zimbabwe as the first private and church-related institution, Africa University, was established in 1992 in Mutare, Zimbabwe by the Global Board of Higher Education and Ministries of the United Methodist Church that is based in Nashville Tennessee, in the United States of America. A number of churches felt challenged by this move and started pursuing their own projects to start new Universities in Zimbabwe as will be highlighted below.

Zimbabwe currently has 21 accredited Universities. Out of these institutions, 14 are public or government-owned and the rest are private Universities owned mostly by international churches. In Zimbabwe, the leading churches that now operate fully fledged private Universities are the United Methodist Church (USA Diocese), Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church, Dutch Reformed Church, Catholic Church and the Ezekiel Guti, Zaoga Pentecostal Church. Clearly, churches in Zimbabwe have demonstrated a keen interest in developing Universities in future, and a few are already engaged in this process of setting up their new institutions of higher learning. These include the Anglican Church Zimbabwe Diocese, Methodist Church in Zimbabwe (John Wesley, British Diocese), AFM and Mutendi Church. In addition, Maranath Christin University is listed on the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education website as one of the institutions that is currently operating with a provisional license.

Unicaf University offers a unique model in the sense that it is the first, private, independent, pan-African and internationally recognized Open and Distance-Elearning institution to be established in Zimbabwe. The only other University that has a similar business model to that of Unicaf University is the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) which is a public, open and distance learning higher education institution. The ZOU was established by the government of Zimbabwe in 1999 to meet the needs of those who wanted higher education but could not afford to leave their jobs and attend University at the same time. Because of the growing demand for part-time higher education, public Universities in Zimbabwe started to introduce Block Release and weekend programmes to cater for students who would not manage to attend college as full-time students due to other pressing work or family needs. Despite these efforts, the higher education market in Zimbabwe is not yet saturated, and there is an urgent need to have universities that cater for the underserved markets such rural areas, the working class and those who may be saddled with family responsibilities such as caring for a loved one on a full-time basis.

The purpose of this chapter is to describe Unicaf University's experiences, challenges and opportunities in trying to establish a private, independent, internationally recognized online and blended learning institution in Zimbabwe. The University has achieved some milestones including review of its 28 academic programmes by local experts, aligning its academic programmes curriculum to the Education 5.0 and the Heritage-based Learning as espoused by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science Innovation and Technology Development (MHTESITD). In addition, Unicaf has built a state-of-the art campus in Harare and is now waiting for full accreditation of its academic programmes and the institution.

Unicaf experiences in establishing campuses and e-learning centres in different African countries are unique, and each country case is affected by different socioeconomic environment and political context or circumstances. This chapter focuses on experiences of Unicaf in Zimbabwe and in particular its various interactions with the Government of Zimbabwe (GOZ) especially through the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) and the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA).

#### **1.1 Background information**

Unicaf is headquartered in Cyprus, Europe, and it has developed a network of campuses and e-learning centres throughout Africa. Unicaf is now present in 12 African countries and is set to expand its reach to five additional countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In other words, Unicaf University is a pan-African university with British and local accreditation for its academic degree programmes. For instance, Unicaf degree programmes are accredited by the British Accreditation Council (BAC), the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), and it is locally accredited by the National Regulatory Authorities in the respective African countries. The regulatory

*The Perils and Promises of Private Higher Education in Zimbabwe: The Case of Developing… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109686*

and accrediting authority in Zimbabwe is called the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE). It was established by an Act of Parliament, the ZIMCHE Act Chapter 25:27 promulgated in 2006 to provide oversight on quality higher education.

In addition to its network of campuses and learning centres distributed throughout Africa, Unicaf operates in partnerships with leading Universities in Europe and the United States of America. The Universities that are currently operating in partnership with Unicaf are the University of East London, University of Liverpool John Moores, University of Suffolk and the University of California at Riverside.

The advent of high-speed internet which facilitates ubiquitous connectivity has provided momentum for the spread of online learning on the continent of Africa and throughout the rest of the world. Post-Covid-19, higher education is seeing increasing delivery of online and virtual provisions as an alternative to the traditional brick and mortar or face-to-face learning that has characterized most public universities for decades. Online or e-learning provides flexible approaches and resilient alternative pedagogy in the face of complex or difficult problems associated with Covid-19 and an uncertain future [1]. The world and, in particular, developing countries have not made a complete shift or pivot to online as questions still arise in terms of quality of online pedagogy, poor access to ICT infrastructure in most African countries and failure to understand the online business model by policy makers in charge of regulating quality in the delivery of higher education. Ye according to the World Economic Forum, an estimated 70% of new value created in the economy during the coming decade will be based on digitally enabled business models.

Unicaf University will add to a growing list of private Universities in Zimbabwe. To date, there are seven private universities that are fully registered and operating in Zimbabwe. Among these Universities, six are church-related institutions and one is a wholly private and non-church-related University. Unicaf University is a private, independent, online and blended learning institution, and it is pan-African in both scope and nature. **Table 1** shows the 21 registered public and private universities currently operating in Zimbabwe.

#### **1.2 The establishment of the Unicaf University Zimbabwe**

Realizing the potential offered by online teaching and learning, Unicaf made initial moves to establish the Unicaf University Zimbabwe campus in 2018 in the capital city, Harare. The Harare campus has been operating with a Provisional Registration License that was issued in October 2019.

Unicaf was granted an investment license by the Zimbabwe Investment Agency (ZIA) in 2018 which was later renewed by the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) in 2022. The investment license allowed the Unicaf University Zimbabwe to operate and set up facilities that are required for it to launch a functional University in Zimbabwe.

Unicaf is supported by reputable international investors in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Africa. These leading investors are, namely University Ventures, British International Investment and Goldman Sachs.

#### **1.3 Vision and mission of the university**

The vision of Unicaf University is *to be a leading contributor to excellence in tertiary education and research in Africa and the rest of the world*. The University has threepronged mission as follows:


#### **Table 1.**

*Higher education institutions registered in Zimbabwe, 2022.*


In Zimbabwe, and globally, the higher education landscape has been reshaped by Covid-19. Although higher education institutions were already undergoing some major changes, the global pandemic has accelerated the pace of adoption of online and e-learning in most Universities. Unicaf University Zimbabwe, whose unique learning and teaching model is based on the provision of quality online and blended learning is well positioned to expand access to higher education for potential students in Zimbabwe and surrounding countries in the SADC region. Because of its high
