3 May 2020  Issue No: 596

The lessons of history show us that the best response to international challenges is international collaboration. But what are the mechanisms? Now is the time to establish an international assembly for higher education and global science to promote and sustain international collaboration.

More than 180 members of the United States Congress have signed a letter urging leaders of the House of Representatives to include in the next COVID-19 relief legislation US$26 billion to cover research costs, citing the critical importance of the 560,000-strong research workforce to the economy.

The COVID-19 crisis requires universities and the associations which represent them to be more disruptive in their thinking about higher education internationalisation and to involve our student, community and institutional clientele in setting and implementing priorities for change.

Support staff are taking on huge amounts of work during the six weeks – so far – of shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, so that faculty can focus on teaching and research. Their role should be remembered when it comes to future budgetary cuts.

New research suggests that European universities could gain significantly from the changing student flows caused by the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. More than one in 10 international students have now been put off the UK as a study destination.

China ‘facemask diplomacy’ during the coronavirus pandemic – with boxes of masks sent around the world as gifts while Europe, America, Africa and Latin America are still in the throes of the crisis – won’t stem concerns about the risks in research collaboration with China.