AFRICA NEWS
ZIMBABWE
UK network calls for student-friendly government policies
Tonderayi Mukeredzi
The Zim-UK Students Network, a collective of Zimbabweans studying in the UK, says it hopes the inauguration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa will usher in a new government administration that places students as a top priority in its policies.
KENYA
Students unhappy over 30% fee hike
Gilbert Nganga
Kenya is set to increase fees for state-sponsored students in public universities by 30% from next year, following recommendations by the University Fund, the government agency mandated to set fees. Students have vowed to oppose the increase.
SOUTH AFRICA
HE quality council defends review of law degrees
Munyaradzi Makoni
The Council on Higher Education, or CHE, has defended its quality review of the law degrees of 17 universities in South Africa in the wake of what it claims are “wanton attacks on the CHE and its quality assurance processes in instances”, following “considerable media interest” in the issue.
ZAMBIA
New university to boost higher education sector expansion
Kudzai Mashininga
Zambia has started the process of building a US$110 million university in honour of its late second president Frederick Chiluba as part of national efforts to expand access to higher education and accommodate the increasing number of young people emerging from the growing secondary school sector.
EGYPT
Children’s University opens doors to future students
Wagdy Sawahel
Egypt has inaugurated the third phase of a 'Children’s University' programme which is aimed at enhancing children's scientific and innovation abilities, as well as preparing them for the transition from secondary school to university education.
AFRICA
New policy centre to work with universities on land
Christabel Ligami
An African Land Policy Centre that will work with African higher learning institutions and other stakeholders has been unveiled to strengthen and sustain Africa’s capacity to coordinate activities of member states and other actors in the implementation of the African Union Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges.
AFRICA ANALYSIS
AFRICA
HE in the context of science diplomacy and merit reviews
Teboho Moja
Science granting councils sit at the intersection between governments, the higher education sector and society, and have a crucial role to play in the transformation of society. The challenge ahead is for the science granting councils to coordinate or find means to coordinate the knowledge enterprise internally and across borders in the region, as well as globally.
ETHIOPIA
The scourge of unscrupulous private HE institutions
Wondwosen Tamrat
Critical interventions are needed in order to counteract the effects of the growing numbers of illegal private higher education providers.
INYATHELO NINTH LEADERSHIP RETREAT
The Inyathelo Ninth Leadership Retreat was held in South Africa recently with the theme “The Best of Times, the Worst of Times – Positioning institutional advancement in times of challenge and change”. Vice-chancellors and senior advancement officers discussed how universities might engage stakeholders in transformation, and tap deeper into growing philanthropic support to help higher education meet development goals.
AFRICA
Advancement – Engaging stakeholders in transformation
Mark Paterson
The practice of advancement plays an important role not only as a source of funding but in positioning and differentiating universities, supporting strategic initiatives, and improving institutional governance and leadership. However, continued transformation cannot be achieved by mere branding; it requires comprehensive engagement and dialogue between universities and their local communities built around a civic sense of interdependence.
AFRICA
Universities gain from growth in philanthropy
Karen MacGregor
There has been extraordinary growth in philanthropy in Africa – and universities have been major beneficiaries – according to Dr Bhekinkosi Moyo, CEO of the Southern Africa Trust. Also, the nature of philanthropy has transformed along with its relationship to governments as they seek to meet development goals.
UNITED STATES
Advocating the public mission of research universities
Karen MacGregor
Universities need to convince themselves of the high value of diverse talent and inclusivity, of democracy and the civic sense of togetherness and interdependence on which the knowledge economy depends, before they can sell themselves to a questioning public, says Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers University–Newark, a leading public research institution in the United States.
AFRICA FEATURES
KENYA
Female students ‘too scared’ to report sexual harassment
Christabel Ligami
When Mercy (not her real name), a third-year bachelor of arts student at the University of Nairobi, was unable to write her final examination due to illness, her lecturer agreed to let her retake the exam and told her to meet him in his office in the evening to discuss the details. Instead of receiving the information she needed, he informed her that there was no need for her to take the examination and forced her to have sex with him.
AFRICA
Non-African partners influence research agenda – Study
Sharon Dell
A scientometric study to be published in a forthcoming edition of the South African Journal of Science indicates that non-African research collaborators have a high impact not only on the quantity of co-authored publications, but also the research disciplines in which co-authored research is undertaken.
AFRICA BRIEFS
CAMEROON
Campaign to halt widespread university corruption
An awareness campaign against widespread corruption in universities, which includes bribery by students to get good results, false diplomas and sex to gain promotion, has been launched by CONAC, the national anti-corruption commission.
NEWS – Our correspondents worldwide report
AFGHANISTAN
Call for higher education reform after student suicide
Shadi Khan Saif
The tragic suicide by a female student at Afghanistan’s Kabul University recently has unveiled major deficiencies in the war-ravaged country’s higher education system, forced the resignation of the higher education minister, and prompted calls for root and branch higher education reform.
