Most countries are only paying lip service to addressing inequity in HE

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In our series on Transformative Leadership, published in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, Nic Mitchell unpacks a barometer report that says while six countries are exemplary in tackling inequality in access and achievement in higher education, two thirds of 71 countries surveyed are failing to spell out clear strategies or sufficiently fund them. Former vice-chancellor of South Africa’s University of Johannesburg Ihron Rensburg says Africa’s potential contribution to leading the world will become evident when undergraduate studies and community service are decolonised and contextualised and students are challenged and enabled to make poverty and inequality history.
   In Commentary, Paul Zeleza says African research universities have to find ways to attract more funding from business, philanthropic foundations and governments and to develop a culture of alumni giving back. And Guillaume Levrier highlights the controversy over recent claims that China has produced the world’s first gene-edited babies, which is evidence of a technological race in controversial new scientific practices.
   In our World Blog this week, Patrick Blessinger, Enakshi Sengupta and Taisir Subhi Yamin write that one type of renewable resource that is needed for continued human progress and a sustainable future is the resource of lifelong learning.
   In Academic Freedom, Yojana Sharma reports on a call from academics and human rights advocates for New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to intervene in the case of a professor who has faced months of alleged harassment for her work that is critical of China’s influence abroad.
   Finally, in Features, Sharon Dell reports on a heated debate in the media sparked by an investigation into allegations of racial tension at the open distance education institution, the University of South Africa. More...