22 January 2023  Issue No: 723

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals depends in part on preserving and strengthening democracies around the world and higher education institutions have a remarkable role to play – through increasing access to quality education, raising awareness and engaging with community and stakeholders – in achieving them.

Dutch universities are pushing back against an urgent request from Culture and Science Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf that universities and universities of applied sciences stop actively recruiting international students in international education fairs until further notice. But they have proposed limits on recruitment.

According to a university president, the current ceiling on tuition fees in Vietnam is too low compared to the expectations for and requirements of educational institutions – a claim supported by research which shows that students will pay extra if the quality of education is sound.

A new interdisciplinary graduate programme introduced last year by Hokkaido University in Japan, focused on the Sustainable Development Goals, comprises three international programmes combining science and technology with social science disciplines to produce highly motivated global leaders who are sensitive to diverse perspectives.

The American Historical Association’s recent decision to expand the definition of historical scholarship for the purposes of hiring, promotion or tenure review recognises that there are many different forms of professional scholarship, but is there a danger that standards are being ‘watered down’?

Elections can profoundly impact on universities and colleges. New leaders and parties have new political agendas, and higher education is frequently prominent on their lists, with implications for funding, teaching and research, staff and students, and interactions with society and the economy. For two weeks University World News investigates recent elections and higher education in countries the world over.

Last month’s abduction of marine biologist Volodymyr Vorovka marks the continuation of Russia’s brutal and criminal campaign against Ukrainian intellectuals and civic leaders that predates the 24 February 2022 invasion and recalls the active destruction of Ukraine’s intelligentsia by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s.