7 November 2021  Issue No: 667

Black students in the United States remain less likely to gain access to university, more likely to drop out and less likely to graduate, and the latest data shows that the number of black freshmen has dropped by 22.3% compared to 12.3% overall since the start of the pandemic.

“My political freedom is unlikely to endure long if I’m unwilling to defend your freedom,” Michael Ignatieff, former rector of the Central European University, which was forced out of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, told the inaugural lecture of the University of Ottawa’s Global Ideas Lecture series.

Pressure from academics on Japan’s newly elected government is growing, calling for urgent and drastic reforms to boost the dwindling international status of the country’s universities and university research. This should include supporting universities to meet demands for diversity and global challenges, they say.

Much blame for the lack of research capacity in African universities is laid at the door of funding problems, but that ignores issues such as the importance of institutional leadership in promoting a research culture. Leadership should receive just as much attention as funding.

Not many rankings cover employability and the connection with teaching and learning and those that do cover only a fraction of the world’s universities. A rigorous and transparent assessment of university teaching and learning needs to be at the top of the rankers’ agenda.

The 2021 World Access to Higher Education Day or WAHED online conference is being held on 17 November. ‘WAHED 2021: Who will be going to university in 2030?’ will include more than 20 top speakers from six continents. You are invited to participate in this free event.

Many universities around the world have worked hard to help their local communities through the COVID-19 pandemic, but some have faced the additional extraordinary challenges of how to provide aid and support in the midst of armed conflicts and growing mistrust in their own governments.

Inefficient management of the abundant natural resources in Africa prompted experts to call on universities on the continent to join the ‘education for circularity’ movement to equip students with knowledge and skills in circular thinking.