L’Université virtuelle du Sénégal, une réponse à la massification et aux inégalités d’accès à l’enseignement supérieur

Distance learning is recognized as a solution to meet the challenges of massification and inequality of access to higher education in sub-Saharan Africa. Created in 2013, the Virtual University of Senegal (Université virtuelle du Sénégal, UVS) has quickly become the first fully digital public university in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa and the second largest university in Senegal in terms of student numbers. This article presents online training mechanisms, such as remote platforms (Moodle), virtual classrooms (Blackboard collaborate) and a network of open digital spaces (espaces numériques ouverts, ENOs) scattered across different parts of the country. It then analyses start-up difficulties and consequences for the perception of opinion, the initial lessons learned and the remedial measures taken for the rise of the UVS. The ambition is to make it an unmissable African player in digital university teaching.