10 December 2020  Issue No: 295

The gigantic global scientific efforts to develop a vaccine to mitigate the devastating impact of COVID-19 on societies have reached a point where the mass production and use of effective vaccines are a reality. But, in the subsequent race that is unfolding to produce and purchase vaccines, the gross global inequalities in the access to vaccinations, as well as in the science that makes that possible, have been exposed.

Higher education systems in the Central African region are struggling and outdated, have failed to shift the balance from the humanities to science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM, and fall short in terms of research output and innovation, according to panellists who participated in a virtual meeting of the 36th Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts for Central Africa.

Universities have not been spared as COVID-19 devastated and upended the world economy and healthcare systems. The pandemic has posed enormous challenges and accelerated profound changes in higher education, requiring reprioritisation and changes in the operations that affect organisational culture and governance.

I have been asked to write something about my experiences during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic as a violinist and violin teacher at a university in South Africa. Perhaps a good start is to offer a little perspective from an area in Northern Italy, with the city of Cremona as its creative epicentre, where the golden age of violin-making played out from roughly the mid-16th to the mid-18th centuries.

Students – and lecturers – have faced a lot of disruption and anxiety as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We need to be able to talk openly about the impact on their well-being and use the past few months as a learning experience.

External quality assurance is invaluable – especially for determining if national standards are being met – but it is not enough. If universities truly want to improve, they need to embed regular internal quality assurance processes within their institution and learn from the experience.

On 27 January 2021 University World News, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, will be bringing together experts and practitioners from the International Association of Universities, the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities and the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program in an online webinar on how universities can improve their social impact.

The United Nations secretary general has called on the world to take urgent climate action and has praised the work of universities as “essential to our success”. He has called on all organisations to examine their contribution to achieving carbon neutrality.