11 May 2023  Issue No: 405

The traditional forms of competition and collaboration in higher education and research have been transformed over the past few decades as the role of knowledge in innovation, economic growth and social change has become more prominent. How can universities better navigate the changed relationship between competition and collaboration?

The students’ union of the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Tripoli in Libya has called on the university presidency and the ministry of higher education and scientific research to investigate the death of a female pharmacy student, which is allegedly related to the institution’s poor handling of medical excuses.

If the implementation of nationally standardised academic promotion criteria continues to remain uneven across institutions in Ethiopia, the credibility and legitimacy of the sector is being undermined. The Ethiopian Ministry of Education – and institutions – have to find ways to work towards a more uniform system.

Little research on emergency care in Africa was conducted between 2011 and 2021, according to South African researchers. This is likely due to the nascency of the discipline in Africa and resonates with the other barriers to the success of African doctoral programmes.

The role of science in planetary sustainability was emphasised and applauded when the four winners – three of them working in developing contexts – were named in the International Champions of the Frontiers Planet competition. The prize hopes to mobilise and inspire scientists, and funders of science, to scale up their efforts in advancing planetary health.

Academics in 5,000 institutions in 107 low- and medium-income countries will benefit from the Cambridge Open Equity Initiative, a pilot project that will allow them to publish their research in about 400 open-access journals that are owned by the Cambridge University Press – at no cost to them.

Rather than an attempt to ‘cancel’ him, exploring honestly and transparently the legacy of J William Fulbright provides an opportunity to face his ‘mixed legacy’, and also that of the field of international education or IE – along with potential contemporary complicities with racial injustice.

Building cyber resilience in higher education institutions is a process that starts with a review of existing systems, requires investment in the areas that need it most, and can be maintained only through continued review and an ongoing commitment to cybersecurity from everybody.

Top research institutions such as Canada’s University of Waterloo are implementing multilevel research security plans that seek to safeguard both the sensitive research undertaken at the university and its researchers, while at the same time honouring the cherished principle of academic freedom.