3 October 2021  Issue No: 662

Through investment in ‘geointellect’, exporting its higher education and research abroad, China is aiming to grow its intellectual power – and enhance the visibility of Chinese academic and research institutions and disciplines exhibiting Chinese characteristics – and dominance. And it is well on its way.

A new ‘Quad’ Summit agreement between Japan, the United States, India and Australia to counter geopolitical challenges posed by China is extending cooperation between the group’s members by bringing in new areas of research collaboration, and spurring Japan to increase protection of research activities.

Quality assurance of Chile’s higher education institutions is facing considerable challenges following the passing of legislation reforming higher education, due to long-standing weaknesses in the regulation process. Quality assurance mechanisms need to be strengthened to identify and provide support to poorly performing institutions.

It is lecturers who inspire students through their studies, encourage their thinking and intellectual development, and create spaces that enable them to participate and engage in their own learning. The challenge is, therefore, to find new ways to support university educators.

The use of ‘model cases’, whatever their value, and the theory that grows from them, can lead academics to make false equivalences and end up recapitulating the very Eurocentric imperialistic modes of thought that anthropologists, sociologists and literary critics set out to undermine.