NEWS – Our correspondents worldwide report
EUROPE
Commissioner urges huge expansion of EU research
Jan Petter Myklebust
European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen favours a significant expansion of the European Union’s research budget for 2021-28, he told the Science Business Network conference in Brussels on 27 June, suggesting that a 50% increase to €120 billion (US$137 billion) would be a “good target”.
UNITED STATES
Travel ban ruling offers universities temporary relief
Mary Beth Marklein
The United States Supreme Court has ruled that President Donald Trump’s second order banning entry from six majority-Muslim countries can be partially implemented, but not in the case of international students admitted to US universities and academics invited to lecture on their campuses.
INDIA
World-class universities plan has caste action flaw
Ranjit Devraj
Ministers have to rethink the plan to elevate 20 top universities to ‘world-class institutions’, because it runs afoul of the country’s affirmative action policy, under which half of university places must be reserved for students from socially ‘backward classes’ and castes.
AFRICA
Centres of Excellence project – ‘A model that works’
Munyaradzi Makoni
A mid-term review shows that the first phase of the World Bank-funded Africa Centres of Excellence project focused on West and Central Africa is on track and has achieved significant improvement in universities’ training programmes, with strong indications that the project might be considered for further funding.
GLOBAL
US dominates, China second in Shanghai subject rankings
Brendan O’Malley
United States universities took 32 top positions out of 52 in this year’s ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, followed by China with eight, the Netherlands with five and the United Kingdom with three. The top institution was Harvard University with 15 top spots, while Massachusetts Institute of Technology landed five.
UNITED STATES
Universities look for upside of Trump and Brexit effect
Mary Beth Marklein
International educators in the United States and Europe appear to be moving beyond the twin shocks of last year’s Brexit vote and a Donald Trump presidency and are now engaging in some soul-searching as they enter the recovery stage.
SRI LANKA
Government seizes control of private teaching hospital
Dinesh De Alwis
The government has approved a proposal made by the higher education and health ministers to take over a leading private medical teaching hospital following violent clashes involving protesters who are demanding it be closed down.
KENYA
Academics emerge as key players in upcoming elections
Maina Waruru
As Kenya goes to the polls in August this year, university lecturers are playing central roles in the heated electoral process.
COMMENTARY
EUROPE
The digital future of European student cards
Sven Engel
Information technology experts across the continent recently came together to discuss the development of a student card that can be used across Europe, allowing students to use services and move more freely and seamlessly across borders and across institutional frameworks.
GLOBAL
Questioning the status quo
David Atkinson
Innovation is important in higher education, but in seeking to adapt to changing demands for higher education we need to re-examine our basic structures that have over time become too rigid.
CANADA
Is Trump driving Canada’s rising internationalisation?
Creso Sá
Canada has been seen as ‘a beacon of liberalism’ in the past year, due to its openness to the world at a time of rising xenophobia in the United States and United Kingdom, but its rise in international student numbers are more likely linked to longer term trends.
IRAN
The drive to control and Islamise universities
Saeid Golkar
Iran has undergone two Cultural Revolutions with moves made during each to control and Islamise the universities – despite the detrimental impact on the quality of higher education – but so far the state has not been successful in creating an Islamic university.
AFRICA
Continent risks fading from digital knowledge economy
Sanna Ojanperä and Mark Graham
The rapid growth of internet use on the African continent has sparked hopes for the democratisation of knowledge production, but recent research suggests that connectivity is not enough to boost Africa’s position in the knowledge economy.
WORLD BLOG
ASIA
Creating an Erasmus-style mobility scheme for ASEAN?
Caroline Chipperfield
Can Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN countries learn from Erasmus and develop their own student mobility scheme that takes the best from Erasmus but tailors it to the ASEAN context? Of particular value would be the uplift in life chances that Erasmus gives to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
TURKEY
Sharp drop in research output after purge of academics
Brendan O'Malley
A new report claims that the short-term effects of the large-scale purge carried out by the Turkish government since the failed coup attempt a year ago include a 28% drop in research output of academics based in Turkey in 2017.
GERMANY-TURKEY
Links with Turkey vital amid clampdown, academics say
Michael Gardner
The mass dismissals of academics in Turkey and the clampdown on academic freedom there have had a profound effect on academic cooperation with Germany. But at this moment universities need to maintain their links with Turkey’s universities to keep windows and minds open, academics argue.
TURKEY-UNITED STATES
Turkish scholars in US face dilemma on speaking out
Nell Gluckman, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Turkish academics in the United States have found themselves in a precarious position since the Turkish government’s sweeping response to the attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a year ago. They feel a duty to speak out against suppression of academic freedom but fear the consequences for their family and friends.
FEATURES
EUROPE
A new approach to understanding violent extremism
Nic Mitchell
Traditional terrorist research may be failing because it starts with perpetrators of terror and their motives, without looking at the vast majority of people who hear the same messages of extremism but don’t act on them. A Horizon 2020 project takes a different approach.
CHILE
Small satellite opens high-tech research opportunities
María Elena Hurtado
Universidad de Chile’s latest satellite launch is the most ambitious example, in an increasing number of space programmes using low-cost small satellites, of opening up access for talented university students and teachers in Latin American countries to research projects in the vanguard.
AFRICA
Continent-wide space sciences initiative gathers support
Wagdy Sawahel
A group of researchers is proposing a 20-year continent-wide push to strengthen teaching, research and innovation in the field of planetary and space sciences in Africa, where research in the field remains scattered and underfunded.
SCIENCE SCENE
GLOBAL
Climate change could force billions to migrate
Geoff Maslen
Many of the climatic events occurring around the world are the direct result of the 1.1-degree global temperature rise that Earth has already experienced. A two-degree increase could force billions to move to higher ground. The scale of the challenge for scientists is unprecedented.
