8 December 2019  Issue No: 578

More higher education institutions are taking up the challenge to reinvent their entire mission, vision and values to bring them in line with social responsibility and sustainable development. There is no future for universities if they do not.

Parliamentarians and international human rights groups have strongly condemned expulsions, arrests and charging of students in Pakistan who protested on 29 November demanding the restoration of student unions, which were banned in 1984. Student unrest has been rising in recent months, after massive cuts to university funding and incidents of sexual harassment.

Increasing volatility in higher education has brought a focus on change management and restructuring. To do this successfully requires leaders who can make sense of chaos, inspire university communities to view change more as an opportunity than a danger and identify ways of moving the entire organisation forward.

International collaboration, financial and strategic support and government policy consistency that endures beyond changes in political administrations are vital to maintain accelerating global gains in access to higher education, heard delegates at the global summit for World Access to Higher Education Day, held in Scotland on 26 November.

Students from India continue to flood into Australian universities at a greater rate than from any other nation, but their presence is creating growing problems due to a too-frequent inadequate command of English and academic misconduct.