24 November 2019  Issue No: 576

China has been aggressively using illegal and extra-legal mechanisms to acquire United States intellectual property, research and sensitive technologies, and federal agencies should work with the US research community to balance the need for international collaboration with securing US government-funded research, a Senate watchdog committee has found.

Having not done so for its first five graduating cohorts, New York University (NYU) Shanghai has added a compulsory ‘patriotic education’ course – which is compulsory for Chinese students at Chinese universities – to its undergraduate degree offering as “a way to stay in China”, experts have said.

Establishing ways to improve college admission mechanisms requires an examination of the whole college admissions process, including the time taken to prepare for exams and ways to address minor performance issues that stop students winning places at the institution of their choice.

The Canadian government’s new internationalisation plan presents a clear roadmap for universities and other partners, but an over-focus on an economic rationale means values can be hijacked and put to work for economic ends and the transformational potential of internationalisation is lost.

During the past year Scholars at Risk has reported 97 violent incidents involving attacks on higher education communities across 40 countries. At least 32 students, scholars, staff, campus security personnel and others died as a result of these attacks, with many more injured.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has become a global reality but African universities have been watching the unfolding scenario largely from the sidelines, according to a new report from the African Development Bank which argues that most African universities are too focused on traditional teaching and publication rather than innovation and transfer of technology.