25 April 2021  Issue No: 640

Following the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ rare censure of the University of Toronto over allegations that a job offer to an academic whose work covers human rights in Palestine and Israel was dropped under external pressure, University World News examines the impact of donors on academic freedom and integrity.

Final-year undergraduate and masters students in Myanmar are being called back to university a year after institutions closed due to the pandemic, but many students will boycott, fearing a campus crackdown, and university teachers involved in the civil disobedience movement risk being punished if they return.

Research-intensive university groups representing 77 universities across Europe have signed a joint statement urging the European Union not to restrict access for associated countries, such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Israel, to parts of its multi-billion-euro Horizon Europe research programme, including those covering space and quantum projects.

We are committed to enabling all of our readers to access our articles for free, but the widespread cancellation of international higher education events and sharp fall in advertising due to the COVID-19 pandemic is seriously undermining our ability to cover our costs. Please help support our high-quality journalism.

Germany has become a top destination for study abroad, owing to its long-standing and specific approach to internationalisation through non-profit orientation and cooperation – a typical soft power approach. But will the recent introduction of tuition fees in the southern states change things?

Universities need to become more agile if they are to adapt better to the challenges they face in the future. That means good leadership and structural changes which involve people at all levels so that they feel part of any decisions that are made.

Open-access academic publishing may have created gateways for research from higher education scholars to be disseminated through the internet, but there are concerns that too few Sub-Saharan African researchers, for various reasons, publish peer-reviewed articles in the online publishing industry, according to an ongoing research project.