13 November 2022  Issue No: 716

Commitments to tackling inequalities in higher education participation and success across the world are tiny compared to the importance placed on practically all other aspects of the global higher education agenda, yet failure to address such inequity will inevitably foster resentment regarding higher education itself.

Questioning the very basis of business school education and what it stands for may have to be reconsidered amid the challenges of climate change. The aspects of this are expected to be part of the agenda of the new Business Schools for Climate Leadership Africa initiative, comprising six African institutions.

A new report analysing internationalisation in American universities before and after COVID shows that while the pandemic caused a predictable decline in international student numbers, global learning – in the form of virtual internship programmes and internationalisation of the curriculum – actually expanded.

The Scholars at Risk Network, in its latest Free to Think report, has called on the international community, governments and universities to improve reporting of attacks on higher education and threats to academic freedom, and research into their causes and impacts and potential responses.

A new project resurrects a dissident academic model from the early 1990s which gives students who have remained in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion access to a transnational academic network and alternative worldviews – with a view to preparing them better for post-war reconstruction and engagement.

When it comes to international education, Chinese mobility has for decades played a vital role in post-secondary institutions worldwide and although the number of students may wax and wane, Chinese students are likely to seek opportunities in the West for generations to come.

Institutions of higher education have a wealth of student data they can use to support students through their individual higher education journey by offering greater flexibility in their study patterns and being more proactive in identifying difficulties students may have along the way.

Delegations of global university leaders are flocking to India, the second largest higher education system, stimulated in part by the emphasis on internationalisation in the new National Education Policy. But infrastructure and policies for effective internationalisation are still lacking and realism is important.