12 March 2023  Issue No: 730

Nothing short of a human revolution would be an appropriate response to the depths of the multiple crises humanity faces. Yet universities are legacies of an era of monastic, hierarchical and siloed teaching and learning approaches. How can they be reinvented to become transformative?

Too many external restrictions and ‘excessive and unnecessary’ interference from governance arrangements are preventing universities from realising their full potential, according to the European University Association’s latest Autonomy Scorecard, which compares 35 higher education systems across the continent for university autonomy.

This is part of a weekly University World News special report series on ‘AI and higher education’. The focus is on how universities are engaging with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools. The articles from academics and our journalists around the world are exploring developments and university work in AI that have implications for higher education institutions and systems, students and staff, and teaching, learning and research.

As philanthropy continues to boom, universities across the globe need to ensure that they have solid donor risk management policies in place and learn lessons from high-profile cases such as the debate about the University of Oxford’s fundraising from the tainted Sackler family’s charitable trusts.

Co-creation is one of the main megatrends across industries. It makes sense that a product, policy or framework is developed in collaboration with stakeholders and tailored to their context. So how can universities and policy-makers work together to co-create innovative higher education policy?

Do students really think about an institution’s approach to climate action when deciding where to apply? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. Sustainability is increasingly part of international students’ criteria for choosing a university, making it the right choice for the climate and recruitment.

The library at the University of Mosul, once one of Iraq’s finest institutions, containing precious artefacts of history, was burned to the ground by Islamic State. But now it has been rebuilt and the university has been physically and culturally reconstructed with international support.

The Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education will come into force on Sunday 5 March, becoming the first legally binding United Nations instrument on higher education, fostering international mobility and opening up increased opportunities for students and qualification holders worldwide.