By Gilbert Nganga. Kenya is mulling over new university guidelines that will require masters students to publish at least one article in a refereed journal before being eligible to graduate. Read more...

By Brian Kamanzi. South Africa’s student movement focussed around calls for the removal of a statue of the imperialist megalomaniac and renowned ‘philanthropist’, Cecil John Rhodes, from the University of Cape Town. Read more...

The heads of the seven public higher education institutions in Côte d’Ivoire have drafted proposals for a strategic higher education modernisation plan, in the wake of years of national crises and university closures. Read more...

Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education and training last week adopted the bill that critics say will give the state sweeping powers over universities and colleges, writes Bekezela Phakathi for Times Live. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. The fundamental issue of whether Africa’s future lies in manufacturing beneficiation or the knowledge economy will be key to deciding what kind of higher education system must be built, says Dr Blade Nzimande, South Africa’s higher education minister. Meanwhile regional integration is essential – but African universities are not collaborating with each other. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. Going Global, the British Council’s flagship higher education conference, was held from 3-5 May in South Africa. One of several articles reports on a high-powered plenary that found consensus and contradictions in African higher education and a dismal lack of international collaboration between African universities.
Munyaradzi Makoni describes recent case studies from Ukraine, Morocco and Bahrain that highlighted the capacity of quality assurance in higher education to support nation-building in various ways, and he covered a preconference dialogue that called for a unified front in Africa around access to knowledge in order to tackle rising journal costs.
We launch the first in a global series of Special Reports on student movements and issues, aimed at deepening understanding and debate on what is transpiring across the student world. This week there are articles on student activism in Chile, Japan and India. Also, Rachel Brooks looks at what is driving the rise in student protest movements and why some are successful, and Nico Cloete investigates the vexing question of what proportions governments, business and individuals should contribute to higher education, and finds a ‘trilemma of trade-offs’.
In a series on Transformative Leadership, in which University World News is partnering with The MasterCard Foundation, Marybeth Gasman suggests that widening participation requires that faculty take on innovative and challenging teaching methods to engage an increasingly diverse student population and the student-centred approach of Minority-Serving Institutions in the US provides a useful role model. Read more...