22 March 2020  Issue No: 590

Many foreign students on shuttered university campuses in Britain, the United States and elsewhere are being told to return home and are rushing to secure flights before travel shutdowns, contributing to a new spike in coronavirus cases in Hong Kong and perhaps Singapore.

Sustainability is moving up the strategic agenda in higher education, but universities need to come together more across all levels and disciplines to push forward on their key role in promoting it, and other stakeholders need to recognise the important contribution they can make.

Countries across South and Southeast Asia have in quick succession announced the closure of their schools and universities for a minimum of two weeks in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. But authorities in many of the countries acknowledge that closures could last much longer.