16 October 2022  Issue No: 712

The unique role of universities in the European Green Deal has not been sufficiently recognised despite the fact that scientific culture, with its interdisciplinarity and perpetual collaboration and exchange, is a culture of inclusion, and those working towards a green transition can learn from it.

In anticipation of massive electricity price hikes, Polish universities are doing what they can to limit their energy needs by putting classes online and restricting access to sections of campuses. But some academics are worried about the longer-term impact of these restrictions on academia.

University World News passed another significant milestone this week – its 15th birthday – which is a moment for celebration of its achievements since its first edition on 14 October 2007, building a reputation for independent and in-depth reporting and commentary with a truly global perspective.

The responsibility for designing and implementing a vision for African universities that aspire to be effective, relevant and responsive to the development needs of society and the economy does not rest on vice-chancellors alone, but should be shared between university leaders and governments.

Previously unthinkable, the idea that someone could enter a university or college with a high-capacity firearm and shoot many people has today become ‘reasonably foreseeable’, giving institutions a legal duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate risks attached to such an event.

Higher education is working across the boundaries of knowledge and through scientific networks to provide potentially ground-breaking solutions to global challenges. One example, involving tackling food security problems in an era of rapid climate change, is interspecies grafting in staple crops such as rice.

A recent book, which argues the need to distinguish between academic freedom and free speech, is important inter alia for its discussion of critical race theory which shows how law is replete with structural racism – as is the conventional defence of free speech.

One of the most serious threats facing higher education and the scientific enterprise in South Africa is the rising tide of xenophobia in the halls of academia. At the root of the problem is the lack of understanding of what a university is, and is not, writes the President of the Academy of Science of South Africa, Professor Jonathan Jansen.