In 2000, His Highness the Aga Khan initiated the establishment of the Aga Khan Academies, an integrated network of schools dedicated to expanding access to the highest standard of education.

The Aga Khan Academies is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan. The AKDN has a long history of involvement in education in countries of the developing world, with the first schools now under the AKDN umbrella having been founded in 1905 in India and Zanzibar. Currently, AKDN agencies operate more than 240 schools and educational programmes ranging from early childhood through to post-graduate education.

Establishment of the academies

In 2003, the first of Aga Khan Academy opened in Kenya on an 18-acre site in the Kizingo area of Mombasa. The Aga Khan Academy (AKA) Mombasa has already established a highly successful track record, with its students placing among the top tier worldwide in academic performance.

The Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad is the second to be established and opened with its first intake of students in August 2011. As with all the Aga Khan Academies, AKA Hyderabad selects students of all socio-economic backgrounds who show promise in academic and other areas, and who demonstrate good character and serious intent.

A third Aga Khan Academy, in Maputo, Mozambique, opened in August 2013 with its lower primary school. In 2022, the Aga Khan Academy Dhaka in Bangladesh opened. 

Future academies

The other Academies are at different stages in the planning and development process.

View a map of the planned network of Academies.