The Association of African Universities, the African Union Commission and the European Union have issued a call to African universities to join the second phase of their Harmonisation and Tuning initiative. Read more...

By Kudzai Mashininga. Zimbabwe has established a fund for university graduates to start businesses to help stem the country’s high employment rate, currently pegged at 90%. Most graduates end up on the streets, with some even resorting to vending as Zimbabwe’s economic crisis deepens. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. South African institutions have performed well in the new QS – Quacquarelli Symonds – World University Rankings by Subject 2015. There are seven of the country's universities in the ranking, South African institutions cumulatively appear 15 times among the top 100 across the disciplines and the University of Cape Town is seventh globally in development studies. Read more...

By Tunde Fatunde. Developments in the selections of vice-chancellors and councils in public universities have not gone down well with members of Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities. Many believe the selection process and behaviour of some vice-chancellors and council members have weakened autonomy and strengthened government’s hold on public universities. Read more...

By Wagdy Sawahel. Under the US-Egypt Higher Education Initiative, the US will provide up to 1,900 scholarships and exchanges to Egyptians in five scholarship components and in strategic fields that it is hoped will contribute to Egypt’s economic prosperity. Read more...

By Wachira Kigotho. Almost a month after al-Shabaab Islamist militants stormed Garissa University College and killed 148 people, Kenya’s government has admitted that there was actionable intelligence that the college would be attacked – but security chiefs ignored the threat. Read more...

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. This week in our Commentary section Simon Marginson explores the link between wealth and access to the upper reaches of higher education and calls for mass education to be shored up through government guarantees and funding mechanisms. Ly Tran and Catherine Gomes say overuse of stereotypes of international students as victims, cheaters or permanent residence hunters is harming Australia’s attempts to create an inclusive intellectual and intercultural environment for all students. Patrick Prendergast asks what has to be done to ensure research in Europe is supported in ways that can promote the development of innovative products and the engagement of entrepreneurs.
In our World Blog, Hans de Wit says the relationship between academic disciplines and internationalisation of the curriculum is poorly understood.
In Features, Brendan O’Malley looks at the lessons learned from the investigation into mistreatment of workers during the construction of New York University’s Abu Dhabi Main Campus. Wachira Kigotho explores the constraints on agricultural research in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Paul Rigg reports on a rural Spanish town that has attracted academic attention for its unique use of urban art to drive its economic growth. Read more...