Leading change in higher education is very important for Unisa because the university produces most of South Africa’s graduates. Currently 350 000 students are enrolled with Unisa to further their studies and every year the university delivers some 40 000 skilled and competent graduates to bolster the country's labour market.
But changing leadership is equally important because there seems to be a lack of authentic, credible, transformational and decisive leadership. Over and above this, there is a need for intellectual leadership that is ethical in order to address developmental challenges faced by South Africa, the continent and the world.
In 2015 Unisa was appointed leader of an education alliance tasked with running the Southern African centre of United States President Barack Obama’s Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The university leverages on the capacity of the private sector partners to raise additional resources for the project. This alliance reaffirms the stature and leadership excellence of Unisa and the significant role that the institution will be playing in the economic, social and political reshaping of the African continent.