Malaysia sees a 15% cut in higher education spending as economy slows

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. From Malaysia, where the economy has come under pressure from lower oil and commodity prices, Yojana Sharma reports the news that universities are reeling as their budget allocations for 2016 have been severely slashed. And in Features, Yojana Sharma reports on the vital role that private higher education institutions and foreign branch campuses will play in meeting ambitious plans on widening access and doubling the number of foreign students in Malaysia’s universities. Also in Features, Jan Petter Myklebust reports on an analysis of the top performers in Europe’s Horizon 2020 programme. Sharon Dell reports that the appointment of a top former banker at the helm of South Africa’s student financial aid scheme is intended to help resolve student funding issues. And Brennan Weiss interviews Cornel West, professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, about the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States.
Two of our Commentary articles this week focus on gender equality, with Katrien Maes emphasising the importance of gendered research and innovation, which ensures that gender analysis is properly integrated into the research process, and Ali Reza Yunespour highlighting a new gender and women’s studies programme in Afghanistan, introduced in a system weighted against women. Also in Commentary, Eric Fredua-Kwarteng puts forward a case for ‘developmental universities’ in Africa, which are universities that contribute to the fulfilment of national development needs and priorities.
In our World Blog, Margaret Andrews says it is interesting that ‘soft skills’ are most in demand among business school graduates while many schools spend the majority of their curriculum teaching the ‘hard skills’. Read more...