By Kudzai Mashininga. The University of Zimbabwe has readmitted two student leaders suspended two years ago on the basis of draconian regulations that students say they will continue to challenge. More...

By Maina Waruru. Returning to the department of chemistry at Multimedia University of Kenya after completing his PhD studies at the State University of New York in the United States, Dickson Andala was frustrated by the lack of local laboratories that could analyse his samples he needed for his research. More...

By Gilbert Nganga. The vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi has asked the government to review the budgetary allocation to his university after the treasury failed to meet public universities’ requisitions for the forthcoming fiscal year. More...

By Brendan O'Malley. Dozens of academic titles have offered a sham scientist a place on their editorial board, according to an investigation by researchers, published in Nature, the international weekly journal of science. More...

By Michael Gardner. With elections ahead in Germany, the issue of tuition fees in higher education has resurfaced. While the Social Democrats reject fees, views are split among, and even within, some of the other parties. More...

By Brendan O'Malley. The Australian government has unveiled its new National Science Statement, which emphasises the long-term importance of science to the nation’s economy and society, with Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Arthur Sinodinos reassuring universities by pledging that the government will act “strategically and systematically” to support it. More...

By Budd L Hall, Nandita Bhatt and Walter Lepore. Higher education, particularly public higher education, like all other human institutions is a space of contestation. Almost without exception the leaders and contributors to educational life, to the business world, to politics, to science and the arts are products of our higher education institutions. More...

By Jamil Salmi and Katya Salmi. According to the United Nations, there were 244 million international migrants in 2015, representing a growth of 41% since 2000. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD countries host nearly 50% of the world’s migrants, with a higher rate of highly skilled migration (tertiary-educated) than net migration. More...

By Barbara Lethem Ibrahim. What is the role of an increasingly globalised system of higher education in conflict settings? In places where students and staff risk their lives just to reach university, where dissenting views and freedom of expression may be banned or where police interference with campus life is common, standard programmes for adding global perspectives to the curricula or sponsoring cross-border student exchanges will have minimal relevance. More...

By Andrew Petter. No one has ever criticised a hammer for being a hammer; it is an invaluable tool when that is what you need. But it is useless or destructive if used for the wrong purpose, and university rankings can be the same. More...