17 September 2023  Issue No: 754

China’s tightened control of access to data and data exports has made it more difficult to independently seek out or verify statistics on the ground. New data security laws have also created a research environment in which even minimal connection or collaboration with China must be handled with extreme care.

Bureaucratic and legal threats by governments, weaponising the law to control the curriculum and curtail critical analysis, anti-intellectual, populist and authoritarian rhetorical attacks and crackdowns on professors and their expertise, as well as increasing pressure to self-censor, have put academic freedom in decline worldwide.

South Korea’s government has unveiled a substantial 16.6% reduction in research and development spending in its budget proposal for 2024, taking the science community by surprise. If passed by the National Assembly, it will be the first reduction in science spending in 33 years.

A small liberal arts university in Asia appears an unlikely place for an engineering professor and data scientist. But Joe Qin, who took over as president of Lingnan University in Hong Kong on 1 September, may have arrived at an opportune time to steer the institution into an era of generative AI and ChatGPT.

Half-way to the target date for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, University World News – in partnership with global quality assurance provider ABET – launches a series of special reports on how higher education can best equip students with the skills, knowledge and values needed to shape a sustainable future.

Universities in Britain need to get ahead of the politicians when it comes to visa clampdowns by providing the kind of data policy-makers take note of, proving that universities are good and responsible stewards who accept only international students with the requisite skills and intentions.

Taejae University, South Korea’s new global online university, has its first class starting this autumn. Enrolment has been low so far despite its ambitions to disrupt the higher education market. The university needs to prove what sets it apart from other institutions.

European university presidents and rectors often earn a fraction of the generous salaries enjoyed by vice-chancellors in the United Kingdom and other Anglo-Saxon countries. A new report aims to clear the air around the recurring controversy over high university leaders’ salaries, but sparked some contrary reactions.

When it comes to higher education reforms, student experience is rarely taken into account. A recent study shows why it should be and how that relates to the Sustainable Development Goals. The greatest differences in students’ experiences are based on gender, discipline and public versus private universities.

After Republican presidential hopefuls lined up to cheer the United States Supreme Court decision to scrap the current administration’s student debt relief plan, President Joe Biden has come back with another version that benefits previously marginalised minority groups. But can it withstand further political attack?