21 July 2019  Issue No: 561

None of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs – the internationally agreed framework for tackling poverty, inequality, disease and climate change – can be achieved without the contribution of higher education through research, teaching and community engagement, networks representing 2,000 universities have told the UN.

The Association of African Universities has asked the African Union to show the necessary support for the Continental Education Strategy for Africa in order to make it work, arguing that, three years into the launch of the strategy, the African Union is yet to back it with the “appropriate level of funding”.

The climate crisis facing the planet requires the kind of creative and interdisciplinary approaches which higher education can lead.

Two universities are conducting internal reviews of research collaborations linked to the suppression and surveillance of the Uyghur minority in western China. With the distinction between civilian and military technology increasingly blurred, universities should think harder about the potential impact of research collaborations.

Women in Pacific Rim universities have made little progress in moving into university leadership positions over the past five years, despite a raft of initiatives at the university level, a report on the gender gap at top research universities in the region has found.

In the second of a three-part series on a programme teaching undergraduates leadership skills for tackling socio-economic problems, participants are learning how to ensure they understand the people they are trying to help and are able to communicate and connect effectively with them.

African universities have been producing too many graduates with costly degrees and diplomas that lack mastery of skills that are necessary in the 21st century labour market, according to researchers at the African Development Bank.