31 March 2019  Issue No: 545

Researchers say millions of workers will be displaced by automation unless thousands more professionals, managers, technicians and associate professionals graduate from colleges and universities. Australia could face a shortage of 600,000 graduates in health, education and IT by 2030.

Chinese-American biomedical science associations in the United States have voiced concern about “recent political rhetoric and policies” that single out students and scholars of Chinese descent working in the country as potential spies and a therefore a threat to US national interests.

The good old mantra of 'publish or perish' is no more. More and more academics anticipate or face demotion rather than promotion, and condemnation rather than commendation, on account of the publications they produce, either knowingly or otherwise, through dubious journals. What are the economic and financial, academic and social costs of this scourge?

International higher education has developed in ways that support both neoliberalism and liberalism. It needs to find a balance between those different ways of thinking about higher education and between ideas of mobility and stay-at-home internationalisation.

University governing boards are important, but ethical lapses set them and their universities back. Ethical behaviour can be promoted through board culture, but also through developing awareness of the specific weaknesses of particular board cultures and safeguarding against them, transforming university behaviour.

The prevalence of suicidal behaviour among pre-university students and university students presents a major challenge to African higher education institutions and calls for culturally-appropriate and locally-tailored interventions, according to experts.