17 September 2020  Issue No: 283

Academics in Africa need to interrogate what value their publications actually contribute to society and focus on the quality of research rather than hyper-prolific scholarship, according to Professor Tade Aina, executive director of the Nairobi-headquartered Partnership for African Social and Governance Research.

COVID-19 has served as a non-negotiable change agent in higher education, leaving universities with little choice but to migrate to online technologies – in the process disrupting notions of space, place and time. In the fifth and final webinar in a series of “challenging conversations” hosted by South Africa’s University of Cape Town, academics from Australia, Egypt and Kenya grappled with the question: “How does changing the medium change the way of doing things?”

Kenya risks missing out on its target to set aside 2% of the country’s gross domestic product for scientific research in the long term, the universities regulator has warned, arguing that the current fundraising and distribution model needs to be reviewed.

There is a need for tangible university reforms in Africa aimed at preparing graduates for life and the complex technology-driven world of work, and at ensuring they have the competencies demanded by the job market – now and into the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold economic damage which will have a long-lasting impact on higher education and is changing what students around the world want from universities. Now is the time to reimagine the university as a model fit for the future.

The imperative of moving to online learning due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a better higher education system that is more agile, more ready to anticipate change and more resilient, but only if it is properly resourced and supported.

Meritocracy is now embedded at the heart of our economic, social, cultural and academic institutions in a way that obscures the role meritocracy plays in social exclusion. This year’s Worldviews Lecture asks whether it works to reproduce or disrupt existing power relations.

Canadian intelligence has warned that China’s Thousand Talents Plan or TTP is using ‘corrosive tactics’ to advance the economic and strategic objectives of hostile states, but others argue that the TTP has been caught up unfairly in United States concerns about Chinese government actions elsewhere.

The Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, its contribution to French and global human and social sciences and the rich intellectual life it supports, are under threat of being sacrificed to centralised bureaucratic control and inclusion in the development plan called Campus Condorcet.

The third edition of Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education: Global foundations, issues, and best practices is an enormous volume, involving around 250 authors and others from 125 countries. The open access book was recently published by the International Association of Student Affairs and Services with Deutsches Studentenwerk. In this three-part Special Report, authors describe and interpret the landscape of student affairs globally, developments and issues, achievements and challenges.