21 September 2023  Issue No: 421

France has suspended student mobility with Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso and told new students from those countries who were about to start studies in France that they may not come after all. Current scholarship students without valid visas will also not be able to travel to France.

The Cameroon Bar Association has urged the country’s government to find a lasting solution to the predicament faced by about 400 Cameroonian law students who are studying in Rwanda, but who have been refused the opportunity to sit for the Rwandan bar’s exams.

Collaboration among research institutions and increased funding have been identified as key factors in driving conservation and sustainable development action in the Congo Basin, an area about 75 million people depend on for survival.

In Africa, univerisities should be global in outlook and should provide a unifying pan-African education and create a continental citizenship, thereby going beyond being tribal, Islamic, colonial or neo-colonial, suggests a contributor to a book on universities in Africa published recently.

Higher education institutions in Africa have been relegated to a marginal position in global knowledge production. A shift is needed towards the knowledge economy, diverse epistemologies, diversifying higher education systems, and engaging with international dimensions while promoting progressive and innovative policies in African universities.

The rationale for and format of final-year academic dissertations require a rethink, some academics and educators in Rwanda have said, also questioning the relevance and quality of these research outputs which are required for graduation in many higher education systems.

Students at several tertiary education institutions in Nigeria are complaining about a lack of access to adequate health care on campus. In many cases, the clinics have too few staff, causing long waiting periods. A lack of medication also forces them to seek treatment elsewhere.

A union made up of university academics in Libya has announced an open-ended sit-in protest and has suspended studies in all the country’s universities until its full demands – relating in the main to salaries and overseas scholarships – are met by the government.

The deal struck to get British researchers back in the Horizon programme has been welcomed in the United Kingdom and on the continent. But it is not just down to policy-makers. Much of the hard work has been done by institutions and individuals, based on enduring relationships.

Universities in Britain need to get ahead of the politicians when it comes to visa clampdowns by providing the kind of data policy-makers take note of, proving that universities are good and responsible stewards who accept only international students with the requisite skills and intentions.

China’s tightened control of access to data and data exports has made it more difficult to independently seek out or verify statistics on the ground. New data security laws have also created a research environment in which even minimal connection or collaboration with China must be handled with extreme care.

Half-way to the target date for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, University World News – in partnership with global quality assurance provider ABET – launches a series of special reports on how higher education can best equip students with the skills, knowledge and values needed to shape a sustainable future.