Armed conflict in the Libyan capital on 12 May has prompted the temporary suspension of academic and administrative activities at universities, and heightened concerns about security, particularly among Egyptian students at Tripoli University. The violence underscored the fragile stability of war-torn Libya following the 2011 uprising-turned-civil war.

While one of the biggest challenges facing research in Africa is inadequate funding from state and non-state actors, there is no shortage of competitive international funding for research globally, and local researchers need to improve their grant application skills to win the funding.

The German Academic Exchange Service, or DAAD, has opened a new regional office in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, from where activities in Cameroon and Nigeria will also take place. German universities are interested in collaborative projects with institutions in these countries.

A study into trends in postgraduate student numbers at South Africa’s 26 public universities revealed that, as a proportion of total enrolment between 2005 and 2020, undergraduate and postgraduate enrolment remained unchanged, putting the National Development Plan’s target for 2030 in jeopardy.

Cassava may have finally found a permanent place on Africa’s tables, thanks to gene-altering research that aims to delete its ‘not so good’ alter ego. The breakthrough is thanks to research by Dr Cecilia Mweu of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya.

The Euromed University of Fes in Morocco has unveiled a plan to build Africa’s first ‘smart hospital’ in a bid to advance its medical training, research and innovation. The establishment of the institution is part of the implementation plan to reform Morocco’s health system.

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, or RUFORUM, is seeking a partnership with the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, in strategic areas such as climate change science and resilience building; artificial intelligence and agriculture; and agrifood systems transformation.

Morocco has launched a three-year initiative, the National Programme to Attract and Retain Researchers for Development and Innovation, to attract and retain researchers to enhance the country’s innovation ecosystem and to position research as a key driver of sustainable national development.

A new World Bank report suggests that Africa’s future economic progress will depend on improving access to quality tertiary education, skills development and technical training. Some of the growth areas in which skills are needed are the creative sectors, fashion, tourism, manufacturing and agribusiness.

Setting trends is not new to Mount Kenya University in Nairobi, Kenya. Now, the university has done it again by joining the worldwide list of universities with medical degrees. The inclusion promises a bright future for young doctors in the Global North.

A Nigerian researcher is at the forefront of the battle against neglected tropical diseases, by combining advanced genomic techniques and field-deployable technology to unravel the complex biology of parasites which affect millions of people across Africa.

The University of Namibia is grappling with a shortage of cadavers for medical training, prompting the institution to appeal to the public for the donation of bodies. The university reportedly has only five cadavers for teaching purposes, including three on loan from South Africa.

The National Centre for Scientific Research, the main organisation for basic research in France, has spent €2.3 million (about US$2.6 million) over the past two years funding scientific research projects across Africa, signalling that it is establishing itself as a research partner for the continent.

The measurement of science, technology and innovation, or STI, in the African context is under-researched, but the knowledge base is growing, according to a study titled ‘Do we measure what should be measured? Towards a research and theoretical agenda for STI measurement in Africa’.

Nigeria’s federal government has officially scrapped the Bilateral Education Agreement scholarship programme after calling it a “waste of resources”. Under the programme, deserving students could go to countries such as China, Russia, Algeria, Hungary, Morocco, Egypt and Serbia for their higher education.

Renewed political violence in South Sudan, which has been escalating in the past few days, is harming this war-torn country’s already fragile higher education sector, academics and international officials say. Fear is keeping students away from class, and concern about their studies is growing.

The Academy of Science of South Africa, the country’s official national science academy, has issued a sharply worded public statement warning that science – and the international systems of scientific collaboration that sustain it – are “under threat” from the actions of the current United States administration under President Donald Trump.

The younger generation of science researchers has the responsibility of bringing innovative perspectives, ensuring sustainability, and adding the valuable and quality results required to accelerate much-needed economic growth in Cameroon.

At many Nigerian universities sport is an all-male affair, with no facilities, opportunities, teams or clubs for women. As Nigerian women athletes achieve on global sporting stages, more female students are demanding inclusive campus environments in which women can also participate and excel in sport.

The number of African students applying for international student visas to the United Kingdom dropped markedly after the British government’s ban on dependants took effect on 1 January 2024. The countries with the highest number of dependant applications in 2023 showed the highest decline in interest in 2024.

Algeria has launched a ‘rapid prototyping’ platform to bolster university-level entrepreneurial education by helping students to develop their innovative ideas and projects into startup businesses as part of efforts to position the country’s universities as key drivers of the knowledge economy.

The Nigerian federal government has introduced several policy reforms in the higher education system aimed at strengthening the transparency, equity and integrity in the recruitment of staff and the appointment process of vice-chancellors of universities, rectors of polytechnics, and provosts of colleges of education.

