3 July 2022  Issue No: 699

With the world reeling from multiple crises, a new social contract for higher education for the Global North and Global South, and partnerships between them, is needed. It must discard colonial paternalistic models of engagement and be grounded in epistemic diversity and humility.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Canadian students on 22 June, he spared them none of the horror of his nation living through war and underlined the importance of Ukrainian students studying abroad being ready to return to rebuild Ukraine when the missiles stop falling.

After easing stringent border restrictions, Japan’s government is now working to restore international student numbers to pre-pandemic levels with a particular focus on attracting students who are keen to acquire highly competitive skills and can contribute to the country’s economic development.

The future of African journal publishing requires strong national research ecosystems and the creation of alternative circuits of academic credibility that diversify the global research system and challenge the power held by the dominant citation indexes that exclude the majority of Africa’s journals.

As universities find their post-pandemic footing, they have an opportunity to push for a systemic improvement of learning, including better assessment, by adopting a scholarship-informed approach to the development of improved examinations that can better meet the challenges of an uncertain future.

There is a need for dialogue between mainstream applied sciences on the one hand and the social sciences and humanities on the other if sustainability research is to come up with solutions to inspire the behavioural change needed to build future sustainable societies.

Although research and publications in the field of infectious diseases are increasing in low-income countries, authorship equity from these countries in high-impact infectious disease journals has been lacking. Trends in a subset of the publications show that the exclusion of low-income country-affiliated investigators as lead authors is increasing.

Sri Lanka has temporarily shut down at least three state universities due to a prevailing fuel crisis and a collapsing economy that has affected all sectors and led to the interruption of academic activities at most universities as lecturers and students are unable to attend classes.