31 March 2022  Issue No: 353

The basic features of a new multilateral world order form the foundation for the joint agreement signed by the African and European unions, creating a window of opportunity for universities on both continents to strengthen their collaboration. It is up to universities to show that they are able to use this opportunity.

Among the many performance-based funding models available to African universities, performance contracts are a good option because they allow for a tailored approach to individual institutions and emphasise negotiation between governments and universities over goals to be achieved in return for funding.

“There is an abundance of human talent in Africa, but it has not been coming through into advanced technical fields,” says Professor Neil Turok, who founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. In this way, African universities are failing to nurture academic talent.

Ethiopia’s two decade-old Higher Education Relevance and Quality Assurance Agency has recently changed its name to the Education and Training Authority with new mandates and responsibilities. While this change could have been driven by a genuine desire to extend its services, their realisation is expected to be hindered by a plethora of challenges.

The discipline of physical anthropology has a dark, often fraught past. It was misused to justify slavery and even genocide. A new book points out that modern academics struggle to find ways to balance the roles of sociology and genetics in their research, but an understanding of the past will help them.

Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University surveying and geomatics student Kumbirai Matingo created a national COVID-19 Hub that provides location-based data and analytical resources to help locals, decision-makers and people in technical fields to fight the virus. He wants to use geospatial technology to change people’s lives.

Academics need to conduct relevant science in terms of data collection and policy-makers need to have a deep understanding about the topics that they are being asked to consider, says Dr Pamela Welz, a senior researcher at the Applied Microbial and Health Biotechnology Institute at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa.

The phenomenal growth of higher education in the Global South between 2006 and 2013 is over, according to a new report, and experts say the focus is increasingly turning to issues such as improving quality, the role of private providers, and funding.

The African and European unions’ innovation agenda is truly ground-breaking. Political elites in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia, and even those in China and Russia, would do well to take heed of the development philosophy that underlies this transcontinental plan.

The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees offers a vital opportunity for refugees such as those now fleeing Ukraine to hone their skills, help their host countries, and be in a stronger position to go back and rebuild their country once the crisis is over.

Looking back on attempts to address racism in higher education in the United States shows that earlier optimism about progress being achieved was misplaced and that racism is so deeply embedded in the US that a much greater effort needs to be made to root it out.