29 June 2023  Issue No: 412

A recent petition signed by 56 law professors, human rights lawyers and civil society groups demanding the release of political prisoners in Tunisia warns that such democratic regressions harm both the practice and teaching of law to the new generation of students.

The first edition of a Sub-Saharan Africa ranking has just been published. Whether you like or loathe rankings, what is important is not whether an institution appears on any ranked list, but whether it is helping individuals to a better future, says Dr Peter Wells of UNESCO Southern Africa.

National research and education networks or NRENs play a role in addressing climate change by supporting collaboration across borders and disciplines and promoting awareness and action. By investing in them, governments and research organisations can support the global response to climate change and promote sustainable development.

To chart a more equitable, just and sustainable way forward for higher education and internationalisation, the higher education sector has to look back critically and assess the past practices, concepts, approaches, achievements and challenges. Only in this way can it begin to develop a way forward.

We live in a time of unprecedented evolution and transformation in mankind’s history. There have been more innovations, technological strides and evolution in all sectors in the past 50 years than over the thousands of years of humanity’s history preceding this period.

Professor Olusola Oyewole, secretary-general of the Association of African Universities, has called for impactful research that can tackle societal challenges and, looking ahead to the 22nd Conference of Rectors, Vice-Chancellors and Presidents of African Universities from 4-7 July, said the Africa Charter for transformative research collaboration will be launched.

If the advances towards open access publishing brought by COVID are to be sustained once the pandemic has subsided, scientists themselves will need to have a greater say in defining the future of scientific publishing and in governing its infrastructure and processes.

Algeria will host the US$57 million Great Museum of Africa which is heralded as a platform for presenting Africa’s diverse history, art and cultural achievements and will serve as a centre for education, research and cultural exchange – deepening understanding of the continent on many levels.

The African Research Universities Alliance and the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities have announced the launch of 17 joint Clusters of Research Excellence, each co-led by leading universities from each continent in an initiative set to transform the nature of collaborative research, foregrounding equity as a precondition for excellent and impactful research.

It is clear that the thinking and models that underpinned the first phase of higher education massification are no longer appropriate to meet individual and societal demands and requirements today and into the future. Accordingly, I want to talk about the tertiary ecosystem.

It is both a privilege and a responsibility to play a role in the validation of an academic’s submission for promotion. It is therefore vital that the institution concerned provides clear guidance to external international expert referees about the process at that institution.

The massive increase in the number of international students in Ontario’s colleges – from 26,000 in 2015 to 99,000 in 2022 – has fuelled a larger crisis of housing affordability, and is part of a country-wide problem. Is there an alternative model of affordable student housing?