Asia Higher Education Accessibility

Programme Partner: UBS Optimus Foundation

Region:Asia

What if every young person had access to a bright future? We know that education is a path out of poverty, improves health and strengthens the economic well-being of whole communities. Yet opportunities to access tertiary education and participation rates in low- and lower-middle-income regions are amongst the lowest globally. Such barriers to tertiary education increase inequality. Additionally, funding for most students from low- and lower middle income remains out of reach and existing government funding and scholarships cannot fill the gap. Private capital in this space also remains scarce: impact investors currently direct only 3% of their budget to education (Global Impact Investing Network (2020), 2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey).

Desired outcomes:

• Design student financing solutions based on the student’s potential to thrive in the future instead of their present circumstances.
• Focus on solutions that are investible to ensure long term sustainability and drive more capital to scale the impact.

Approach:

Asia Higher Education Accessibility will:

• identify
• support and
• scale

solutions that provide inclusive, fair, and affordable financing to students in tertiary education (higher education and vocational training) and have the potential to bridge the financing gap that government funding and scholarships may not fill.