NEWS – Our correspondents worldwide report
UNITED KINGDOM
Vice-chancellors set out priorities for Brexit talks
Brendan O’Malley
Ahead of the formal start of Brexit talks on Monday, university leaders have said that the United Kingdom's world-leading university sector should help shape the negotiations and that UK universities provide the “antidote to the UK’s Brexit challenges”.
IRELAND
Cuts may force cap on Irish (but not foreign) students
Brendan O'Malley
The president of one of Ireland’s leading universities has warned that it is relying on recruiting non-European Union students to pay for staffing increases and may have to limit the number of places available to Irish students if the government fails to improve funding for universities.
KENYA
New guidelines set high publishing bar for academics
Wachira Kigotho
Kenya’s Commission for University Education has issued stringent new guidelines for the appointment and promotion of academic staff in a system that gives heavy emphasis to publication in reputable, peer-reviewed journals and discourages publication in so-called predatory journals. While the move is intended to raise academic standards, it has also raised concerns about the hurdles to publication facing many Kenyan academics.
NORWAY
Government to ban niqab at schools and universities
Jan Petter Myklebust
University and student leaders have voiced opposition to a government proposal, announced on 12 June, to outlaw the covering of the face in learning institutions, from kindergarten to universities, which would prevent the wearing of a niqab.
CHINA
TNE and study abroad may perpetuate inequality – Study
Brendan O'Malley
Overseas study and transnational education, or TNE, may perpetuate social inequality because most of the students come from advantaged family backgrounds and attain their first job through their social network after graduation, according to a paper written by researchers at two universities in China.
FINLAND
Universities provide key contribution to economy – Study
Jan Petter Myklebust
Finnish universities make a “very substantial” contribution to Finland’s economy – more than 6% of economic output and 5% of employment – but this could increase or decrease in response to future changes in university funding, a new report has warned.
UNITED KINGDOM
Open University set to go digital and shrinks budget
Brendan O’Malley
The Open University – the world’s first successful distance teaching university – is going digital and being streamlined in a bid to “radically reinvent itself” and find savings of £100 million (US$128 million) from its £420 million budget in the run-up to its 50th anniversary.
UNITED STATES
DeVos softens accountability for for-profit colleges
Adam Harris, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Trump administration is rolling back on two of former president Barack Obama’s key protections for students against fraud and unscrupulous loan providers. For-profit colleges are hailing the change as an end to the ‘ideological assault’ on the sector – but so are black advocacy groups.
AUSTRALIA
Claims of high drop-out rates are alarmist – Report
Geoff Maslen
Claims by critics in the Australian media that universities are facing a crisis of rising student drop-out rates because of poor admission standards, ill-prepared students and increasing enrolments have been rejected by a new report, which describes the claims as “unnecessarily alarmist and not borne out by the facts”.
COMMENTARY
BRAZIL-INDIA
Still a long way to go on internationalisation
Bruno Morche
While China has successfully coped with pressure to increase internationalisation and research outputs, India and Brazil face a number of issues if they are to improve their higher education systems, from widening access to boosting their international profile.
UNITED STATES
US student mobility trends in a global context
Rajika Bhandari
What are the key developments shaping student mobility in the United States and globally, what are the key concerns and how much impact are recent political developments, particularly the rise of nationalism around the world, having on higher education?
UNITED STATES
Mobilising students to add value to higher education
Simon Boehme
Student partnerships with universities, based on the recognition of the value of student contributions, provides a path forward for working together to ensure equity and enhance quality from within institutions rather than students protesting on the outside.
RUSSIA
Trend of decentralised international student support
Yulia Grinkevich and Maria Shabanova
Worldwide the idea of decentralising support for international students has been gaining popularity in recent years as it allows for multiple solutions to challenges. But universities must balance this against the onus on them to provide quality support.
AUSTRALIA
Fusion of Western rationality and Aboriginal knowledge
Andrew Vann
Charles Sturt University graduates 40% more indigenous students than any other university in Australia and strives to take on board Aboriginal values, seeking to find a way of living that honours both traditional knowledge and Western rationality and contributes to 'a world worth living in'.
WORLD BLOG
GLOBAL
On whitewater be prepared for aggressive self-rescue
Margaret Andrews
In times of trouble higher education institutions need to ready themselves for the turbulence ahead. That means everything from gathering intelligence and understanding the terrain to creating a viable plan and getting everyone working together.
FEATURES
SINGAPORE
Could this be Asia’s first world top 10 university?
If Asian universities are going to break into the world’s top 10, the most likely candidate is Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, at least according to the new QS World University Rankings 2018. Other rankings tell a different story.
EAST AFRICA
Governments must work with universities on climate change
Gilbert Nakweya
East African governments should work with universities to build knowledge on climate change with a view to building the capacity and resilience of local communities, who largely depend on rain-fed agriculture, to mitigate the consequences of climate change.
AFRICA
‘US stands to lose as much as Africa if Fogarty closes’
Andrew Green
A proposal to cut funding for the John E Fogarty International Center from the upcoming United States federal government budget by President Donald Trump’s administration has prompted an outcry from academics and educators across Africa.
AAU GOLDEN JUBILEE CONFERENCE
The Association of African Universities marked its Golden Jubilee Celebration at its 14th General Conference held in Accra, Ghana from 5-8 June under the theme ‘AAU@50: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects for Sustainable Development in Africa’. We capture some of the highlights of the conference this week in the first of our two-part special report. The second part will run in next week’s Global edition.
AFRICA
The AAU – A continuous champion of higher education
Sharon Dell
The Association of African Universities, or AAU, was founded in Morocco in 1967 with 34 of the then existing 46 higher education institutions in Africa. Today the association has a membership of 386 African higher education institutions from 46 countries and has just celebrated its Golden Jubilee. University World News spoke to AAU Secretary General Professor Etienne Ehouan Ehile about what the next 50 years holds for the organisation.
AFRICA
Higher education harmonisation – Not just a dream
Francis Kokutse
The higher education institution qualifications harmonisation project embarked upon by the African Union is part of attempts by the continental body to ensure that the integration of the people in Africa is not confined to the political level alone, the head of education at the African Union, Dr Beatrice Njenga, has said.
AFRICA
Tuning in to graduate employability
Sharon Dell
Among African universities, many of which are rooted in struggling national economies, the issue of graduate employability and entrepreneurship has taken centre stage over the past few years. An Africa-led European Union programme known as ‘Tuning’ is helping to improve graduate employability by facilitating the redesign of university programmes with an eye on student learning outcomes.
AFRICA
Student views – Keeping higher education tuned in
Ard Jongsma
Students must become full partners in higher education development to keep it tuned to current and changing demands, according to the two students who presented their cases at the 14th Association of African Universities General Conference and Golden Jubilee Celebrations held in Accra, Ghana, on 6 June.
