By Brendan O'Malley. Britain’s Labour Opposition believes the current system of charging higher education students tuition fees is unfair and unsustainable. If it wins the general elections in May, Labour could opt instead for a graduate tax. Read more...
By Munyaradzi Makoni. In three years the State University of Zanzibar has doubled its student intake, albeit from a low base – from 1,224 in 2011 to 2,489 in 2014. In so doing it has bust the myth that the small island of 1.3 million off the coast of Tanzania cannot support more than one university. Read more...
By Karen MacGregor. South Africa’s senior academics are better rewarded than comparable staff in the public and private sectors, and they are relatively better paid than lower-ranked lecturers, according to a study by the vice-chancellors' association Higher Education South Africa, or HESA. This is good news for retaining senior staff but bad news for building the next generation of academics. Read more...
By Reuben Kyama and Eric Kabeera. Rwandan universities have embarked on an ambitious programme to teach Kiswahili, East Africa’s lingua franca, to enable the country’s populace to tap into regional integration. Read more...
By Munyaradzi Makoni. Britain’s Institute of Development Studies, or IDS, will select nine African universities over two years to participate in a new programme to boost the research and teaching practices of academics working in agriculture, health and the environment. The British government is funding the scheme with a £2 million (US$3 million) grant. Read more...
The University of Ghana has been awarded DKK9 million (US$1.4 million) in funding under the second phase of the Danish Building Stronger Universities programme – a partnership between universities in developing countries and in Denmark. Read more...
By Wagdy Sawahel. The cooperation plan was the outcome of the First Sudanese-Turkish Universities Collaboration Forum and Education Fair, held in the Sudanese capital Khartoum from 12-14 January. Read more...
By Maina Waruru. Kenya’s higher education regulator, the Commission for University Education, or CUE, wants professional bodies barred from accrediting graduates in key professions and wants to take over the role, to avoid frequent stand-offs between the associations and universities. Read more...
By Wagdy Sawahel. Somalia’s higher education sector has been growing rapidly. However, lack of government oversight, low quality, high levels of poverty, political instability and security challenges have been hindering reforms. A new prime minister has raised hopes – but is likely to be distracted by numerous other pressing problems. Read more...
By Liudvika Leisyte. Impartiality in peer review has been a focus of recent debate as a number of studies have shown that peer review is not as impartial as it is assumed to be (e.g. Lamont, 2009). Studies have shown that peer-review in academia is biased against many characteristics of the author such as prestige, affiliation, content orientation (such as conservatism), interdisciplinary biases, the social characteristics of peer-reviewers, and the composition of the peer-review team. I find it especially interesting that language, as well as nationality, are a strong source of bias in peer review. More...
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