UK security services have warned universities to be more vigilant in protecting themselves against cyber attacks by foreign powers seeking to poach intellectual property at the frontier of science and technology, writes Helen Warrell for the Financial Times.Vice-chancellors have been briefed by Sir Jonathan Evans, the outgoing head of MI5, while Universities UK, which represents the sector, is preparing to issue institutions guidance about how to ward off the cyber threat. Full report on the Financial Times site. Read more...

By Hans de Wit, Patti McGill Peterson and Jamil Salmi. On 5 April, a large group of colleagues, students and friends gathered in Boston to honour the career of Philip Altbach, director of the Center for International Higher Education and J Donald Monan SJ professor of higher education in the school of education at Boston College, US. He will retire from his professorship, but continue as director of the centre. The global gathering was organised to pay tribute to Altbach for his enormous contributions over almost 50 years as a teacher, scholar and advisor, and author of many books and articles on international higher education.
During a one-day seminar, key topics in international higher education were addressed by scholars and higher education policy leaders from around the world – including China, India, Africa, Russia, Europe, Latin America and North America: national and regional challenges for higher education; the international pursuit of excellence; and international imperatives, initiatives and risks.
Altbach, who does not like to put himself on a pedestal, set one condition for accepting this surprise honour: the seminar had to be substantive and its results will be published by the centre. Look out for its future publication, as together the presentations provided a comprehensive overview of developments in international higher education over the past 20 years. Read more...

By Anne Corbett. In his alluringly titled 2010 book, The Great Brain Race, author and former journalist Ben Wildavsky made the case for how and why global universities were reshaping the world. The book was written before MOOCs hit the headlines, promising a new globalised dimension. But the structures that have already made some universities global beacons were already in place: the spread of reputational university league tables, greater possibilities for academic mobility, the acceptability of universities seeking to make a profit, and the marketing that makes the marketers themselves say that the brightest foreign students are not choosing between the US and the UK but between Yale and Cambridge. Read more...

By Enrique Orduña-Malea. In the inaugural lecture of the international conference “Transparency versus Rankings”, held last month at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and led by Francisco Marmolejo, education programme coordinator at the World Bank, two approaches to the future of higher education were presented. One involved various macro-level factors (especially economic and demographic ones) and the other considered the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on higher education, both internally (infrastructure and services) and externally (affecting institutional relations and visibility) – issues that are discussed extensively in the current literature. But one critical aspect not often talked about is that the use of ICT by universities – in addition to changing their structure, how they function or the services they offer – generates a trail that can be quantified and evaluated, which provides complementary information of indisputable value and which, given its size and global sweep, should not be overlooked in any university information system, whether it is able to be evaluated or not. Read more...

By Tunde Fatunde. The University of Ibadan is Nigeria’s oldest and premier higher education institution. It produces around 3,000 postgraduates a year – more than any other university in Africa – Vice-chancellor Isaac Folorunso Adewole told University World News. During his two years in the top job, he has moved from being a “strategic” to a consensual leader.
This is just as well, Adewole laughed, because no autocrat could survive in the university with its strong committee system – and a strong national academic union. In the challenging task of leading this major institution, students are his greatest motivators...
The University of Ibadan’s vision is to be a “world-class institution for academic excellence geared towards meeting societal needs”. Among Adewole’s priorities are to achieve a student profile that is 60% postgraduate, strengthen research, further internationalise the university and overcome its considerable infrastructural challenges. Read more...