4 November 2021  Issue No: 335

As universities start reopening their campuses, teaching and learning options should go beyond the binary approach. A more complex, inclusive, nuanced view incorporating multiple factors, including pedagogies, platforms, contexts, practices and research, needs to be synthesised.

The University of Cambridge’s Jesus College has become the first institution to officially hand over a Benin Bronze artefact to Nigeria – a bronze cockerel known as the Okukor – one of thousands of artefacts looted by British soldiers in an act of colonial violence.

We cannot manage or improve what we do not measure. A well-constructed and fully adopted Research Excellence Barometer for Africa, or REBA, would guide the continent to support the right research, by the right people, in the right places, and for the right reasons.

A student entrepreneur recalls how he bounced back from disaster, thanks to mentorship and support by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture and the Transforming African Agricultural Universities to Meaningfully Contribute to Africa’s Growth and Development or TAGDev project.

An analysis of 32,061 published articles reporting health research conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa found that approximately one in seven published articles did not include any authors from the country where the study was conducted.

Inefficient management of the abundant natural resources in Africa prompted experts to call on universities on the continent to join the ‘education for circularity’ movement to equip students with knowledge and skills in circular thinking.

One of the critical reasons for the slow action on gender equity in Africa and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5, is the under-investment in women’s empowerment strategies. In the higher education sector, various organisations are facilitating gender financing through building institutional capacity. Success stories are emerging.

Racism against Chinese and other large Asian communities in the United States has become more rampant, but Asian international students are ill-equipped to discuss race so US colleges and universities should help them – by enhancing counselling, support and training on race and racism for international students.

The technology already exists for universities to deliver live, online and asynchronous teaching so why not give more students the choice to learn in a way that best suits them by combining all three simultaneously? It’s a much more inclusive way of teaching.

The United Nations climate change summit known as COP26 opens today amid warnings that the world is way off track on its carbon emissions targets. Governments must step up, but universities, too, have a vital role to play in enabling effective climate action and improving resilience.

The 2021 World Access to Higher Education Day or WAHED online conference is being held on 17 November. ‘WAHED 2021: Who will be going to university in 2030?’ will include more than 20 top speakers from six continents. You are invited to participate in this free event.