13 April 2023  Issue No: 401

The World Bank has recommended that Africa produce as many as 100,000 PhD students in a decade. But that does not mean standard processes should be sacrificed on the altar of quantity. Africa needs quality PhDs, which takes time, effort, expertise, commitment and resources.

Transdisciplinarity is a key component of the revised Southern African climate change and sustainable development masters degree programme, as it emphasises collaboration, teamwork and communication across different fields of study and will help to develop a deep understanding of the social, economic and cultural contexts of the region.

A group of innovative universities in Sub-Saharan Africa are working on a common problem. How can they bring economic opportunities to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population? Their solutions to upscale training in digital skills could make all the difference to the continent’s future.

Well-structured mentorship models that use project-based learning can help bridge curriculum and training gaps for graduate students pursuing bioinformatics and other scientific courses, and help to cultivate well-trained and highly competitive bioinformaticians, trials in Kenya revealed. Africa’s high burden of infectious diseases calls for capacity-building in bioinformatics.

Students who are members of the Climate Students Movement have been working across country and regional borders to create awareness about climate change, in particular during April, which they observe as Sustainability Month. The movement mobilises student groups to push higher education institutions to become ‘brave climate leaders’.

Universities in Africa should make the most of their current ‘window of opportunity’ to access part of the €150 billion (US$163 billion) that the European Union agreed to invest in the areas of public health, a green transition, innovation and technology as well as capacities for science.

This is part of a weekly University World News special report series on ‘AI and higher education’. The focus is on how universities are engaging with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools. The articles from academics and our journalists around the world are exploring developments and university work in AI that have implications for higher education institutions and systems, students and staff, and teaching, learning and research.

Claudine Gay will become Harvard University’s second female president and first black president in July 2023, meaning six out of eight Ivy League institutions – America’s elite private research universities – will have women leaders. What does this mean for gender equity in higher education?

An academic who began her career in South Africa and rose to become what she calls the ‘accidental vice-chancellor’ of a troubled British university recounts her five-year stint at the helm in a new report published by the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Policy Institute.