11 October 2020  Issue No: 615

The world is changing so quickly that, in future, robots will be doing many of the more repetitive jobs and graduates will be seeking to do ‘human work’ or the ‘work only humans can do’, requiring empathy, human emotion, social skills, ethics and character.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented spurt in global research collaboration in the quest to find a vaccine. Over three weeks, University World News examines the phenomenon that has so far allowed for more than 200 clinical trials to be launched within months of the virus spreading across borders.

Is higher education putting too much emphasis on cleaning regimes and penalties for not social distancing to stop COVID-19 – and not enough on students’ academic progress next year and getting the right support in place early to prevent students from falling through the net?

On 28 October, University World News, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, will be bringing together experts from new and traditional higher education providers, the tech industry and the World Bank for a webinar on: “What will employability mean in the digital age and how should higher education adapt?”

Strategic planning is needed to face critical challenges. But African universities often confuse strategic planning with operational planning and, by doing so, lack clarity of purpose. So what does strategic planning mean and how can it be distinguished from other management strategies or techniques?

The diaspora of Belarusian researchers and the international academic community are mobilising to draw attention to the cause of student and academic protesters in Belarus and the widespread violations of human rights by Alexander Lukashenko, also described as the last dictator in Europe.

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.

India’s National Education Policy’s research ambitions for the country have drawn a lot of comment on the systems and policies that are required to transform research output, but these need to be embedded in a culture that encourages open and inclusive inquiry.