Mobile learning in higher education: A comparative analysis of developed and developing country contexts Rogers Kaliisa, Edward Palmer and Julia Miller Rogers Kaliisa is a graduate student of the School of Education at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. His current research interests are mobile learning, learning analytics, e-learning and educational technologies. Edward Palmer and Julia Miller are senior Lecturers in the School of Education at the University of Adelaide. Address for Correspondence: Rogers Kaliisa, School of Education, Level 8, 10 Pulteney Street, The University of Adelaide SA 5005, Australia. Email: rogerskaliisa@gmail.com Abstract The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast characteristics of use and adoption of mobile learning in higher education in developed and developing countries. A comparative case study based on a survey questionnaire was conducted with 189 students (undergraduate and postgraduate) from Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Adelaide in Australia. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that higher education students in developed and developing countries use a range of technologies for learning, with major differences between Uganda and Australia. The study concludes that mobile learning in higher education in developed and developing country contexts is still at an experimental stage with students using mobile devices in pedagogically limited ways. Introduction The spread of mobile technologies, particularly mobile phones, has grown rapidly in both developed and developing countries. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2015) report on Internet and mobile device coverage, seven billion people (95% of the global population) have access to a mobile-cellular network. Australia, by mid- 2012, had 130% mobile phone penetration and 52% smartphone ownership (Google & Ipsos, 2012). Africa is currently the second largest and fastest growing mobile phone market in the world, with a penetration rate of 60% (Briggs, 2014). In Uganda, approximately 19.5 million out of 34 million Ugandans (52.3%) were connected to different mobile telecommuni- cations networks in 2015 (Uganda Communications Commission, 2015). Mobile penetration is thus occurring at a very fast rate, creating an enabling environment to deliver educational opportunities to more people through mobile learning (Norman, Din, Nordin, & Ryberg, 2014). Almost one billion households in the world have Internet access. Of these households, 230 mil- lion are in China, 60 million in India and 20 million in the world’s 48 least developed countries. In Australia, at the end of 2015, there were approximately 12.9 million internet subscribers (58% of the population), with 99.35% being broadband (ABS, 2016). By contrast, Africa’s mobile broadband penetration is below 20% (ITU, 2015). V C 2017 British Educational Research Association British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 00 No 00 2017 00–00 doi:10.1111/bjet.12583