11 December 2022  Issue No: 720

If we adhere to the idea that universities are sources of truth and knowledge, they need to expand their role and influence in society through greater engagement with the communities they are intended to serve, while also improving their communication with the public.

Seven students from Dagon University, Yangon, and four other youth activists who took part in anti-regime protests in Myanmar have been sentenced to death by the military tribunal in closed trials for alleged involvement in the killing of a former army lieutenant colonel turned bank manager.

Far from being the best predictor of student success, gateway courses punish capable students for the inadequate quality of their high school education and, by facilitating higher dropout rates among black and Latinx students, they end up reinforcing racial, gender and ethnic inequity.

Community engaged learning can help sharpen the university’s response to a series of challenges that echo those of the sixties: a crisis of authority and the need for universities to prove their contribution to society, a rise in social engagement, and calls for democratisation.

The return to ‘education as normal’ after COVID-19 should not stop higher education institutions in developing countries from being inventive because harnessing digital technologies can build education systems that are able to withstand unforeseen events and obstacles to progressive education and lifelong learning.

In a three-week series, University World News looks at the latest flashpoints in the battle to defend the tradition of collegial or bicameral college and university governance that has predominated in North America for more than a century but is now under threat.

Higher education institutions around the world are uniquely positioned not only to serve as exemplars of sustainable organisations, but they also possess and produce the intellectual capital needed to know how best to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals through teaching, research and service.

Young women are often on the receiving end of online violence. As the 16 Days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Girls comes to an end, two students, who have been victims of this form of gender-based violence, call on universities to do more.

The United Kingdom government is struggling to hold a common line over whether it wants more or fewer foreign students studying at UK universities after a statement by the prime minister drew headlines warning of a student visa crackdown or even a ban on foreign students.