27 May 2021  Issue No: 315

North African countries, led by Egypt, are progressively increasing their footprint in the global production of peer-reviewed and high-impact science articles that are listed in the Web of Science, a platform that provides a wide range of multiple journal databases from different academic fields. Research output focuses mainly on public health, agriculture and veterinary sciences.

The 2020 Technical and Vocational Education and Training or TVET Strategy and Policy issued by the ministry of science and higher education in Ethiopia calls for improvements in the system, but these reforms have been part of policy directions dating back more than a decade. To effect change, a focus on implementation may be needed now.

Lecturers and educators must plan for technology integration as a vital educational tool, intended not only for knowledge acquisition but for productivity and critical thinking. Critical thinking skills, recognised as a major skill for job placement in Africa and across the globe, can be developed through a plethora of digital communication and collaboration tools and resources.

Dr Aristide Gumyusenge grew up in a rural area in Rwanda and attended modest education institutions with little hope, at the time, of becoming a professor – let alone at a renowned higher learning institution like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He learned about his appointment as a professor at MIT in the department of materials science recently.

It may feel like commodification, but price, ranking and international student employability are likely to become the key measures of a university’s value proposition when most institutions are obliged to engage with aggregator sites. So why is so little attention paid to employability metrics?

Countries around South and Southeast Asia seeing a new COVID-19 wave – the most serious outbreak to date in some countries – are looking to vaccinate students to keep universities functioning and are hoping to keep reliance on online-only courses to a minimum after over a year of disruption.