18 October 2020  Issue No: 616

Research agendas are now often shaped in the global network, not national systems. Although the United States retains a long lead in the number of high-citation papers, research power has become more diversified, with China and East Asia, India, Iran, Brazil and others becoming stronger.

The voices of women experts, including scientists, have been badly under-represented in the overall news reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, a report commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has found following a comprehensive analysis of news coverage.

Virtual learning – especially simulations and gamification – offers a way to take experiential learning from the margins of university education and fully integrate it into conceptual learning, creating an essential element in universities’ real world and work- or career-focused education, as well as lifelong education.

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?”

If India wants to stop the exodus of its students to other countries and attract foreign students to its higher education institutions, its own institutions must improve quality and infrastructure and enable more opportunities for short-term exchanges to foreign institutions, according to eminent experts from Indian and global academia.

As Universities UK releases a report on addressing growing threats to security and academic freedom in the wake of rising interference by authoritarian regimes in international higher education, university leaders should adopt a proposed model code of conduct for protecting their staff and students.

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.

Universities have a vital role to play in promoting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, given that today’s students are tomorrow’s decision-makers. The challenges are characterised by complexity, uncertainty and conflict of values and require students to break free from silo-based or linear thinking.

How to strengthen the global communications network of student affairs in higher education was the topic of a virtual meeting of the International Association of Student Affairs and Services that brought together 21 national and international associations from across the globe and 50 of their leaders. The meeting launched a communications network to boost information flow worldwide.