Transparency International published the Global Corruption Report: Education on 1 October, charting rising dishonesty in education worldwide. The report comprises more than 70 articles by experts in the field of corruption and education. University World News examines what it says about corruption and poor governance in higher education.

Last week the UK government published a review of massive open online courses, Britain's MOOCs platform – FutureLearn – launched its first courses, the Germany-based iversity announced that it would provide credits for courses on its platform, and we spoke to a researcher who has launched a MOOCs site in Vietnam.

A convening on “Higher Education Policy, Leadership and Governance” in Africa was held in Nairobi recently for grantees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The objectives were to share research, practices and findings on how grantees are influencing higher education policy and leadership, to identify gaps, develop a common vision and map the future. University World News, which received a grant to support its “Thoughts and experiences of African University Leaders” article series, was there.

Around 50 academics, policy experts and managers got together with development assistance agencies in Marseille on 1-2 July for a meeting of the OECD’s Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development – IHERD – programme, financed by the Swedish donor agency SIDA. The meeting had the theme “Increasing Evidence-based Approaches in the Design and Implementation of Innovation and Research Policy in Developing Countries”.

The “Worldviews 2013: Global trends in media and higher education” conference was held in Toronto in June co-hosted by University World News, Inside Higher Ed, the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Intersections between the media and higher education were debated at a lively gathering attended by 275 academics, journalists and professionals from around the world.

The OECD's annual report on the status of education in member countries, Education at a Glance 2013, was released last Tuesday. The five articles in this edition cover some of the higher education topics in the 440-page report, and will be followed next week by accounts on the performance of a range of countries.

The various methods used to rank the world's universities have all attracted criticisms and generated ongoing controversies. The articles that follow consider some of the issues surrounding the creation of university league tables.

The 6th International Conference on Higher Education organised by the Global University Network for Innovation – GUNI – was held in Barcelona in mid-May. The theme was “Knowledge, Transformation and Higher Education”, and the conference explored ways in which community engagement enhances teaching, learning and research in higher education as well as challenges, new approaches and trends. University World News was there.

In this special three-part series are accounts by academics and University World News journalists revealing how PhD students in more than two dozen countries face the challenges of completing their studies in another country – or, as in Greece, are fleeing economic disaster at home. The second set of reports will be published next week.

University World News launches a new Special Report on “Higher Education Philanthropy in Africa”, which will comprise a series of articles on the involvement of major donors in universities across the continent. There has been intense debate around development aid to Africa, and the series will paint a picture of donor funding of African higher education, and analyse its impacts and implications.