By Philip Machanick. Too often, demands for change have stalled when they run up against rigid structure – think of post-apartheid change in South Africa or decolonisation across Africa. A strictly top-down bureaucratic organisation is very hard to change. Democratisation of South Africa, 21 years on, has not empowered the ordinary person to take on corrupt officialdom or poor service delivery. More...

By Nicole Gardner-Neblett. For our research, we used national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, a study of about 14,000 children born in the US in 2001, that examined their development, school readiness and early school experiences. We focused on 6,150 children who were identified as African American, Asian American, Latino and European American. More...

By Amanda Weltman. In 2014, South Africa’s Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor issued a call for 20 new researchers to join the prestigious ranks of the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI). The twist? All of the positions would be filled by women. More...

By Laura Bridgestock. Today’s release sees the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) retain the top spot in the QS World University Rankings® for the fourth year running, with Harvard University climbing two places to rank second, followed by the University of Cambridge and Stanford University in joint third.
This is the 12^th edition of QS’s annual ranking of the world’s top universities, which uses six performance indicators to assess institutions’ global reputation, research impact, staffing levels and international complexion.
A total of 82 countries are represented in the QS World University Rankings this year, with the largest shares claimed by the US (154), UK (71), Germany (43) and France (41). Japan has 38 entries, Australia 33, China 30, Canada and Italy 26, Brazil 22 and Russia 21. More...

By Inga Vesper. It was the poignant photo of a drowned Syrian boy on a Turkish beach that finally launched a widespread public debate on Europe’s refugee crisis.
Faced with the fallout of the Syrian war, European politicians, who previously did little but bemoan the plight of ‘migrants’, suddenly made sweeping statements underlining the “welcoming culture” of Europe and their ability to “process” migrants. More...

By Johan Nylander. Tsinghua University in Beijing has been ranked as Asia’s third best university, leading a strong Chinese cohort.
A new study compiled by higher education data specialists QS that was released  on Tuesday revealed that China is now home to seven universities in the world’s top 200. More...