21 April 2019  Issue No: 548

Global developments suggest that the time for internationalisation as an ‘in-house’ issue is over. Universities have to take their responsibility to society more seriously and put social engagement at the heart of internationalisation.

Academics from Singapore and around the world have expressed concern over Singapore’s new bill against internet ‘fake news’, which they say could have unintended consequences for academic freedom and research in the country and elsewhere, and could also set an international precedent that might “spur emulation by other countries with weaker institutions”.

The 2019 European University Association or EUA Annual Conference was held at Sorbonne University in Paris on 11-12 April. The theme was "Driving innovation in Europe’s universities". As creators and providers of knowledge and places of societal reflection, said the EUA, "universities have a central role in shaping the future and in nurturing the next generation of leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers". University World News reports.

Good scholarship entails asking difficult questions, where the answers may be inconvenient or not pleasing to the powerful. Freedom is a precondition. Singapore’s proposed law on online falsehoods represents a threat to that freedom.

The move to a market-oriented governance model has not improved higher education. Unless the academic community is placed at the heart of the sector, it will lose many of those innovative and transformative characteristics that have made higher education internationally successful.

A focus on institution-building rather than individuals is key to growing the next generation of African scientists and ensuring the sustainability of scientific research, according to South African epidemiologist Professor Salim 'Slim' Abdool Karim, whose election to the Royal Society, the world’s oldest science academy, was announced this week.

The 2019 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, launched at the Economic Commission for Africa conference of ministers in Marrakech, Morocco in March, finds that tertiary education graduates are five times more likely to migrate abroad than those with primary education. University World News spoke to Manos Antoninis, director of the GEM Report, about the implications of brain drain for some of Africa’s poorest countries.