25 June 2023  Issue No: 745

It is clear that the thinking and models that underpinned the first phase of higher education massification are no longer appropriate to meet individual and societal demands and requirements today and into the future. Accordingly, I want to talk about the tertiary ecosystem.

A report on the status of the academic profession in the United States shows that all academic salaries, particularly those of professors, have declined in real terms, that academics continue to face high levels of precarity, and that the salaries of female professors lag behind those of male peers.

If the advances towards open access publishing brought by COVID are to be sustained once the pandemic has subsided, scientists themselves will need to have a greater say in defining the future of scientific publishing and in governing its infrastructure and processes.

It is both a privilege and a responsibility to play a role in the validation of an academic’s submission for promotion. It is therefore vital that the institution concerned provides clear guidance to external international expert referees about the process at that institution.

The University of Johannesburg in South Africa has been named as the institution that makes the greatest contribution in the world towards Sustainable Development Goal or SDG 1, aimed at ending poverty in all its forms by 2030. What is the institution doing strategically and practically to pursue this goal?

The formal launch of a Sub-Saharan African university ranking, based on data collected from 121 universities and with a strong focus on undergraduate education, on 26 June at Ashesi University in Ghana, has yielded mixed responses from within the sector.

More mainland Chinese students are opting to study in Asia rather than the West. While the trend is driven by relatively lower costs, experts say high failure rates among those sitting entrance examinations for higher degrees at China’s universities are also a factor.