Universities worldwide urged to help refugees access higher education

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Hans de Wit and Philip G Altbach encourage universities around the world to spring to action in support of Syrian refugees, offering suggestions as to what they can do to help. Anthony Welch says that promoting a moderate Muslim message of peace and understanding in Southeast Asian universities should weaken the appeal of Islamic extremism to impressionable young students.
In Features, Suvendrini Kakuchi highlights the resolve of Japanese students, who are normally subdued, to protest loudly against their government’s insistence on pushing a controversial set of national security bills through parliament. Yojana Sharma says that compulsory military training for Chinese university students before the start of term appears to be less militaristic and physically demanding than in the past and has become more like a form of patriotic education, but discontent is rising. And Wachira Kigotho reports on a study which showed that the United States is by far the most popular destination country for prospective international students from Sub-Saharan Africa.
In our World Blog, Margaret Andrews suggests that competition for traditional top-ranked business schools might come from places one might not expect, like training firms and online content providers.
In a Special Report, Karin Goodwin covers the annual conference of the European Association of International Education which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, last week. Read more...