Global leadership needed on equal HE access for all. Who will step up?

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Graeme Atherton says equitable access to higher education for all is seemingly a global priority but unless we start to see global leadership on this, it will become an empty aspiration rather than a genuine goal. Deren Temel contends that Africa cannot wait until 2030 for the next set of global goals to tackle the need for quality higher education, and suggests the sector partners with basic education to achieve its goals and focuses on improving teacher training.
And Ranjit Goswami suggests that minimum standards in higher education need to be adjusted periodically at a time of massive expansion to accommodate higher education for all.
In World Blog this week, Margaret Andrews says a strategy to position your academic programmes in an increasingly competitive world should begin with a series of questions about foundations, current positioning and the competitive landscape.
In our series on ‘Transformative Leadership’ in which University World News is partnering with The MasterCard Foundation, Marcelo Knobel and Renato H L Pedrosa reflect on the transformative leadership that brought Brazil’s University of Campinas within 50 years to its leading position in the region today, and how it might increase its future impact.
In Features, Jan Petter Myklebust writes that the negative assessment of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology by the European Court of Auditors is the latest in a series of blows to beset the institution. And Esther Nakkazi unpacks a call by Harvard’s renowned scholar Calestous Juma for Africa to create ‘innovation universities’ that include commercialisation at their core if the continent is to achieve economic transformation and inclusive growth.
Lastly, a reminder to readers that University World News will be holding a webinar on emerging issues in transnational education on 24 May. You can register here. Read more...