5 November 2023  Issue No: 761

An alarming fall in the number of research students from the European Union and a drop in new PhDs from China are threatening to have a ‘compound impact’ on the research output of the United Kingdom within the next five to 10 years, warn international higher education experts.

To help solve growing societal challenges, universities should not only pull together across disciplines and across continents but work with local communities, particularly in post-industrial cities and regions, but also where communities are trying to recover from natural disasters and conflict, the Magna Charta Observatory conference heard.

A recent conference in Mexico found keen interest in new technologies among higher education stakeholders. However, innovation more generally is held back by limited resources, a situation that could benefit from strategic partnerships, greater private sector investment and support from for-profit technology vendors.

Putting international students at the core of immigration discussions, and reducing or removing their right to relocate with partners or children increase concerns for students’ mental health. By recognising the specific concerns of international students, universities can help to create a more supportive environment.

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.

Internationalisation and sustainable development have to be seen as complementary rather than opposing dynamics at higher education institutions. We need to ask how a different kind of internationalisation could contribute not only to making institutions more sustainable, but how it could contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.

University of Zimbabwe student union Organising Secretary Gamuchirai Chaburumunda was arrested and thrown into the country’s notorious Chikurubi Maximum Prison among murderers and robbers for staging a demonstration on campus. While the case is pending, the 22-year-old is writing a book about her ordeal.

The development of academic rankings has reached an inflection point as some of the world’s leading universities – concerned about fundamental flaws and institutional autonomy – begin to speak out and consider action. Do university leaders wish to continue propping up such an arbitrary system?

With an eye to developing a clean, alternative aviation fuel to reduce carbon emissions, researchers at the United Arab Emirates University have been focusing on the production of jet fuel from sustainable resources such as halophytes, which are salt-tolerant plants that could be cultivated on a wider scale in the region’s coastal areas. Promoted by the United Arab Emirates University.