Universities prepare for return of students
28 May 2020  Issue No: 271
Africa Top Stories
NIGERIA
PHOTONigeria needs a ‘National Institute of Higher Education Research and Policy Development’ to help advise on higher education policy, help prioritise higher education challenges in relation to developmental challenges, and advance evidence-based policy that will promote the country’s development.
AFRICA
In a public lecture to commemorate Africa Day on 25 May, Professor PLO Lumumba said: “If we do not seize this moment and if the universities do not descend into the arena of action and instead remain as ivory towers where academics write academic papers exchanged within their ranks, then we will not have contributed to the development of Africa.”
BENIN
While the higher education system in Benin is getting back to work, after the government said the ban on classes to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic would end on 11 May, the ongoing closure of the border with Nigeria is creating problems for private institutions and their students.
Africa Features
CAMEROON
PHOTOThe dismissal of a university law lecturer and human rights defender who set an examination question considered by the Cameroon government to be ‘seditious’ has been widely criticised by a number of the country’s academics.
Africa News
SOUTH AFRICA
PHOTOSouth Africa’s Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize this week denied there had been any interference with academic freedom in the case of Professor Glenda Gray, head of the South African Medical Research Council, whose critical public comments about the government’s lockdown regulations drew calls from a government bureaucrat for an investigation.
CONGO-DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
EAST AFRICA
Global Commentary
GLOBAL
PHOTOIf universities want to keep their international students when they move online they will need to confront prejudice about online learning among foreign students and some governments, notably China and India, and prove its quality and develop more attractive international pricing strategies.
World Blog
GLOBAL
PHOTOThe COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the landscape of international higher education into disarray. Now is the time to rethink, starting from the why of internationalisation, and encourage even the most seemingly outlandish methods of connecting people and their ideas across borders, inspired by hope.
Global Features
GLOBAL
PHOTOThe COVID-19 crisis and pre-existing China-United States tensions exacerbated during the pandemic will mean a rebalancing of cross-border academic relations, student and academic mobility, and in the pattern of research collaborations with China, with Europe expected to be the main – but wary – beneficiary.
World Round-up
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