6 June 2021  Issue No: 646

Sustainability is the buzzword in international higher education. But we must aspire to do more and focus on regeneration through all aspects of the educational process. Sustainability strives to uphold the status quo – a regenerative mindset looks to heal and invest, rather than merely prevent.

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free schooling, college and university scholarships and interest-free higher education loans for COVID-19 orphans, several state governments and some colleges and universities and educational foundations said they too will fund students who have lost parents or the family’s main breadwinner during the country’s catastrophic COVID-19 waves.

Condemnation is pouring in from academics, civil society and politicians against disproportionate and heavy-handed action by Pakistani police against protesting university teachers, including beating them as they demonstrated this week in front of a provincial legislature.

Laurentian University, which became the first publicly funded entity in Canada to seek creditor protection after declaring insolvency earlier this year, has fired 100 academics, cut 69 programmes – and shattered what it proudly billed its tri-cultural mandate by disproportionately cutting back francophone and indigenous offerings.

Skills shortages and unemployment levels in developing nations need to be addressed more holistically. The students who specialise today may find themselves unemployed tomorrow. Instead, we need to develop deep generalists.

An analysis of a project in Brunei on digital literacy for underserved communities shows how the arts, humanities and social sciences contribute to ensuring that, post-COVID, no one gets left behind when it comes to digital learning.