Cost-effective initiative to bring quality higher education to refugees

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In the second part of a Special Report on higher education for refugees, Brendan O'Malley reports on a global consortium of universities that is being formed to bring high quality, accredited online higher education supported by a mixture of online and visiting tutors to refugees gathered together in learning hubs in camps and towns. Allan E Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, appeals to funders and governments to help scale up higher education initiatives for Syrian refugees to avoid creating a lost generation of young people. And Sedat Gumus says Turkey stands out as a country that has been proactive in granting Syrian refugees higher education opportunities and he appeals to international higher education communities to do more.
In Commentary, Mark Ashwill points out the ‘elephant in the room’ in international and global citizenship education in the United States – US nationalism. Yojana Sharma says Britain would relinquish its status as a great science power if it ditched Europe through Brexit. Richard Hil believes there is a case for closer public scrutiny of Australian universities in the light of falling scores in the admission system and the institutional pressures on academics to pass students. And Savo Heleta says there should be incentives to encourage academics to go beyond their ivory towers and journal digital paywalls and share their research with the general public.
In World Blog, Hans de Wit and Liz Reisberg write about a unique summit held in Colombia earlier this month at which scholars and experts discussed the future of higher education in Latin America.
In Features, Shuriah Niazi says the sedition row at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India is part of the government’s attempts to control universities.
A second Special Report covers the Next Einstein Forum’s Global Gathering in Senegal, where some global scientific leaders shared their views on best science strategy practices, as reported by Munyaradzi Makoni. Read more...