Some 800 people from around the world gathered for the British Council’s Going Global 2016 conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3-5 May. This is the second of two weeks of reports on the conference by University World News.

African government and private sector leaders, and top scientists and civil society advocates from across the continent and world have been in Senegal for the first Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering, held from 8-10 March under the theme “Connecting Science to Humanity”. With a focus on women and young scientists, the conference was aimed at advancing African science and innovation. University World News was a media partner.

The Syrian conflict has fuelled population shifts that in Europe are the greatest since World War II and in countries next door to the war zone are swamping the local population – Lebanon, for instance, now has a greater number of refugees than its own citizens. University World News looks at the challenges of making access to higher education a key part of the response.

Universities UK, the vice-chancellors' body, held its fourth International Higher Education Forum in London on 1 March, attended by more than 400 delegates, to discuss some of the key trends, challenges and opportunities facing global higher education.

On 3-5 May education world leaders will descend on Cape Town, South Africa, for Going Global 2016, an open forum to debate international higher and further education issues and challenges, and to discuss collaborative solutions, for which University World News is a media partner. The focus will be on 'Building nations and connecting cultures: education policy, economic development and engagement'. This week and last week, our reporters have been previewing some of the key topics that will be discussed.

Comparative assessment of learning outcomes, shared principles of quality assurance, tackling corruption, and adapting accreditation to non-traditional providers were among the key topics at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, or CHEA, 2016 and the CHEA International Quality Group, or CIQG, 2016 conferences held in Washington, DC last week, for which University World News is a media partner. Mary Beth Marklein reports for University World News.

Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, CODESRIA, has been running a three-year Higher Education Leadership Programme that commissioned comparative research on a range of leadership and governance issues in African higher education. The initiative is reaching its conclusion and a HELP Dissemination and Policy Dialogue Workshop was held last November in Arusha, Tanzania, to present and debate the research produced.

The UNESCO Science Report: Towards 2030, launched last Tuesday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, provides more country level information on the trends and developments in science, technology and innovation policy and governance than ever before. University World News highlights some of the report’s findings.

The South African Technology Network, a grouping of universities of technology in South Africa and Namibia, held its Eighth Annual International Conference 2015 at Vaal University of Technology from 19-21 October. The theme was “Entrepreneurship Education for Economic Renewal”. This is the first of two special reports from the conference, which was attended by University World News.

The World Innovation Summit for Education, or WISE Summit, held in Doha, Qatar from 3 to 5 November under the theme “Investing for Impact: Quality education for sustainable and inclusive growth”, brought together public and private sector operators, policy-makers, governments, NGOs and foundations from over 100 countries.