4 August 2022  Issue No: 368

The World Bank and the Inter-University Council for East Africa have signed a multimillion-US dollar grant agreement that will go towards the strengthening of agriculture higher education and research in Mozambique and Malawi – a project that can ultimately contribute to food security.

About 80 million Africans have disabilities and those who attend school have dramatically lower prospects of ever attending university, according to the United Nations. But a growing number of good practice case studies in Africa are helping to guide universities and colleges to boost higher education access.

Governments are often unaware of the knowledge and expertise within universities, while academics do not perceive governments as partners or users of their knowledge. But stronger partnerships between universities and governments can help to solve cross-sectorial and systemic challenges related to climate change.

A major challenge facing universities in Africa is supplementing government funding of higher education with other sources of income. Private philanthropy can help institutions, which is why the establishment and strengthening of advancement offices are becoming increasingly important. What are the skills and human resource needs of these offices?

The Peer Review Portal goes where no other platforms have dared to go – by building a community committed to the promotion of quality education and aligning the peer review process and outcomes to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals through collective community partnerships.

Marine farming in Mozambique and the country’s research capacity in the field of aquaculture are set to benefit from the work of Dr Valera Dias, a senior lecturer from the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo and a beneficiary of the African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence, or ARISE, programme.

Increased competition in academia is driving established researchers to guard their research fields in the interests of avoiding competition and minimising the risk of research being published that counters their own – often at the expense of younger researchers and those from underrepresented groups.

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.