Questions of how students’ backgrounds influence their opportunities to access to higher education have been widely debated, with many scholars arguing that access to higher education in Africa remains highly unequal (see e.g. Walker and Mkwananzi (2015)). Although academic works have provided important insights into the obstacles many Africans encounter in their attempts to pursue higher education, such perspectives have not adequately taken into account the transnational strategies people across the continent employ to overcome social inequalities in access to higher education. In response, this paper focuses on an often overlooked group of students; international distance education students in Africa. By analysing data collected for the IDEAS research project (ideaspartnership.org) through a large-scale survey and phone interviews with students in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Namibia who study at the University of South Africa (UNISA), it examines how these students perceive opportunities for higher education and why they pursue international distance education. For people who do not possess the resources to pursue university studies in their home countries, we argue that distance education becomes a transnational strategy for renegotiating their local social positions.