NEWS: Our correspondents worldwide report

Brendan O'Malley

The European Union should reform its legal labour migration policies and make it easier for people graduating in the EU to obtain a work permit in the EU, in order to attract its fair share of the global talent pool, according to a new OECD report.

The number of students studying abroad as part of their Australian university degree has grown fourfold over the past decade, amid high satisfaction ratings for those overseas study programmes, according to research carried out for Universities Australia.

Gilbert Nganga

Kenya’s cash-strapped higher education sector has received a boost after government increased funds to public universities by 8% – more than double an earlier planned raise. There is extra cash for research and for loans for students, who will also be more likely to get internships following a raft of policy and fiscal measures announced on Thursday.

Brendan O'Malley

European Union research funding generates more than 19,000 jobs across the United Kingdom, £1.86 billion (US$2.6 billion) for the UK economy and contributes more than £1 billion to gross domestic product, according to new figures published on Friday by Universities UK.

Goldie Blumenstyk, The Chronicle of Higher Education

A new analysis of help-wanted postings for entry-level jobs suggests that liberal-arts graduates can improve their job prospects markedly by acquiring a small level of proficiency in one of eight specific skill sets, such as social media or data analysis. In most cases, those skills increase salary prospects greatly as well.

Karen MacGregor

A new series of global conferences on higher education internationalisation is being launched in August. The gatherings will take place in locations around the world every four years, generating inclusive debate and global guidance on critical issues in internationalisation, with the first to be held in South Africa.

Michael Gardner

The number of students and academics visiting foreign countries who were supported by the German Academic Exchange Service – both outgoing German students and academics and those coming to Germany – grew by 5% in 2015 compared to the previous year.

Jenni Henderson

Traditional rivals Monash and Melbourne universities are collaborating to create a new company that will market and sell medicines developed by the institutions to pharmaceutical companies, reinvesting any profit into research.

Only 37% of United Kingdom full-time undergraduates think they get value for money at university and the overwhelming majority (86%) are opposed to the government’s plan to let universities raise their fees where they can demonstrate excellent teaching under the planned Teaching Excellence Framework.

Wagdy Sawahel

Morocco’s first university-based career centres have opened. Aimed at enhancing the employability of graduates and their transition to the workforce, the centres will provide orientation services to students and graduates, work readiness training, information on high growth sectors and exposure to employers, internships and other forms of workplace learning.

TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP

Brendan O'Malley

For years lack of teachers fuelled despair over education in Dadaab, a camp complex for 340,000 refugees. An innovative higher education programme involving Kenyan and international universities has brought radical improvements but now faces the challenge of providing degree programmes to refugees facing the dismantling of the camp and repatriation to a country racked by conflict.

COMMENTARY

Tom White

Generation Z’s lives are firmly anchored in the digital world and this will affect what they expect in every aspect of higher education. Universities need to prepare.

Matthew Piscioneri and Fay Patel

Does internationalisation of higher education aspire to create global citizens who are able to move around easily in the global marketplace or does it aspire to something higher than just economic wealth for selected individuals?

Karen McBride

While Canada has attracted a lot of international students, few of its own students choose to study abroad despite it offering a transformative experience and despite industry understanding the benefits.

Defta Oktafiga

Indonesia needs to focus on three different types of higher education to create world-leading researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals to improve the quality of higher education and boost economic development.

Yolande X Harley, Esmari Huysamen, Carlette Hlungwani and Tania Douglas

The government subsidy awarded to South African universities for research publication output may be inadvertently penalising high-citation articles. Revising the model to tackle this problem would better align funding with government strategic plans and may better support publication of greater impact research.

Santiago Gándara and Dolores Rocca Rivarola

Large-scale strikes by teachers’ unions have brought Mauricio Macri’s government to the negotiation table, but discontent over rising prices and shrinking budgets continues.

WORLD BLOG

Christian Noumi and Grace Karram Stephenson

The upcoming elections and student protests have forced the government to delay attempts to pass on the cost of university utilities bills to students as costs increase.

