Italy's national anti-corruption chief Raffaele Cantone recently vowed to wage war on nepotism, cronyism and graft in the country's universities, reports IANS. Read more...

The government has today announced that European Union students applying for a place at an English university in the 2017 to 2018 academic year will continue to be eligible for student loans and grants – and will be for the duration of their course. Read more...

United Arab Emirates authorities have violated basic rights in their prosecution of an Emirati academic, a coalition of nine human rights organisations said on 13 October. Read more...

By Francis Kokutse. African universities need to narrow the gap between men and women in academic positions by creating opportunities and encouraging more females to enter academia, says Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela, vice-provost for international affairs and global strategic studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. Read more...

By Brennan Weiss. In 2011, Izzeldin Osman founded a PhD programme in computer science and information technology at Sudan University of Science and Technology, or SUST, aimed at empowering women to enter more senior academic positions. So far, 12 women have graduated. Another 113 women are currently enrolled. Read more...

By Brennan Weiss. In ancient Greece, citizens converged in city squares called agoras to trade goods and share ideas. They were the political, economic, cultural and philosophical hubs of Greek civilisation and the exchanges that took place there altered the course of history. In today’s more globalised world, agoras are online, where people from all over the world can share knowledge over social media. Read more...

By Francis Kokutse. The world has become more interconnected because of globalisation and African universities need to find a way of taking advantage of efforts to globalise higher education in order to become relevant to the people they serve, according to the secretary general of the Association of African Universities or AAU, Etienne Ehouan Ehile. Read more...

By Brennan Weiss. Transnational education, or TNE, has become a fixture in higher education. Many universities see it as an advantage in today’s more globalised and interconnected world. Read more...

By Katharine Gelber. All universities acknowledge the role that academics have in public engagement. The University of Sydney, for example, states that staff “are encouraged to engage in debate on matters of public importance”. The University of Queensland states that staff are encouraged “to contribute to public debate and media comment”. Read more...

By Zachariah Mushawatu. At the start of his first lecture with a group of new students a prominent University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer always used to say: “I know there are spies among you sent to record what I say in my lectures – go ahead, I don’t care.” Read more...