21 May 2020  Issue No: 270

The work of a group of economists attached to an expert academic research unit at the University of Cape Town, which led to the introduction of a child grant to relieve social distress caused by the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa, shows that Africa has the research capacity to influence evidence-based policy-making. The bigger issue is how to expand this capacity.

On Friday 13 March, Luné Smith, a fifth-year medical student at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, attended the last of her lectures before students were expected to return home for an early recess in accordance with the government’s coronavirus lockdown rules.

The Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences this week added its voice to criticism of the Public Universities Bill 2020 currently before Ghana’s parliament, calling it “dangerous and uncalled for” and “a recipe for total chaos in our tertiary education system”.

‘Share best practice and work together to identify solutions, even when the dogs are barking and the neighbourhood kids are riding their scooters up and down the road.’ A senior support staff member shares her experience of managing the transition to remote work and her commitment to shaping the future.

In the second of a six-part dialogue series hosted by the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP), university leaders discussed the issue of “Global and Continental Partnerships and Collaboration in Higher Education Post COVID-19”. In this special report, University World News brings you some highlights of the discussion. The next webinar, “Educational Access at Higher Education Institutions in the Age of COVID-19” takes place on 27 May.

Campus leaders and international educators must ask themselves if it is not hypocritical and even unethical to invite international students to campus when the United States is at the epicentre of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the situation is still clearly out of control.

A new model for higher education will emerge from the disruption of higher education by COVID-19 and it will require a more effective and efficient use of alumni, especially in emerging and key markets, to assist with the recruitment and enrolment of future international students.

Deteriorating relations between Sweden and China have prompted the closing of Confucius institutes and classrooms in the Scandinavian country and the ending of city partnerships. The moves have been prompted by growing concern in Sweden over security, human rights and the jailing in China of a Chinese-born publisher with Swedish citizenship.