11 August 2022  Issue No: 369

The announcement by the London-based Horniman Museum of the return to Nigeria of 72 artefacts that have been in its collection for about 125 years has spawned divergent responses from experts in the West African country’s academic and cultural communities.

A lack of trust in the value of the qualifications and the quality of tuition offered by private higher education institutions are among the reasons why this sector has not grown to complement public higher education in South Africa.

Local universities could play a significant role in the socio-economic transformation of their immediate and extended communities. Inyathelo, a non-profit trust, has commissioned a working paper on anchor institutions to build on an initial conversation on the potential of South African universities to serve an anchoring role within their communities.

Race, ethnicity, gender and religion contribute to complex political and social challenges facing communities and countries in Africa. Yet, a study on the volume of research focusing on diversity-related topics shows that, with the exception of South Africa, limited research on the continent is dealing with these issues.

For Kumbirai Nicholas Matingo, a student at Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University, the building of a satellite ground-station will count as one of his lifetime achievements. The university received a satellite ground-station kit in June 2022 from the Space Generation Advisory Council, a global non-governmental organisation seeking to nurture space leaders.

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.

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.