30 September 2021  Issue No: 330

It is lecturers who inspire students through their studies, encourage their thinking and intellectual development, and create spaces that enable them to participate and engage in their own learning. The challenge is, therefore, to find new ways to support university educators.

Nine African universities have been placed in the top 500 institutions in the world for their work towards the production of graduates with the skills and knowledge required for the modern workplace, according to the latest edition of Quacquarelli Symonds or QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022.

Universities must restore their legitimacy in society. If we want our institutions to stay relevant, to endure and sustain well into the future, they must transform and preoccupy themselves with improving the human condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on several dimensions of life across the whole world. This has presented various challenges to all sectors of the global economy, including education and business. Students are also feeling the effects.

Drug use among adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa, including a considerable proportion of students at African higher education institutions, confirms the importance of an effective drug prevention policy to prevent further harm to mental health and academic performance.

Higher education institutions are finding creative ways to build bridges to policy-makers, the private sector and local communities. As a result, African universities have begun to draft plans and set up structures to increase engagement with external stakeholders who can benefit from the research they conduct and who can, in turn, inform educational and research programmes. Some innovative strategies are emerging.

Amid growing demands for help from scholars facing displacement, the Institute of International Education is stepping up support for Afghan students and academics, but it needs more help.

Entrepreneurship education needs to be embedded in the Indian higher education curriculum so that young people can help create jobs that drive a more sustainable world. It is a powerful means of reducing poverty, stimulating infrastructural growth, boosting innovation and enhancing social and environmental sustainability.

Turkish academics have been arrested, detained, dismissed, imprisoned and tortured and Turkey’s president has seized total control of rector appointments as part of an existential battle to reshape the Turkish state – but at the cost of dismantling the freedom to think, question and share ideas.