Between 2000 and 2021, higher education enrolment in sub-Saharan Africa has more than doubled, from 4% to 9%. Continuing this growth, continental enrolment in higher secondary and tertiary education is projected to double over the next two decades: from 103 million continental enrolments to 240 million. This rapid expansion is a leadership challenge unfolding alongside competing pressures to achieve national, regional, and global agendas. Leaders are tasked with navigating intensified competition for funding and sustainably futureproofing their institutions, all the while conceptualizing the best form of higher education in and for Africa.