Kenya's KES595.8 billion (US$5.8 billion) Silicon Valley, Konza, is seeking local and international universities to set up campuses on its vast land, reports Daily Nation. Read more...
14 mars 2016
Agency seeks universities to set up Konza campuses
Huge gap between academics’ real and scholarly selves
By Alex De Waal. African scholarship on Africa is operating at only a fraction of its true potential. It is hampered by the preferences, policies and politics of the Western academy. There are three reasons for my assertion. Read more...
Innovators set Grand Challenges Africa research agenda
By Maina Waruru. African higher education must increase its interaction with the informal sector if it is to drive the continent’s innovation agenda and respond to development challenges, said Professor Berhanu Abegaz, executive director of the African Academy of Sciences, at a gathering of 420 African innovators held to set the research agenda for Grand Challenges Africa. Read more...
New research and exchange initiatives to boost science
The Next Einstein Forum or NEF, which hosted the 800-participant science and technology forum from 8-10 March in the capital Dakar, said in a release that it had wrapped up with “a clear path forward on how best to drive development through science, technology and innovation across the continent”. Read more...
‘Next Einstein’ could be a young woman African scientist
By Munyaradzi Makoni. Nothing was more fitting than identifying young and women scientists from Africa as the potential ‘next Einstein’ at the Global Gathering 2016 of the Next Einstein Forum. The forum in Senegal of 800 people from more than 100 countries is the first of a series that will showcase Africa’s top emerging scientists and connect them across the continent and the world. Read more...
Better school results pile pressure on university places
By Gilbert Nganga. Kenyan universities face a heavy burden this year as they prepare to enrol the highest ever number of students to qualify for university, following improved performance in the 2015 school-leaving examinations. Read more...
Academic low-performers banned from student politics
By Esther Nakkazi. Academically low-performing students at Makerere University in Uganda may not participate in student leadership. At least 30% of candidates who wanted to contest the top job of student president during last week’s student elections at the flagship university were turned down. Read more...
Forex ban hits Nigerian students around the world
By Tunde Fatunde. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has put an end to speculation and announced that students abroad no longer have access to foreign currencies lodged in the central bank to pay for tuition fee and other costs. Along with a plummeting currency, the move is causing suffering for tens of thousands of university students around the world. Read more...
‘Next Einstein’ connects Africa’s young research talent to the world
By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. Last week University World News attended the first Next Einstein Forum Global Gathering in Senegal. Munyaradzi Makoni reports on the event that attracted 800 leaders and scientists from 100 countries and was the first in a series that will showcase Africa’s top young scientists and connect them across the continent and to the global research community.
In Africa Features, Sharon Dell looks at the thorny issues of university autonomy and transformation in South Africa, which came under scrutiny during public hearings on the Higher Education Amendment Bill. Maina Waruru covers a continental meeting of African innovators to set the research agenda for Grand Challenges Africa.
And in Africa Analysis, Peter McGrath writes that improving communication was the key concept that emerged from a recent conference of science academies from around the world, focused on science advice and held in South Africa.
In a Special Report on higher education for refugees, Leon Cremonini says that integration of Syrian refugees in host communities is essential because they are there for the long term – and higher education is necessary to ensure integration. Reva Dhingra highlights serious hurdles for refugees in accessing higher education and the challenges they face after graduation.
The refugee theme continues in World Blog, with Hans de Wit suggesting that investing in higher education in the developing world – starting with countries neighbouring Syria – would be a good long-term strategy to address illegal immigration problems at their root. And in Commentary, Kevin Hylton says higher education in the United Kingdom has a significant problem with its colonial past and racial discrimination. Read more...
09 mars 2016
The challenges of implementing distance education in Uganda: A case study
This brief case study provides a pithy introduction to Uganda and outlines key factors that affect the implementation of distance education in the nation: poor infrastructure, the high cost of an education, an outdated curriculum, inadequate expertise in distance education, and poor attitudes towards distance learning. These factors are also evident in other African countrie. More...
