8 October 2023  Issue No: 757

A recent summit involving leading universities, foundations, international bodies and researchers highlighted the scale of the equity crisis in global higher education and the weight of the responsibilities upon those working in higher education – both universities and other stakeholders – in addressing it.

As the fighting of the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces enters its sixth month, the Sudanese National Academy of Sciences has appealed to national, regional and international academic institutions to help university staff and students who have been displaced in the country’s armed conflict.

Signatory universities of the Magna Charta Universitatum – which include several Ukrainian higher education institutions – are meeting in Poland later this month to assess how research and teaching can help in the reconstruction of cities affected by war, environmental pressures and socio-economic change.

The MSCA4Ukraine fellowship scheme is the first dedicated European Union fellowship scheme for at-risk scholars, and the kind of benefits it offers for individuals and communities may soon be extended to scholars at risk from other countries under a forthcoming EU initiative.

An opportunity to take American students on a short-term study course to the United Kingdom, aimed at providing a better understanding of higher education today, highlighted the benefits of study abroad opportunities – for those who have the necessary financial, administrative and legal resources.

As the United Arab Emirates prepares to host COP28, the global summit on climate action and sustainable development, University World News is running a weekly Special Briefing exploring the contribution of Gulf states’ universities to climate action and to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The need to strengthen the capacity of leaders in higher education so that they can drive much-needed change in the sector was high on the agenda at a three-day workshop of Higher Education Reform Experts South Africa held in Johannesburg from 2-4 October.

A new book shows how, despite an almost built-in resistance to change, and a principled belief that in-house solutions are superior, universities can benefit from the ideas and services of mission-driven entrepreneurs to cut unnecessary costs and enrich the academic ecosphere.

The top of the Times Higher Education or THE World University Rankings remains dominated by institutions in the United States and United Kingdom, but their position is waning while the upward march of Chinese universities continues, with Tsinghua and Peking universities close to breaking into the top 10.