Step change on long-term research is needed to tackle global challenges

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In News, Brendan O’Malley unpacks the OECD’s Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard report, which warns that cuts in research and development spending are threatening to destabilise science and research systems in many advanced economies. There is also coverage by Sharon Dell of the massive student protests in South Africa over the past week.
In Commentary, Ellen Hazelkorn, chair of the European Union Expert Group on Science Education, says that the group’s recent report aims to start a public conversation around the necessity to embed scientific understanding in our societies. Nico Jooste and Savo Heleta argue for a ‘global commons’ in higher education internationalisation research and debates, thus engaging in an inclusive dialogue where all are represented. Also in Commentary are two opposing points of view on international education policy in Australia: Bob Kinnaird argues that education provision should target only well-funded foreign students so as to avoid the exploitation of these students as temporary workers, and work visas should be restricted to protect Australian job seekers, while Ly Tran and Cate Gribble say that to assume that international students are taking the jobs of locals is narrow and ignores the enormous benefits that international students bring to the country.
Our World Blog focuses on Canada, where Grace Karram Stephenson suggests that universities may be able to learn from the research arrangements of polytechnics, particularly their links with industry.
In Features, Yojana Sharma asks International Association of Universities President Dzulkifli Abdul Razak about his concept of higher education for a single planet. And Wachira Kigotho attends a workshop in Nairobi of CODESRIA – Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa – where diaspora and African scholars heard that neglect of the humanities and social sciences had dangerously narrowed Sub-Saharan Africa’s view on development.
A Special Report provides follow-on coverage of the 26th International Council for Open and Distance Education World Conference held in South Africa from 14 to 16 October, and of a high-level policy forum following on from the conference, that Karen MacGregor says identified actions to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Read more...