13 September 2020  Issue No: 611

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold economic damage which will have a long-lasting impact on higher education and is changing what students around the world want from universities. Now is the time to reimagine the university as a model fit for the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic and other recent challenges have triggered many questions about the future of international education. But now is the time to rethink internationalisation and renew the case for urgent global engagement rather than retreat into sterilised experiences that shelter students from risk.

These are difficult times, but University World News’ readership is expanding rapidly due to our extensive coverage of the impact of COVID-19 on higher education globally. If you value what we do, you can help us build our audience further simply by sharing any of our articles on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Or you can help us secure our future by making a donation – just click on the yellow advertisement below.

The imperative of moving to online learning due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a better higher education system that is more agile, more ready to anticipate change and more resilient, but only if it is properly resourced and supported.

Canadian intelligence has warned that China’s Thousand Talents Plan or TTP is using ‘corrosive tactics’ to advance the economic and strategic objectives of hostile states, but others argue that the TTP has been caught up unfairly in United States concerns about Chinese government actions elsewhere.

The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, its contribution to French and global human and social sciences and the rich intellectual life it supports, are under threat of being sacrificed to centralised bureaucratic control and inclusion in the development plan called Campus Condorcet.

Higher education has undergone huge transformation globally over recent decades. What major issues does it face in a world where job shortages could bring more people into higher education and where a fast-changing workplace requires us to keep learning throughout our lives?

Meritocracy is now embedded at the heart of our economic, social, cultural and academic institutions in a way that obscures the role meritocracy plays in social exclusion. This year’s Worldviews Lecture asks whether it works to reproduce or disrupt existing power relations.

The third edition of Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education: Global foundations, issues, and best practices is an enormous volume, involving around 250 authors and others from 125 countries. The open access book was recently published by the International Association of Student Affairs and Services with Deutsches Studentenwerk. In this three-part Special Report, authors describe and interpret the landscape of student affairs globally, developments and issues, achievements and challenges.