28 July 2019  Issue No: 247

The South African Technology Network has partnered with the Department of Higher Education and Training to launch a Staff PhD Capacity Enhancement Programme designed to raise the number and quality of PhDs coming out of universities of technology and previously disadvantaged universities in South Africa.

Students from Western Sahara face threats and violence if they organise to defend their rights, but too few people globally know about their plight.

Academics say the practice of ordering and paying for ready-made theses is growing among students at all levels in Algeria, but such fears are not being taken seriously by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The 2019 Siyaphumelela Conference, hosted by the South African Institute for Distance Education or SAIDE, which manages the Kresge Foundation-funded Siyaphumelela project in South Africa, was held in Johannesburg from 25-27 June. The conference explored several themes around the use of data analytics to promote student success.

In this time of increasing polarisation and nationalism, universities need to embrace new ways of ‘being’ international, that put human values and the global common good at the heart of internationalisation, and focus on supporting all students to connect to the world in complicated, rich and subtle ways.

Between 2009 and 2016 the number of private firms specialising in ghost-writing doctoral dissertations tripled in Ukraine. The country faced a drastic need to reform, but so far the changes have been slow and patchy. University autonomy could offer a way forward.

The surge in nativist political populism across much of the world has brought all forms of cross-border engagement and mobility into question. It is not enough simply to say that higher education contributes to the common good. We need detailed evidence to show how.

As eSports or competitive computer gaming tournaments gain ground on campuses, attracting as many fans as traditional sports, university leaders are realising they need to get involved in the governance, research and steering of eSports to the benefit of students and society, and not simply the game industry.

In the final part of our series on a programme teaching undergraduates leadership skills for tackling socio-economic problems, the students present their solutions to real problems of unhealthy eating and food waste, the stigma attached to HIV testing and unequal access to school due to low parental involvement.

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.

Swedish universities are performing well on efficient use of resources and productivity compared with their peers in the Nordic countries, but some could improve their performance, an investigation by the Swedish National Audit Office and national audit offices in other Nordic countries has concluded.