28 July 2022  Issue No: 367

Higher education systems must be rebalanced to produce the skills and knowledge African countries need for their development, according to Peter Materu, chief programme officer for the Mastercard Foundation. To this end, he suggests incentives that place a premium on producing employable graduates.

Campus Africa, a UNESCO education-focused programme, will serve as a platform aimed at transforming and reinforcing higher education in Africa, and asserting the right to education as a ‘public common good’. It is also envisaged that it will boost research capacity in higher education institutions.

This has to be the decade of decisive climate action. That means trust, multilateralism and collaboration. With half of humanity in danger zones, we have a choice: ‘Collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands,’ UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned.

Institutional cultures reflect and reproduce prevailing and intertwined national and global contexts, challenges, and opportunities. The United States International University Africa institutional culture also exhibited the complexities and contradictions of its history, location and aspirations.

The future of African journal publishing requires strong national research ecosystems and the creation of alternative circuits of academic credibility that diversify the global research system and challenge the power held by the dominant citation indexes that exclude the majority of Africa’s journals.

As COVID-19 forced universities and faculty towards virtual and blended learning modalities, some institutions started to experiment with innovative teaching and learning practices. The Aga Khan University has been reaping the benefits of embracing disruption as a positive force that can improve learning outcomes.

In a decision that has hit many students like a sledgehammer, the Nigerian medical regulatory body has announced that it will not recognise medical and dental degree certificates issued by Ukrainian universities from 2022. These students will not be able to sit for their licensing examinations.

The largely ignored but serious challenges facing the United States – increasing instability including geopolitical tensions, mass shootings, the politicisation of higher education, racism and the potential return of Trump – are accelerating the decline of the country as the undisputed global academic leader.

The UK Visas and Immigration agency as well as the country’s universities embraced technology throughout the COVID pandemic so it stands to reason that technological innovation is the key to solving the current bottlenecks in the processing of visa applications for international students.

Hopes of saving the UK’s full participation in the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme are fading, with the European Commission launching four infringement procedures against the UK for not complying with parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement covering the Northern Ireland Protocol.