16 February 2023  Issue No: 393

Students from universities across Goma have been protesting against the closure of universities and are demanding that the government does more to restore peace in areas affected by conflict. At least 20 institutions have closed as hostilities between M23 rebels and the government army intensified, displacing about 520,000 people since March 2022.

Higher education is accelerating action for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with universities showing “more substantial institutional commitment”, more actors involved, and taking increasingly holistic approaches, according to the third International Association of Universities’ survey on higher education and research for sustainable development.

Active maintenance is required to defend collegiality, a distinctive feature of university governance that has a global dimension. International research is finding that collegiality is often taken for granted and sometimes even forgotten about, and that islands of collegiality are at risk of being perverted.

Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto Scholars’ Forum in Nigeria serves as an incubation hub where the best brains are being nurtured to take deliberate action on their personal development. Students who have joined the club have been able to turn their excellent grades into further opportunities.

More than 80% of medical students at three institutions in Rwanda displayed mild sleeping disturbances, according to a study. It suggests open discussions between medical students and academic staff to alleviate potential causes for the problem, including sleep deprivation.

From suggestions to ban ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, to adjusting curricula and assessment formats, the academic community in North Africa, as in other parts of the world, disagrees about how the higher education sector should respond to the latest text tool.

The idea of creating in the Amazon a global university dedicated to saving the most consequential ecosystem of the planet seems like an unavoidable call to action. The question is not whether we should embrace the idea, but how we can make it work.

Helping university instructors to become more aware of the metacognitive biases of first-year students when it comes to students’ evaluation of their own academic performance is crucial to the effective implementation of suitable systematic pedagogical approaches that may lower first-year dropout rates.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is fuelling his White House ambitions by launching a blitzkrieg of measures aimed at derailing the on-campus fight against racism, sexism and anti-LGBTQ actions, and whitewashing United States history. It is likely to spark a series of legal challenges.