By the time you are done reading this article, you will feel like a university professor without a degree. You will not be alone because even the founder of the first university did not have a degree.

The Guinness World Records acknowledges the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Morocco as the first university founded by Al-Fihri Fatima al-Fihri, a Tunisian Muslim woman more than 1,000 years ago. This resulted in the founding of Europe’s oldest institutions such as the University of Bologna in 1088 and the University of Oxford around 1096.

People study at universities due to several factors: to earn respect, to prove they can do it, gain high-paying jobs, meet others’ expectations and please their friends and families. Other reasons may include meeting a challenge, a love for learning, experiencing higher education’s value, experiencing courses, and making better life decisions.

A study on the global demand for higher education estimates that there will be nearly 600 million students enrolled in universities around the world by 2040. That aside, the High Court of Kenya nullified the law that requires governors to have university degrees to be eligible to vie. The law made some gubernatorial aspirants enter any university and exit with degrees. The nullification means that one does not need a university degree to lead. Many are convinced that degrees are no guarantee of good political leadership. What you do need is passion, wisdom, and the ability to step up when others are sitting down. There are many leaders who dropped out of university and are without degrees.

World leaders without degrees

Winston Churchill is best known for his time as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He also played a major role in World War II. He helped steer Great Britain away from defeat, all without a university degree. Former South African President Jacob Zuma who also served as Deputy President for the country never went to school.

Tech leaders without degrees

Bill Gates is perhaps one of the most famous entrepreneurs without a university degree, having dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft. Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies dropped out of University of Texas to run PC's Limited, which later changed its name to the well-known brand Dell Inc, the number one seller of computers in the world.

Mark Zuckerberg is another successful person who dropped out of Harvard University after creating Facebook from his college dormitory. He had a hard time relating to people, so he created a website where anyone from the university could register and thus be able to meet them, Facebook.

The late Steve Jobs is one of the most recognised billionaires without a college degree. Jobs is a great example to show that you don't need a college degree to start a great company. He went to Reed College but after six months he realised that it was not his thing and that it was not worth it for his parents to spend so much money on his studies so he quit.

Entrepreneurs without degrees

Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group was born with dyslexia, he spent his entire life having poor school performance, but years later he would become a small business hunter. He is definitely an example of how to get ahead without studies. In his youth, he left his studies to create Virgin Records a music record company, on a street in London.

The late Robert William Collymore was a Guyanese-born former CEO of Africa’s most profitable company, Safaricom. He did not have a university degree but he took Safaricom from a rag-tag government outfit that was going nowhere, to a company that has broken records and boundaries in equal measure. Safaricom is a world leader in mobile money transfer using its Mpesa platform.

Despite his lack of education, the founder of CNN Ted Turner has built and led a media empire. Kenya's late Tom Mboya never had a degree but helped many including Barrack Obama senior acquire degrees. The late trade unionist set up a scholarship fund that would take young bright Africans to the US and Canada.

The idea was for them to acquire the necessary skills and come back to help build a new country when the white civil servants packed up and returned to Europe.

Clearly, leadership is not about papers. It is about work, results, and performance. It’s not what you read; it’s what you do, achieve and deliver that counts.