By Sharon Dell. The African Research Universities Alliance, or ARUA, a unique network of 16 top African universities, was created in 2015 to grow the continent’s contribution to global research and raise the profile of its research globally. Read more...

By Christabel Ligami. Kenyan universities have been given 30 days to outline corrective measures to address a litany of misdemeanours ranging from flouting of admission criteria to ‘rampant’ abuse of executive degree programmes, the offering of unaccredited programmes as well as the failure to follow rules for student-to-staff ratios. Read more...

By Jackie Opara. The Nigerian federal government has ordered all specialised universities to stop offering courses and programmes contrary to their mandates and delete the courses from the portal of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, the agency responsible for university admissions. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. With a total budget of R15 billion (US$1.2 billion) for 2017, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme expects to fund "well over" 405,000 students at both universities and technical and vocational colleges this year. This is despite an admission that the system did not go “smoothly” in all areas. Read more...

By Maina Waruru. The African Academy of Sciences and the Association of Commonwealth Universities have selected 37 African researchers from different African universities for the third cohort of a programme supporting early career researchers in the field of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Read more...

By Christabel Ligami. The African Academy of Sciences and the Association of Commonwealth Universities have selected 37 African researchers from different African universities for the third cohort of a programme supporting early career researchers in the field of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Read more...

By Sharon Dell – Africa Editor. In a Q&A interview this week, head of the African Research Universities Alliance Ernest Aryeetey talks about how the fledgling 16-university alliance is working to raise the profile of African research and grow its output. In other features, Tunde Fatunde reports that Nigerian academics have rejected a ministerial proposal that science be taught in indigenous languages in primary schools, calling the move a diversion from the real reasons for poor performance in science, while Munyaradzi Makoni interviews a young amputee and student from Zimbabwe about institutional challenges facing disabled students.
In Africa news, Ashraf Khaled reports on moves to introduce studies on female genital mutilation to the curriculum of medical schools in Egypt in a bid to challenge the widespread practice, while Christabel Ligami writes about a 10-country programme which provides intensified support to early career researchers in the field of climate change.
In Africa analysis, Peter Vale reflects on the notion of objectivity in the humanities and calls for the unravelling of the ideological underpinnings of faculty histories after attending recent presentations at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
In World Blog this week, Hans de Wit says the rise of nationalist, populist movements makes us wonder if the internationalisation of higher education is dying – by no means, he says, it may indeed be accelerating in many parts of the world. Read more...