2 December 2021  Issue No: 339

China has promised to roll out higher education programmes in African countries spanning the medical, innovation, climate change and agricultural development fields in a wide-ranging support package that is poised to further cement Beijing’s footprint on the continent.

Africa has experienced more military coups than any other continent worldwide, with five coups this year alone – in Niger, Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan. This turns the spotlight on the role of African military academies in preparing military leaders for 21st-century security challenges.

Higher education has a vital role to play in actively, aggressively defending democracy – not just because it is the right thing to do, but because otherwise the rise of authoritarian, anti-knowledge movements will put democracy at further risk and threaten higher education itself.

Increasingly, more people are excited about astrophysics, but the primary goal of emerging space nations is not to follow what has been done, but to set a new narrative. As Africa participates in the space sector, it must do so to foster research to develop key sectors and conserve natural resources.

Three members of Zimbabwe’s San community, which has for centuries lived as hunter-gatherers, have made history by being the first to enrol in a university. The three students at Midlands State University pay their own tuition fees by working in construction at the university.

What impact has COVID had on international student mobility? A study of the latest figures for the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany show that Germany could replace Australia as the third most significant host country for international students as early as next year.

Academic concerns about the quality of transnational education and educational equality in transnational universities in China – particularly about the quality of English-medium instruction and Chinese students’ linguistic competence – reflect an urgent need to review the effectiveness of this way of teaching.

There will be no business as usual post-pandemic, agreed public higher education leaders from five countries at a gathering of the International Association of University Presidents. There has been an explosion of innovation in teaching and research, the best of which must be part of a future that vigorously tackles inequalities.