NEWS – Our correspondents worldwide report
TAIWAN
Taipei issues warning to academics lured to China
Mimi Leung and Yojana Sharma
Taiwanese academics tempted by the Chinese mainland’s talent grab were warned last week that they will be subject to sanctions if they receive salaries or benefits from – or are involved with – institutions administered by the Communist Party of China, Chinese government or military organisations on the mainland.
AUSTRALIA-CHINA
China says postgrad student visa delays are ‘political’
Yojana Sharma
China has criticised Australia for what it perceives as ‘politically motivated’ visa delays for postgraduate students hoping to take up doctoral studies at Australian universities. Although Chinese nationals are not the only nationality to face such delays, the complaints come at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries over Australia’s espionage and foreign interference bill.
UNITED KINGDOM
Teaching excellence ratings by subject announced
Brendan O’Malley
In what it claims is a global first, the government is extending its new system of rating teaching excellence and exposing poor quality teaching in universities to enable potential students to compare the ratings by subject, in addition to by the university as a whole.
GLOBAL
International students turn away from US, UK to Canada
Brendan O'Malley
International students are increasingly rejecting the United States and United Kingdom in favour of alternative English-speaking destinations, to the point where Canada is preferred over the UK in the Asia-Pacific and Africa and the Middle East, new research shows.
ZIMBABWE
No more ‘lipstick solutions’, say students
Tonderayi Mukeredzi
Higher and tertiary education students have warned the government that they will shut down campuses if authorities continue to ignore the plight of students and infrastructural challenges afflicting institutions of higher learning.
DENMARK
Experts’ committee unveils higher education reform plans
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Committee of Experts for Better University Education has published a hefty report on modernising Danish higher education, along with 37 recommendations, including for more flexible routes to masters degrees, improved teaching quality and better development of competences for the labour market.
AUSTRALIA
Migrant intake ‘oversupplying graduates in key fields’
Geoff Maslen
At a time of record university enrolment, Australia’s migrant selection system is delivering large numbers of professionals in fields that are currently oversupplied, including accounting, engineering and many of the health professional fields, according to a new study.
EGYPT
MP proposes extra marks for students to encourage voting
Ashraf Khaled
An Egyptian lawmaker has proposed giving extra marks to students in order to encourage them to vote in the country’s upcoming elections. The proposal by MP Dina Abdel Aziz was floated ahead of this month’s presidential election in Egypt amid expectations of a low voter turnout.
UNITED STATES
University official quits to keep gun firm board seat
Emma Kerr, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The president of St Thomas University gave its chief financial officer an ultimatum last Tuesday: Cut ties with a gun manufacturer or resign. Could it be the start of a trend of universities divesting from gun-connected firms and individuals?
TUNISIA
Calls for apolitical campuses follow student elections
Wagdy Sawahel
Calls for university student unions not to drag institutions into political disputes have followed the official announcement of the victory of the Islamist-leaning student union against its leftist rival union in the recent student elections, amid a challenge by the losing union which claims the elections were marred by violence and irregularities.
GHANA
Accreditation body head calls for tougher powers
Francis Kokutse
Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board Kwame Dattey has called for the board to be given “unfettered powers” to close down institutions, private or public, that do not conform to regulations, in the ongoing crusade to maintain standards in Ghana's higher education sector.
GERMANY
Successful refugee student measures to be continued
Michael Gardner
A package of measures to accommodate refugees with the ability to study that was launched by the German government in late 2015 and that supports 10,000 students a year is to be continued. The measures are being implemented by the German Academic Exchange Service.
COMMENTARY
EUROPE
European partners to recognise refugees’ qualifications
Sjur Bergan and Stig Arne Skjerven
The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees aims to help refugees who have no documentation to prove their qualifications – surmounting a key barrier to accessing higher education. After a successful pilot, it is now expanding and could be of use across the world in future.
ETHIOPIA
The case for an Ethiopian research university
Ayenachew A Woldegiyorgis
Ethiopia needs a research university to drive development and innovation, to stem its brain drain and to build international partnerships, but it requires investment and a change in political priorities from expanding to strengthening existing institutions.
