By Wagdy Sawahel. Morocco is moving away from its current university entrance tests from next year, with admission to higher education in future to be primarily based on student performance in baccalaureate examinations using a ‘pre-selection’ system. Read more...

By Gilbert Nganga. Kenya plans to set up a US$1 billion National Research Fund to strengthen research in universities, with an eye to boosting innovation to push the country to become a middle-income economy by 2030. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. South Africa dominates an initial, ‘snapshot’ ranking of African universities, produced by Times Higher Education, or THE, and based only on research influence. A future Africa league table will be drawn from THE’s global rankings but will use “bespoke metrics” to be thrashed out at a continental summit being held in Johannesburg at the end of this month. Read more...

By Unsoo Jung. South Korea’s Ministry of Education plans to hold a contest searching for the best teaching and learning practices at cyber universities. The official objective is to improve quality but there is some concern that it could lead to a system to evaluate and rank cyber universities that provide online courses. Read more...

By Mary Beth Marklein and Mai Van Tinh. Plans for a United-States-backed university in Vietnam reached a milestone on Friday when Vietnamese officials granted an operating licence to the US non-profit organisation that is spearheading the initiative. Read more...

By Brendan O'Malley. China has strengthened its lead in the QS University Rankings: BRICS, which compares the top 200 institutions in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Read more...

By Eugene Vorotnikov. The Russian Council of the Federation – the upper house of the Russian Parliament – is proposing to ban certain foreign scientists and organisations operating in Russia who may pose a threat to the country’s national security, according to a spokesman of the press service of the Council. Read more...

Canada’s universities have adopted a set of principles outlining their shared commitment to enhancing educational opportunities for indigenous students and fostering reconciliation across Canada. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. Most of the 19 African centres of excellence being strengthened through a US$150 million World Bank initiative are up and running. Progress includes 3,510 students enrolled for specialised short courses, masters or PhDs – nearly 1,500 of them from other countries in the region. The project is now expanding from seven West African countries, to East and Southern Africa. Read more...