FEATURES

Simon Marginson

While Korea has the highest level of investment in the world in research and development, China’s investment will soon pass that of the United States, and Iran has the fastest growth rate of science papers.

Wachira Kigotho

Kenya’s university education system has come under scrutiny from the World Bank in a study that highlights the pitfalls of rapid expansion without safeguarding quality and relevance. A persistent mismatch of skills and low productivity are undermining economic development.

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WORLD ROUND-UP

Female professors at the University of Essex will be awarded a one-off salary hike, the institution has announced, in an attempt to eradicate the gender pay gap, writes Rachael Pells for the Independent.

The Chinese government will cut red tape in science and research funding by removing unnecessary administrative barriers for universities and research institutions so as to better stimulate the enthusiasm of academics, reports Xinhua.

The murder of Italian postgraduate student Giulio Regeni has focused new attention on alleged police brutality in Egypt, while nearly a dozen local students have told Reuters they have been targeted over the past three years and regularly face violence and harassment at the hands of security forces, reports the Kuwait Times.

Private universities are worried about the impact a possible ban or restrictions on Chinese students studying in Taiwan could have on two-way educational exchanges and their future enrolment numbers, reports Channel NewsAsia.

The government remains confident of meeting its target of producing 30,000 artisans per year in line with the National Development Plan, despite the challenges faced by some training institutions, writes Bekezela Phakathi for BD Live.

About a 20-minute drive from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, there’s a barren road that leads to a construction site amid cornfields and banana trees. There, across a stretch of red earth, a hundred workers finish constructing the first building of the Kigali Innovation City. By mid-2017, the site is slated to be home to an offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University, the first African campus for the American higher education institution, writes Chloé Hecketsweiler for World Crunch.

Two of Brazil’s biggest education companies are facing off in a quest to merge with Estacio Participacoes SA, the country’s second-largest for-profit firm in the sector, write Sabrina Valle and Fabiola Moura for Bloomberg.

A flood of foreign undergraduates on America’s campuses is improving the financial health of universities. It also sometimes clashes with a fundamental value of US scholarship: academic integrity, write Miriam Jordan and Douglas Belkin for The Wall Street Journal.

Paying a CAN$20,000 (US$15,700) ransom may seem like a lot of money, but one expert says it's better than trying to wrestle control of the system back from hackers at the risk of losing data, write Dave Dormer and Stephanie Wiebe for CBC News.

A court has granted an injunction to the University of Papua New Guinea in the capital Port Moresby to stop students from protesting on campus, after police opened fire on demonstrators last week, writes Simon Lewis for Time.

Students from ethnic minority backgrounds are up to six times as likely to get a place at top universities despite accusations of racism, official figures show, as it emerged white students are now under-represented at just under half of institutions, write Javier Espinoza and Jess Staufenberg for The Telegraph.

For the first time, students who cheat during this year’s university entrance exams in China risk being jailed, state media said recently, as the government tries to crack down on a pervasive problem for the highly competitive exams, writes Ben Blanchard for Reuters.

A Canadian academic visiting Iran has been arrested, according to her family, and is being held in Tehran's infamous Evin prison, writes Susan Ormiston for CBC News.

Education Minister General Dapong Ratanasuwan has threatened to use Article 44 of the interim constitution to tackle private and state universities that operate programmes without proper permission, writes Keskarn Boonpen for The Nation.

The Chinese government is wholly funding the construction of what is thought to be Africa’s largest university library, which is being built in Tanzania, writes Chris Havergal for Times Higher Education.

Safe Schools co-founder Roz Ward will return to work after Melbourne's La Trobe University decided against pursuing serious misconduct allegations against her, reports ABC Net.

Media reports say at least 25 Indian students in their first semester of a computer sciences programme at Western Kentucky University have been asked to return to India or find placement in other universities because they did not meet the admission standards of the university, reports NDTV. The reports coincide with the United States visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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