15 September 2022  Issue No: 374

African universities must resist the blandishments of short-sighted politicians, wealthy donors and the advocates of radical change in higher education if they are to deliver on their core mandate of supporting local and national development, according to higher education researcher Nelson Masanche Nkhoma.

Against a backdrop of the allegations of inexplicable deaths of Nigerian students in Northern Cyprus, the Nigerian government has warned its citizens against moving to the south-eastern European island to study at any of its universities. This comes from the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, a federal government agency.

The advancement of green growth in Africa has implications for education and training as well as research and innovation, ranging from rethinking how to mainstream the green growth approach into the formal education system, to developing the required human resources. These proposed measures for green growth, among others, emerged from a new report.

Universities cannot pursue internationalisation for internationalisation’s sake but must consider it in relation to global geopolitical trends to be responsive to challenges. At the International Education Association of South Africa’s recent conference, it was also highlighted that internationalisation needs to be more equitable, inclusive and transformative.

The uncomfortable plight of postdoctoral research fellows, who are neither formally employed by their institutions nor categorised as students, and whose jobs are often open to casualisation, was highlighted during a national postdoctoral forum held in South Africa earlier this year. The need for a national postdoctoral network and database was also mooted.

A young Cameroonian university student has won multiple awards for an app that provides secondary school students with examination resources. Felix Fomengia, a masters student at the University of Buea, a tech entrepreneur and innovator, is now focusing on the tertiary education sector.

When outgoing University of Johannesburg Vice-Chancellor Professor Tshilidzi Marwala relocates to Tokyo, Japan, next year, he has no intention to leave Africa behind. Marwala wants to ensure that his work to advance the Fourth Industrial Revolution does not stop when he takes up his new job.

Neo-liberalism has devastated African universities, turning them from vibrant centres of new thinking and academic comradeship into factories churning out marketable academic products and “saleable” students, according to leading Tanzanian scholar-activist Issa Shivji.

Changing geopolitical dynamics marked by China’s increasingly nationalistic internal policies and assertive foreign relations will undoubtedly affect global higher education to the detriment of collaboration and research, but they will also carry a significant cost for higher education and research within China.

While academic freedom itself might sound like a unique notion, it is simply the commonplace and understandable request of workers asking for the conditions they need to competently and effectively carry out their duties as expected, required and urgently needed by society.

With almost a third of Pakistan inundated by floods, thousands of schools and colleges damaged and 15 universities deluged, medical, agricultural and veterinary universities are being urged to help prevent disease, save crops and protect livestock – and improve future climate impact research.