30 April 2023  Issue No: 737

The illiberal takeover of higher education in countries such as Hungary holds urgent lessons for countries such as Israel and emphasises the importance of intellectual resistance on the part of students and faculty, which may include the establishment of alternative institutions or exile.

Almost three-quarters of American college and university students report that they factor the reproductive health laws of the state in which their schools are located into their decisions about whether to remain at their college or university, according to a new study.

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 universities seek to educate increasingly diverse populations, any commitment to inclusiveness must include the recognition of and accommodation of all disabilities – including invisible disabilities which include chronic diseases and non-diagnosable conditions such as long COVID – and the dismantling of systemic ableism.

Extending Synchrotron technologies to Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa – the areas of the world with the most pressing development problems – could make a significant impact in tackling global challenges such as eradicating poverty and hunger that affect the world’s poorest people.

A new Central University Library of Mali, serving higher education institutions across this Sahel and Sahara country, will house thousands of ancient Islamic texts, including some removed from Timbuktu in 2013, to save them from destruction at the hands of Islamist militants.

Future change will be fuelled by an influx of data, combined with innovative technologies, increased empiricism and a pressing need for solutions to tough problems – all of which require a different skill set, the head of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education told a San Diego summit.