By Alasdair Taylor. In his report commissioned by UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, GlaxoSmithKline Chief Executive Sir Andrew Witty positions universities at the heart of the United Kingdom’s industrial and innovation strategy for the next decade.
The report, entitled Encouraging a British Invention Revolution, proposes a number of mechanisms through which universities can lead the UK into an “invention revolution to rival the transformation witnessed in the 19th century”. More...

By Karen MacGregor. There is broad agreement that Africa needs tens of thousands more PhDs, to renew an ageing professoriate and to staff rapidly expanding higher education, boost research and generate the high-level skills growing economies need. How is this to be achieved? Last week African university leaders and experts thrashed out a range of proposals, including on networks and collaboration, supervision incentives and the diaspora, political support and funding. There is a conundrum. In order to produce more doctoral graduates, more PhD supervisors are needed: but in order to have more supervisors, more PhDs are needed. More...

By Brenda Gourley. This is a special year for the Association of Commonwealth Universities, or ACU. It is 100 years old. There is much to celebrate and much on which to reflect.
The association is the world’s first (and therefore oldest) international university network, established in 1913. When one considers the number of university networks in today’s world, even within one country, it is astonishing that there were none 100 years ago. More...

By David Jobbins. On the eve of the Robbins Report, half a century ago, Britain’s universities were small in number and in size, élitist and predominantly male.
The system had barely changed for 40 years while society, framed by World War II and the creation of the welfare state, had altered out of all recognition. Robbins argued that undergraduate places should be available “to all who were qualified for them by ability and attainment". More...

By Peter Scott. Fifty years ago this autumn the Robbins report on higher education in the United Kingdom was published. It was, and still is, the greatest report on higher education – by some way.
It stands in a kind of grand Apostolic succession from the 19th century 'blue books', those pioneering enquiries into social conditions undertaken in Victorian Britain which have a just claim to being regarded as the founding texts of empirical social science – and, incidentally, provided much of the raw material out of which Karl Marx fashioned Capital during long hours in the British Museum Reading Room. More...

By Hiep Pham. Despite the need to deal with a rising budget deficit, Vietnam this year decided to raise the amount available for student loans by almost 40%, after funds available from government fell short of demand for loans. The increase represents a considerable effort to maintain support for disadvantaged students.
The loan amount will increase from VND800,000 (US$38) per month per student, as stipulated in a 2007 government regulation, to VND1.1 million (US$52) per month, taking effect in the 2013-2014 academic year.
However, every year government funds for student loans fail to keep up with growing demand for higher education, opening up a debate on more radical measures to deal with loan shortfalls and student finance that would balance the need to widen university access with maintaining quality. More...

By Katherine Forestier. Millions of learners in China and internationally can now access courses offered by China’s leading universities. The country’s top institutions launched their first massive open online courses, or MOOCs, on the US-based edX and Coursera platforms recently.
But as the MOOCs flood gates open, university leaders in China are calling for clearer policies from the government on MOOCs. Online courses are seen as a double-edged sword, with both advantages and disadvantages for higher education, a recent conference in Beijing heard. More...