The beginning of the New Year has seen universities scrambling to keep up with the large number of applications received, with many students bound to be left disappointed as spaces are limited, writes Avantika Seeth for City Press. Read more...

According to unofficial reports, the Committee for Ethics in Science and Higher Education has found Croatian Minister of Science and Education Pavo Barisic guilty of plagiarism, writes Vedran Pavlic for Total Croatia News. Read more...

Peers have struck an early note of opposition to government plans for the opening of higher education to competition, highlighting the risk of a cross-party revolt against the proposals, write Helen Warrell and Henry Mance for Financial Times. Read more...

At least a dozen German research institutions have started the new year without access to Elsevier journals after an acrimonious breakdown in licence negotiations between the country’s research organisations and the publisher, writes David Matthews for Times Higher Education. Read more...

A masters student at Georgetown University in the United States who researches human rights and migrant labour in the Middle East was denied a student visa to spend the fall semester at the university’s Qatar campus, renewing concerns about the limits on academic freedom at American campuses in the region, writes Elizabeth Redden for Inside Higher Ed. Read more...

Huge cuts in government funding to public universities in the United States has led affected institutions to ramp up their recruitment of international students to offset the budget shortage, new research has revealed, reports Study International. Read more...

By Goldie Blumenstyk, The Chronicle of Higher Education. George Ciccariello-Maher, an associate professor of politics and global studies at Drexel University, says he was being satirical when on 24 December he posted on Twitter: "All I want for Christmas is white genocide". Read more...

By Nic Mitchell. The European Union’s showpiece Erasmus+ mobility and cooperation programme should be simplified and its “cumbersome” processes streamlined, according to a survey by the European University Association, or EUA. Read more...

By Hans de Wit. Last year was a year of many surprises and challenges for higher education and for its international dimensions. Brexit, the United States presidential elections, the political crisis in Turkey, the new leadership in the Philippines and in other countries, as well as the refugee challenge and terrorist attacks in Europe, have all had a serious impact. Read more...

By Frank Ziegele and Frans van Vught. In the paper International University Rankings: For good or ill?, published by the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Policy Institute or HEPI, Bahram Bekhradnia conducts a thorough and convincing critique of university rankings and highlights significant concerns. Read more...