Morocco has unveiled plans to establish an institute dedicated to promoting AI research and its practical applications across various developmental sectors. The Jazari Institute, the third AI-focused centre in the country, aims to transform knowledge into technological solutions for sustainable development.

The adoption of micro-credentials in Southern Africa is fragmented because of limited regulatory guidance, but Mauritius has made significant progress in the conceptualisation of the concept, and some of its universities are collaborating with international institutions to offer credit-bearing courses that can translate into formal qualifications.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology hold the future for Africa’s achievement of some of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, including health, clean water, food security, energy and climate change, according to Professor Malik Maaza, a senior fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.

The Kenya School of Law will no longer be the country’s only legal provider of the Advocates Training Programme. In terms of a court ruling, a regulatory framework and standards should be developed to allow other institutions to also offer the programme.

Algerian researchers have developed the first home-made electronic chip as part of a broader national strategy to position universities as hubs for technological innovation – and to reinforce the role of Algeria’s higher education institutions as drivers of the knowledge economy.

African researchers, laboratories, institutions and repositories have the option of depositing their scientific output with the multidisciplinary French open archive, HAL, which publishes in both the English and French languages, to increase the visibility of research. It offers access to thousands of texts.

The Eswatini National Labour Market Skills Project report, which was recently published by the Eswatini Higher Education Council, identifies critical mismatches between the skills offered by the country’s higher education institutions and those required by the labour market.

A lecturer who was unjustly sacked by the University of Uyo in Nigeria in 2002 and fought a legal battle for 23 years before the Court of Appeal, Calabar, Cross River State, in December 2024 found the university had to reinstate him, died on 16 April 2025.

The African Union Commission has officially launched the African Space Agency at its headquarters in the Egyptian Space City in Cairo as part of its efforts to harness space technology for sustainable development and to coordinate the region’s work in this sphere.

Achieving ambitious development targets, including the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, will require more substantial leveraging of the power of science, technology and innovation to fight Africa’s multidimensional vulnerabilities and move from crisis to sustainable development.

Makerere University, one of the oldest educational institutions in Uganda, has put the work of about 80 of its researchers on display during a research and innovation week. The institution emphasised that local funding for its research helped it to determine its own research agenda.

Academic experts and policy-makers have set the stage for a long-term initiative aimed at strengthening the synergies between economic integration, or a free trade area, and higher education development across Africa, at a recent conference in Cameroon.

The Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has decided to replace French with English at universities, starting in September when the new academic year begins. Experts say the move reflects a wider anti-France mood in the region. They recommend a more gradual implementation process.

The Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Morocco has used an encrypted digital exam for the first time, as part of its efforts to tackle cheating and protect the integrity of the process. The technology was introduced in the faculty of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry.

The Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology, or CREST, at Stellenbosch University in South Africa recently celebrated its 30th anniversary – a fitting reflection of its evolution into arguably the continent’s foremost institution for science policy and research evaluation.

African universities must be transformative, provide contextually relevant, high-quality education comparable to global standards, and address historical inequalities in African education systems to avoid foreign dependency and continued brain drain.

In another attempt to safeguard the integrity of the higher education sector, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered several higher education regulatory bodies to clamp down on illegal tertiary institutions undermining the credibility of the education sector in the country.

In the past decade, the African Centres of Excellence programme has helped scientists to develop 108 improved crop varieties for food security in the region, has done pioneering genetic research on diseases such as malaria, Ebola and COVID-19, and delivered about 200 patents from research activities.

A decade after students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa sparked a global reckoning with the legacy of colonialism in higher education, the institution marked the 10th anniversary of the #Rhodes Must Fall movement – which reverberated far and wide under the social media hashtag #RMF.

The University of Zimbabwe has suspended leaders of its teaching union after they voted to go on strike over poor pay and working conditions. Union and student leaders said the suspension was an attempt to silence dissenting voices and an attack on academic freedom.

Malawi’s National Council for Higher Education has urged public and private universities to adhere to its guidelines for the awarding of honorary doctorate degrees to maintain the integrity and value of these degrees and prevent their misuse for financial, political or reputational gain.

The University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, recognised for its socially accountable, equity-centred medical education, will be the institutional home of the newly launched Consortium of Medical Schools in Africa, a continent-wide platform aimed at transforming professional health education.

Tackling flu season by combining scientists’ skills in genomic surveillance is about more than just knowing precisely which variant of a disease-causing virus is circulating at any given time in their respective countries. On the cards is a shared real-time early detection system of respiratory pathogens.

