NEWS – Our correspondents worldwide report
AFRICA-CHINA
China ramps up support for African higher education
Esther Nakkazi
China is to further increase its support for African higher education and vocational training and has pledged to provide 50,000 government scholarships and 50,000 training opportunities for seminars and workshops to Africa – and will invite 2,000 young Africans to visit China for exchanges.
ASIA
The perils of fieldwork in authoritarian states
Yojana Sharma
‘One size fits all’ recommendations on field research presume the setting to be liberal democratic regimes, but this is not the case in much of Southeast Asia, where doctoral students and researchers in the social and political sciences need more training to deal with the pressures they might face under authoritarian regimes.
GLOBAL
Survey reveals overseas China scholars’ self-censorship
Yojana Sharma
Repressive experiences while conducting research on China may be rare but are a "real phenomenon" and a barrier to doing research in the country, leading some scholars to self-censor and others to change or abandon research focus, a new study reveals.
UNITED KINGDOM
Minister supports international student visa change
Brendan O'Malley
The universities ministers has backed a call by universities for a new visa to allow international students to gain work experience for up to two years after graduation, to enable the United Kingdom to compete more effectively with the United States, Australia and Canada.
SOUTH KOREA
Government slashes university intake as population falls
Aimee Chung
Some 116 universities and colleges in South Korea will hear this month that their student intake quota will be reduced – in some cases by up to 35% in the coming year – as the government forces the higher education sector to adjust to demographic decline.
SWEDEN
Union proposes better employment for foreign academics
Jan Petter Myklebust
Foreign-born academics in Sweden are disproportionately overqualified for their job or unemployed and action should be taken to make better use of their talent, according to a new analysis. This could generate an estimated US$1.4 billion income for the public purse annually.
NORWAY
Minister moots mandatory study abroad for students
Jan Petter Myklebust
Norway’s Minister of Research and Higher Education, Iselin Nybø, is considering making a student exchange period abroad mandatory rather than the exception it is today, after statistics revealed the percentage of Norwegian students on exchanges abroad in 2017 was lower than in 2010.
MALAWI
Students pin hopes on successful university unbundling
Joy Ndovi
Will the current process of unbundling the University of Malawi into five separate institutions produce the promises of improved efficiency and better student services? Alicia Kamwendo, a bachelor of commerce sophomore at the Malawi Polytechnic certainly hopes so.
DENMARK
Universities have cut degree completion delay by half
Jan Petter Myklebust
Three years after reforms were brought in to cut delays in degree completion time, they have been cut in half. But universities are still under pressure to ensure that students are working full time and that investment in higher education gives value for money.
ALGERIA
HE system under pressure as student numbers mount
Azzeddine Bensouiah
On the eve of the academic year in Algeria this month, there are concerns about how the government can meet the expectations of free quality higher education on the part of increasing numbers of university students – this year over 1.7 million.
GERMANY
Student housing increasingly a problem, survey finds
Michael Gardner
The student housing situation in Germany appears to have further worsened, according to a recent survey by the Berlin-based Moses Mendelssohn Institute. Munich appears to be the most expensive city for students, whereas Chemnitz, the scene of recent neo-Nazi riots, has the cheapest accommodation for students.
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL
Too much academic research is being published
Philip G Altbach and Hans de Wit
There is a simple answer to the crisis of over-publication of scientific papers. Research and publication should be encouraged only at institutions designated research-intensive and academics at non-research-intensive universities should be properly rewarded for their teaching and service, not research.
GLOBAL
Digital transformation still in the early stages
Nadine Burquel and Anja Busch
Higher education institutions will need to adapt what they teach and how they teach in the new digital age. Many are trialling new initiatives, but budget tightening means they are still in the early stages of their digital journey.
INDIA
Internationalisation ambition faces stiff challenges
Tatiana Belousova
India has announced several initiatives aimed at boosting its universities’ international rankings and image worldwide, with the aim of attracting more international students, but there are many different academic and social factors that will deter them from coming, from outdated curricula to violence against women.
AFRICA
Helping young scientists to achieve their potential
Anna Coussens, Abidemi James Akindele, Badre Abdeslam, Fridah Kanana and Mona Khoury-Kassabri
Young African scientists face a number of barriers, but a new project has identified that leadership skills imparted through targeted training programmes can create incentives for young scientists to stay in academia and pursue long-term careers.
WORLD BLOG
GLOBAL
Higher education’s key role in sustainable development
Patrick Blessinger, Enakshi Sengupta and Mandla Makhanya
Higher education institutions have a critical role to play in driving sustainable development forward. But creating a sustainable future is much more than just creating green campuses or implementing recycling efforts or global citizenship initiatives. It also means inclusive education and lifelong learning.
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
HUNGARY
Can EU sanctions threat ease academic freedom crisis?
Brendan O’Malley
As Hungary faces a key vote in the European Parliament, the European University Association has condemned the Hungarian government’s mounting attempts to interfere with academic freedom and the autonomy of the higher education sector, putting it at risk of becoming an “instrument of government”.
FEATURES
SOUTH AFRICA
New book on SDGs calls for closer research-policy link
Stephen Coan
A government policy-maker needs to find a solution to a water sanitation problem. Simple, tap into the latest research. Problem solved. If only. A new book addresses the frequent disconnect between research producers and policy-makers – a disconnect in urgent need of a solution if the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved.
LATIN AMERICA
Could Latin American universities do better in rankings?
María Elena Hurtado
The answer from higher education experts is, ask not why Latin American universities are held back in the rankings, but why rankings do not use methodologies that measure universities’ response to society’s demands and make their methodologies more meaningful to more universities in the world.
UNITED STATES
Do chief diversity officers drive faculty diversity?
Claire Hansen The Chronicle of Higher Education
When Baylor University, Texas, began considering the creation of a chief-diversity-officer position, many people said the role could help diversify the institution’s faculty. But what influence does an executive-level diversity position really have on faculty demographics? James E West and colleagues investigated.
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