31 January 2021  Issue No: 628

Wide-scale investment in upskilling has the potential to boost global GDP by US$6.5 trillion by 2030 and lead to the creation of 5.3 million net new jobs globally by 2030, according to a new World Education Forum report. But what role should higher education play?

Australia’s universities have no idea when or if foreign students will start returning to their campuses. Due to insufficient quarantining arrangements, universities will have to wait until a rollout of the COVID vaccine is available across the country, the federal education minister says.

There are many ways for universities to improve their social impact, but the key is listening to communities, learning from them, understanding their needs and working together to find solutions, speakers told a University World News webinar held in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

The German Academic Exchange Service expects academic collaboration with the United States to improve under the new presidency of Joe Biden. Prospects for a reset of transatlantic relations were discussed online two days before Biden took office by a roundtable of experts from both countries.

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COVID-19 has accelerated the move to online higher education, but we should use this as an opportunity to question what we put online: it should not be about just teaching of knowledge, which may go out of date fast, but about active learning.

There is no such thing as a standard doctoral education model, but doctoral education has become a global market with flows of international students, faculty and graduates who create a demand – among top universities at least – for unification of standards and benchmarking.

The abrogation of the accord on the right of the military to enter the University of the Philippines marks an attack on academic freedom, given the university’s history as a place of sanctuary for indigenous communities protesting against authoritarian regimes, say members of its community.

Re: “University president condemns attack on security guards”, I have read the abbreviated version of the article in this publication as well as the more comprehensive full original in the newspaper that published it. I commend University World News for publishing this information, bringing it to the attention of the wider academic community.