UNITED KINGDOM
Higher education should be funded as a public good
Simon Marginson
English higher education suffers from students paying too much and the public paying too little, with the consequence that higher education is viewed as a private good and a passport to the elite. A better approach would be to treat higher education as a common benefit provided to everyone.
ASIA
A healthy circulation of talent mobility boosts quality
Huey-Jen Jenny Su
Despite concerns about brain drain, governments should not seek to reduce international talent mobility. Instead they should see it as an opportunity to do more to build a more attractive research infrastructure, stimulate innovation and catalyse a return flow of human capital.
UKRAINE
A roadmap to higher education reform via autonomy
Serhiy Kvit
University autonomy lies at the centre of a new Roadmap to Higher Education Reform developed by 20 national experts in response to an OECD report on the state of Ukraine’s education system and is crucial to increasing the quality and competitiveness of universities.
OBITUARY
UNITED KINGDOM
Stephen Hawking – The laid-back genius with a sharp wit
Martin Rees
The astonishing achievement of my colleague, Stephen Hawking, was not only his brilliant insight into the very beginnings of our universe but the fact that he continued to provide it with wit and aplomb for more than 50 years after being diagnosed with a degenerative disease.
WORLD BLOG
CANADA
Are campus free speech and inclusion incompatible?
Grace Karram Stephenson
Canada is still simmering with heated debates about free speech on campus and representation of diverse views. They raise questions about who should have a voice, who should be protected and what values need to be upheld to ensure the university fulfils its purpose.
INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION FORUM
University World News covers the International Higher Education Forum 2018 organised by Universities UK International and held in Nottingham, United Kingdom, last week. The theme was ‘Thriving in a Shifting Global Environment’.
GLOBAL
Internationalisation not on life support says top ranker
Nic Mitchell
Talk of the era of growth of internationalisation in higher education being over was dismissed and the latest internationalisation ranking results were unveiled at a United Kingdom conference where Swiss, Canadian and Japanese experts explained their national approaches.
UNITED KINGDOM
Trust individual researchers to beat the Brexit blues
Nic Mitchell
Individual researchers will overcome the obstacles and continue to collaborate with European scientists and colleagues if the United Kingdom is forced out of the European Union’s framework programme for research and innovation because of Brexit, a Universities UK International conference was told last week.
UNITED KINGDOM
Europe gaining on UK for study abroad students
Nic Mitchell
The United Kingdom is slowly losing its competitive edge in attracting international students – and not just to native English-speaking countries like Canada and Australia but to European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands that are running more programmes taught wholly in English.
WORLDVIEWS LECTURE
GLOBAL
Campus free speech – Challenges for rights and values
At this year’s fourth annual Worldviews Lecture on Media and Higher Education, Professor Sigal Ben-Porath, author of Free Speech on Campus, will address the increasingly heightened debate around free speech at universities and the challenge to minority rights and democratic values. The lecture is supported by University World News.
FEATURES
JAPAN
Japan struggling to keep ahead in digital era research
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Japan is to boost research funding for artificial intelligence and automation technologies this year as it struggles to maintain its global scientific research competitiveness. Though still a leading research nation, experts say bold reform measures and fresh policies are needed if Japan is to keep pace as China has emerged as a strong presence in Asia in recent years.
EUROPE
Open science in the EU – Will the astroturfers take over?
Pål Magnus Lykkja and Jan Petter Myklebust
The call for bids to run the European Commission’s open access platform are due any day now but researchers are asking if the publishing business once again will end up controlling scientific communication with profit as the primary goal, and not the science itself.
AFRICA
‘Future leaders’ fellowship gives PhDs a reason to stay
Nineteen academics from nine African countries have been selected for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship programme aimed at providing newly graduated African doctoral students with the means to put their research and ideas into practice on home soil and raise the profile of African research.
PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME
GLOBAL
Join our new partnership programme for universities
University World News has launched a partnership programme to enable higher education institutions to extend their reach among our high-quality audience of academics, researchers, university leaders, higher education administrators, experts, key stakeholders and policy-makers.
