5 May 2019  Issue No: 242

South African tertiary education institutions are embroiled in a process of change and transformation motivated by the need to overcome past inequalities and find their own voice. In the midst of this ferment, a five-year study has been researching the core of the student experience.

As part of ongoing efforts to build South-South cooperation and develop local capacity in higher learning in Uganda, the Nigerian government announced it had recently deployed 76 professors to four universities in Uganda.

Botswana is proving its capacity as a knowledge-producing country, which is why there now needs to be a concerted national effort to support postgraduate studies and establish a research and innovation system able to manage the country’s research aspirations and production at a national level.

In an era of youth unemployment, universities should be teaching soft skills, and companies should be placing less emphasis on higher education as a measure of intellectual competence and job potential.

Fake news is not a new phenomenon. It does have some strikingly modern features, including its rapid dissemination via the internet using social media platforms. States remain the main distributors, and when used against historians it is as insidious as any form of censorship.

Universities seem driven by what is easiest to administer rather than the learning needs of students. But students deserve to be challenged and extended in their intellectual development and that means putting in place practices that cater better for those who are more able.

The World Technology Universities Network is a collection of universities dedicated to exploring best practice in how technology can change the world for the better, addressing the most pressing global challenges and contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

To celebrate 25 years of publication, International Higher Education is inviting contributions from masters and doctoral students and postdocs to an essay contest on “Unprecedented Challenges, Significant Possibilities”, key challenges and opportunities for international higher education in the coming decade and beyond.

A Norwegian professor leading research on the trend towards illiberal democracy in Eastern Europe – one of the University of Bergen’s most sought-after speakers – is on a mission to educate secondary school students about how illiberal parties gain and consolidate power.