Academic City University has been selected as one of 49 higher education institutions worldwide to participate in the inaugural Future Universities Alliance Innovation Sandbox.

This is a 12-month global initiative designed to accelerate innovation and institutional transformation in higher education.

The Future Universities Alliance, a global network incubated at Duke University in the United States, announced the inaugural cohort, bringing together universities and higher education innovators from 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Australia to collaborate on addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing tertiary education.

The Innovation Sandbox is structured around three strategic pathways: supporting the creation of new universities, advancing transformative initiatives within established institutions, and enabling successful higher education models to scale through partnerships, adaptation and collaborative networks.

Running from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, the programme will provide participating institutions with opportunities for peer learning, knowledge exchange and collaborative problem-solving.

Participants will engage in monthly facilitated sessions, executive milestone reviews and a Global Summit to be held in Durham, North Carolina, from October 3 to 5, 2026.

The initiative brings together founders, university leaders and innovators working to redesign curriculum, pedagogy, credentials and institutional systems while expanding access to quality higher education in diverse contexts.

Led by Mr Ato Ulzen-Appiah, Director for the Technology and Entrepreneurship Centre, Academic City will participate in the New Initiatives & Structural Transformations pathway and bring its work on Embedding Venture Creation into the Academic Core: Integrating Entrepreneurship and Innovation Across Academic City University to the Sandbox.

Academic City is participating in the Innovation Sandbox at a critical stage of its growth, during which major structural reforms have been implemented, and the focus has shifted to embedding innovation across governance, academic programmes and organisational systems.

The platform would enable the university to exchange ideas with peer institutions facing similar challenges in areas such as governance, faculty engagement, curriculum design, and the measurement of innovation-driven learning outcomes.  

Commenting on Academic City's selection, the President of Academic City University, Prof. Fred McBagonluri, described the recognition as another affirmation of the university's vision of building a future-ready institution that is globally connected and locally relevant.

He said participation in the Innovation Sandbox would provide Academic City with a unique platform to collaborate with leading universities and innovators worldwide while sharing the institution's experience in delivering transformative, technology-driven education.

“As a young institution purposefully built around innovation and entrepreneurship rather than adapting legacy systems, Academic City brings a unique African perspective to the global dialogue on higher education. We look forward to learning from and contributing meaningfully to the international cohort,” Prof. McBagonluri noted.

"Higher education is not short of innovation, but it is short of the structures needed to connect that innovation, help it travel, and make it durable," said Noah Pickus, founder of the Future Universities Alliance and Head of Global Strategy and Partnerships at Duke University.

"The Innovation Sandbox is our answer to that gap. We are pleased to convene this inaugural cohort and grateful for the trust these institutions have placed in one another to work together in this Alliance.”