JAPAN
English test requirement for university sparks debate
Suvendrini Kakuchi
New government plans for reform of the country’s university admissions examination system requiring students to pass a new standardised English test in 2020 have sparked strong but mixed reactions among higher education institutions, including over the use of privately run tests.
UNITED STATES
Republicans plot sweeping changes in higher education
Adam Harris, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Capping student loans, ending student loan forgiveness and banning campus free speech zones are among the measures proposed by the United States House of Representatives as it introduced its bill to overhaul the Higher Education Act of 1965 last week.
DENMARK
Performance-related university funding reform agreed
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Danish parliament has agreed a new model for university funding, placing less emphasis on the taximeter model in which institutions are awarded funds based on the number of students who have graduated, and introducing elements of results-based and quality-related funding.
THE NETHERLANDS
Launch of ambitious national digital research agenda
Jan Petter Myklebust
The Association of Universities in the Netherlands has presented a Digital Society Research Agenda for “people-oriented” digitisation, with key themes ranging from democratic decision-making and eHealth to cyber security and responsible algorithm design.
GERMANY
Record student numbers lead to calls for more housing
Michael Gardner
There has been a further slight increase in the number of students in Germany, bringing the total close to the three million mark. The new figures have prompted further calls for a government housing programme to tackle the growing student accommodation crisis.
COMMENTARY
GLOBAL
How do we create transformative global citizens?
Emiliano Bosio
We need a higher education curriculum that challenges traditional views and assumptions, allows students to introduce and access non-dominant perspectives and encourages new ways of thinking – and sets the stage for them to act in ways that are inspired by their course of study.
VIETNAM
The rise of the corporation-affiliated university
Chau-Duong Quang
Corporates are increasingly playing a role in Vietnam’s private higher education sector, whether through establishing their own universities or, as is increasingly the case due to tightened regulations, acquiring existing ones. It is a phenomenon worth the attention of both policy-makers and academics.
GLOBAL
Linking internationalisation and open education
Kirk Perris
A Spanish university’s recent conference on advancing ‘open education’ and ‘open educational resources’ discussed the benefits and remaining barriers for online forms of learning and how they can effectively complement attempts to widen access to higher education and to internationalisation.
NEW NATIONALISM AND UNIVERSITIES
University World News was a media partner of the New Nationalism and Universities international conference held at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its Center for Studies in Higher Education. Alumni and leading scholars from around the world discussed rising nationalism and populism in its many forms, and the impact on the missions and activities of universities. This is the first of two special reports on the conference.
GLOBAL
Do universities take a stand against nationalism?
Nationalism is rising around the world, in many guises and with different consequences for universities, and one key question for universities is whether they are challenging or reinforcing the existing political order, argued John Douglass, senior research fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley, introducing its New Nationalism and Universities conference.
UNITED STATES
Alt-right battle on free speech is a trap – Chancellor
The ‘alt-right’ is testing United States campuses on free speech as part of a narrative to discredit them, according to Carol Christ, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, an institution that has been at the centre of public protests against right-wing speakers.
EUROPE
UK universities must face Brexit drivers and outcomes
For universities, a significant share of funding for and influence over research, study abroad support, student mobility and the future of 12% of staff are at stake in the Brexit negotiations, but they must also address the drivers behind the vote to leave the European Union, University World News Managing Editor Brendan O’Malley told the conference.
BRAZIL
New trends in the student activism
Marcelo Knobel and Renato HL Pedrosa
Some of the recent student protests in Brazil have resulted in violence and threats. The causes of this extremism are not wholly understood, but universities should be wary of any attempt to curb academic freedom and tolerance.
DIGITALISED CREDENTIALS
GLOBAL
Data mobility in the Fourth Industrial Revolution age
Herman de Leeuw and Stig Arne Skjerven
Global learning should no longer be hampered by a reliance on paper-based credentials and identification systems. Technological advances will enable people to share their academic and professional achievements digitally in a safe and trustworthy manner with whomever they want, whenever.
GLOBAL
Blockchain technology will help refugees to access HE
Saha Al-Nahi
Many refugees cannot access higher education in their host country because their educational records have been destroyed in conflict back home. But new technology will open up a way for them to both secure their records and enable access to them from any location.
WORLD BLOG
GLOBAL
Inclusive higher education for the benefit of all
Patrick Blessinger, Jaimie Hoffman and Mandla Makhanya
If one of the key goals of education is to foster personal growth and agency within students, educational structures and culture must continually be renewed through innovation, creating a culture of inclusion at all levels and a commitment to lifelong learning.
FEATURES
GLOBAL
Prepare for a worldwide digital transformation
Geoff Maslen
Mobility, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and big data analytics are transforming science, innovation, the economy and the way people work and live – requiring science, innovation and industry policies to be adapted to a future of “smart everything”, says the OECD.