A Tunisian student fell to his death after attempting to hang a Palestinian flag on the building of the Higher School of Design Sciences and Technologies in Dandan in the Manouba Governorate, Tunisia, during a wave of protests in North Africa demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

All federal government-run tertiary education institutions in Nigeria have been directed to publish their key institutional data, including financial records, on their official websites by 31 May 2025. This follows a damning report in March which found institutions “grossly deficient” in making financial records accessible.

Human rights activists and legal experts have condemned the arrests of Ugandan students who were protesting about the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline, arguing that the actions taken against the students represent a suppression of free speech and peaceful assembly.

The critical and growing importance of empowering Africa’s youths through training and investment in skills development is a key message in the 2025 report of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa about the continent’s growth. An estimated 76 million young Africans are neither in employment nor education.

A new study on equity, mutual benefits and sustainability in higher education partnerships across Sub-Saharan Africa offers key insights into existing practices, challenges and opportunities for fostering balanced and impactful collaborations between African higher education institutions and international partners.

Algeria has unveiled a plan for setting up three new digital platforms, namely, a cloud computing, a drone-focused and a business incubator platform, as part of its efforts to promote research, entrepreneurship and job creation – and to accelerate sustainable development.

Tunisia is considering measures to facilitate the return of talent from abroad – an estimated 1.4 million people – to address the brain drain of the country’s graduates, in particular doctors and engineers. An inventory of skills abroad is recommended as the starting point.

Africa is on track to surpass the 1.5°C global warming threshold – the limit for the average temperature increase set by the Paris Agreement to contain global warming – in a mere 15 years, even under the most optimistic low-emission scenarios, new research has found.

Women dominate Namibia’s cabinet, which is led by Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the country’s first-ever female president, who has set clear education goals during campaigning, including overhauling the Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund.

A medical researcher at Uganda’s Mbarara University of Science and Technology is tackling the overlooked burden of post-tuberculosis lung disease in Uganda. His work focuses on creating a simple diagnostic tool to help primary healthcare providers detect and manage long-term respiratory complications in tuberculosis survivors.

A new interactive tool used for assessing university students’ digital skills for employability is helping African universities prepare graduates for the job market. The tool uses a chatbot to present a scenario with work-related tasks that require digital skills to perform to help students grow.

Tunisia has adopted a blockchain-powered system to verify education credentials to combat academic fraud – a move that is expected to facilitate student mobility to other national and foreign universities, along with enhancing graduate employment in the country and beyond.

The names of at least 300 university lecturers and other staff feature on a contentious list of people and organisations who are calling for the renewal of the presidential candidature of Paul Biya (92), who has been the head of state for 42 years after serving as the prime minister for seven years.

The new African Science, Technology and Innovation Leaders’ or ASTIL forum that has just been launched promises to significantly amplify the continent’s voice in global science at a time when nationalism and protectionism in other regions of the world are undermining the interconnectedness of the scientific community.

Tertiary education institutions in the Southern African Development Community, or SADC, convened in Johannesburg, South Africa, to initiate collaboration on co-creating a curriculum that aims to transform entrepreneurship through education.

The National Union of Mauritanian Students has written an open letter with demands to the country’s president following its exclusion from a meeting the head of state had with students. The letter calls for improvements in conditions that affect students’ lives.

Six students of the Kebbi State University of Science and Technology, Aliero, Nigeria, have died following an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis in the region. The university has introduced emergency protocols to contain cases, but students want the campus to be closed.

Researchers from South Africa and China have set a new world record in quantum communication, establishing the longest intercontinental, ultra-secure quantum satellite link to date. It also marks the southern hemisphere’s debut in quantum satellite communication.

University leaders this month called for more gender-responsive policies in higher education institutions amid an urgent need to strengthen the role of women researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and, most importantly, in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Higher education institutions in the East African region have data access and security measures such as access control and regular staff training in place, but key gaps in governance, such as a lack of policy frameworks and specialised data management units, hamper progress.

South Africa secured the most placements in Africa in the 15th edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject with 176 entries at 12 universities, an increase from 153 entries last year. Egypt was second on the continent and Nigeria third.

Kenya’s Commission for University Education has clamped down on 15 institutions for offering unapproved degree and postgraduate programmes, warning students and parents against enrolling in them. The commission’s announcement has sparked concerns about the rise of unregulated institutions offering substandard education.

Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has launched a national policy for sustainable innovation, which aims to transform the country into an innovative and sustainable knowledge society. Under the policy, seven regional alliances aimed at stimulating innovation across the country were also launched.

A new initiative to create synergies between academia and economic sectors has been unveiled to help retain talent and to drive Algeria’s industrial and technological growth. This follows an agreement between the ministry of higher education and scientific research and the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency.

The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, or STIAS, Africa’s only independent institute for advanced study and the sole one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It has hosted about 900 fellows since its inception, including several Nobel laureates.