African students need high-speed internet, not more universities

By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. In Africa Analysis, Tom P Abeles writes that if the African Higher Education Summit’s aims are to be achieved, there should be less focus on building traditional universities and more on expanding high-speed broadband internet, as this would enable cutting-edge knowledge to reach Africa’s students cost-effectively.
In Africa Features, Munyaradzi Makoni outlines the findings of a survey of philanthropic funding that shows major disparities between South African universities, with just two out of 10 institutions attracting half of the total funding. In Kenya, Gilbert Nganga describes a poll that shows graduates of the universities of Nairobi and Strathmore are the most preferred by employers.
In Commentary, Jandhyala BG Tilak points out that excellence, equity, justice, compassion, caring and harmony were the underpinning values of ancient universities in countries like India – as they should be today. Craig Whitsed and Wendy Green argue that Australia’s Draft National Strategy for International Education fails to recognise the role of internationalisation of the curriculum in creating a more outward-looking country, and Laura E Rumbley argues that ‘intelligent internationalisation’ requires a thoughtful alliance between research, practitioner and policy communities.
Finally, in World Blog Daniel Kratochvil and Grace Karram Stephenson find that ‘senior international officers’ have increasingly become central to the running of universities. Read more...