21 January 2021  Issue No: 297

A profound change is taking place in our understanding of the mission of higher education. Increasingly, we have realised that academic freedom must be accompanied by the exercise of academic responsibility, in the sense of making a contribution to civil society. Actively responding to societal challenges is one way of doing so – as many universities have demonstrated in the case of COVID-19.

South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, has outlined plans for the reopening of tertiary institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but several key challenges remain, and university bosses are predicting a tougher year ahead with many institutions facing a possible financial crisis.

There have been a lot of predictions about the future of higher education and internationalisation over the last months, but many have been overtaken by events. We need to focus on developments and make predictions based on solid research rather than short-term perceptions.

A three-year project, conceptualised in the context of South Africa’s 2020 policy framework for internationalisation, is focused on offering action-orientated curriculum practices to question how collaborative online international learning exchange can engage learners across our South-North institutions, and beyond, in internationalised and decolonised curricula.

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.

TU Dublin is using its 73-acre campus development – the largest single investment in a higher education project in the history of the Irish state – to build on its full-throttle commitment to working with the surrounding community to tackle unemployment and social disadvantage in an integrated way.

COVID-19 uncertainty, along with political changes in the United States and the United Kingdom, suggest we are entering a new phase of international student mobility that will see intensified competition for global talent and higher education institutions would do well to track the fast-changing landscape.

Before we get deeper into 2021, we need to understand the lessons of 2020 and ask the right questions about higher education internationalisation in order for it to have greater impact. We need to be able to have frank, evidence-based discussions about ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’.

The disruption of school-leaving exams which determine entry to university is now entering its second year as countries suffer second and third waves of COVID-19 infections. It has an effect well beyond the individual country’s exams, with particular impact for international student admissions.