By Brendan O'Malley – Managing Editor. In Features, Nic Mitchell reports on a new study in the United Kingdom which shows that many students from under-represented groups are put off study abroad by the length of such trips, and suggests shorter study trips as a way to close the gap in participation rates between more and less affluent students.
   Also in Features, Wagdy Sawahel looks at student dropout rates in South Africa and debates around how to tackle the issue, after a survey found that 50% of students felt they were not prepared for the transition from secondary to tertiary education, while Richard Freeland enters the debate about the nature of the modern academic presidency following Drew Faust’s decision to step down as president of Harvard in the US.
   In Commentary, Fay Patel adds to the decolonisation discourse, suggesting that moving on from colonial suffering requires a decolonisation of the mind before attempting to decolonise shared living and learning spaces. Futao Huang and Tsukasa Daizen highlight research in Japan which shows that political events in the US and UK have exerted very little influence on the appetite for internationalisation in Japanese universities. Elli Yiannakaris challenges universities to find a way to ‘teach’ entrepreneurship to the youth that positively transforms the individuals involved. And David Santandreu Calonge, Patrik T Hultberg and Eugene Lee discuss the phenomenon of the ‘pig mum’ in South Korea, arising from excessive competition for access to the best universities and the best jobs, and suggest open dialogue to find solutions to these educational issues.
   In World Blog, Nita Temmerman says adjusting to life and study in another country can be daunting for international students, and a positive student-supervisor relationship can make all the difference.
   In our Academic Freedom section, Suluck Lamubol reports that five academics who participated in an international conference on Thai studies have been charged with violating the military junta’s ban on political gatherings in Thailand, a move condemned by Human Rights Watch and others. More...