More than 400 people gathered in Washington DC last week for the annual conference of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, CHEA, and the first annual meeting of the CHEA International Quality Group. University World News interviewed CHEA President Judith S Eaton and we publish her pre-conference commentary on the ‘credit hour’.

Irina Bokova, director general of UNESCO, signalled that her organisation’s focus on primary education was expanding to include more work supporting higher education, at the World Innovation Summit for Education held in Doha last week. But insiders suggested otherwise.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI, held its Higher Education Summit 2012 in New Delhi last week. University World News was there.

Despite the remarkable growth of women students in higher education in many countries worldwide, women continue to be under-represented in senior positions in the sector. This Special Report brings together University World News articles focusing on issues around gender in higher education and women in leadership positions.

The OECD published its 2012 Education at a Glance report on Tuesday. Geoff Maslen overviews this key education publication, and we publish an editorial by OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría and extracts from the report.

IEASA held its annual conference in Cape Town from 29 August to 1 September. University World News was there, along with more than 250 academics and international higher education practitioners from around the world. This is the first of a two-part Special Report on the conference.

Universities and colleges in the UK, particularly those in London, have created new programmes of activity for the 2012 Olympic Games. But it is what they do after the gold medals have been handed out that will decide what the lasting legacy will be for higher education.

Rio+20 begins next week. University World News looks at ways in which universities are involved in sustainable development and environment debates and research, and their role at the summit.

The 64th NAFSA conference was held from 29 May to 1 June in Houston, Texas. The world’s largest international educators' gathering attracted more than 8,000 participants from 100 countries. University World News reports.