19 décembre 2015

By Claire Shaw. A government report on research funding and policy recommends introducing a financial incentive to ensure university research benefits society and business. More...

By Clive Kronenberg. Cuba takes education very seriously. It became a top priority after Fidel Castro became prime minister in 1959 and this helped the country shake its mantle as the most unequal of the Hispanic Caribbean territories during both the colonial and post colonial early 20th century periods. More...

By Natasha Joseph. Running a university doesn’t leave a lot of time for recreational reading. But with the academic year wrapping up across the continent, Africa’s vice-chancellors finally have the chance to read for pleasure. Natasha Joseph, education editor of The Conversation Africa, asked three vice chancellors what’s on their holiday reading lists. More...

By David J Hornsby, James Arvanitakis and Robin Moore. Young South Africans - those born in or after 1994 and classified as the “born frees” - are often dismissed as a generation of slackers. They’re considered by some to be politically apathetic, more interested in social media than in social engagement. More...

By Sandra Liebenberg and AJ van der Walt. There is a fierce debate underway about the language of instruction at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Students protested throughout 2015 against the use of Afrikaans as the institution’s main language. This culminated in the university management deciding to adopt English as its primary language of instruction. More...

By Shana Cohen. Morocco frequently turns to the courts when it doesn’t like what its critics have to say. The charges levelled against journalist and historian Professor Maati Monjib reinforce just how common this tendency, which emerged during the 1970s, is in Morocco. The State tries to quash critique among journalists and other public intellectuals by using the judicial system and imposing extraordinary fines. More...

By Falk Hartig. Infrastructure development and economic cooperation will probably dominate discussions during the first ever Forum on China-Africa Co-operation on African soil. But education also features on the agenda. This is an important opportunity to reflect on the role and purpose of China’s global Confucius Institutes and Classrooms. More...

By Maddie Blackburn and Sarah Earle. Until the last decade, many young people with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition were not expected to live into adulthood. Now improvements in medicine and technology have changed all that for children with conditions such as duchenne muscular or spinal muscular atrophy which cause serious degeneration of muscles and nerves, or genetic disorders, such as cystic fibrosis. More...

By Ye Liu. Recent debates about China have focused on its role in the gradual eastward shift in the global economy. This process was accentuated by the financial crisis of 2007-08 and ensuing recession in the West. More...

By Tristram Riley-Smith. In August 1939, the operational head of Britain’s Government Communication and Cypher School, Alistair Denniston, wrote to the Foreign Office about the need to recruit “men of the professor type” into the wartime code-breaking hub at Bletchley Park in order to help combat the Nazi threat.
Following the horror of marauding attacks in Paris, the British prime minister has announced he will be recruiting a further 1,900 personnel to the Security and Intelligence Agencies. “Professors” may also be able to add value to these organisations and wider society. The government should not forget the wealth of talent available within our universities to offer insight and depth to the judgments of decision-makers. More...