Two of the world’s top universities Harvard and MIT announced collaboration with each contributing $30 million into a nonprofit partnership edX, which they hope will make the top-notch faculties and courses of their schools available for free to millions of people around the world — free for anyone with an Internet connection.

This is very good news for all people around the world that have an interest in quality education. Education at the world top universities in the UK (Oxford, Cambridge, LSE) or in the US can cost someone over 50,000 USD for a single year.  This amount is not affordable for many people from the developing world. The cost aside, the traditional education model has limits on the number of people that can enroll for a program or course. Embracing online distance learning comes with an advantage that more interested people will have a chance to tap into the knowledge base of the world’s top elite universities.

Even as the online students will be able to attain certificates of mastery but not traditional degrees, it is worth investment of one’s time and we hope Ugandans and all Africans with interest to grow their knowledge and/or dreams to reach Harvard or MIT will tap into this new opportunity.