Each year the release of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings generates a great deal of interest, excitement – and debate. This year all eyes are on China which, according to the 2018 rankings, “steps up its ascent” as “East closes in on West”. China’s Tsinghua University in 22nd place has overtaken all of its other Asian competitors. More...
03 novembre 2018
Rethinking university rankings: we need to talk about quality (and inequality) of teaching
Why it’s good news that Swahili is coming to South African schools
Kiswahili will, from 2020, become the latest language to be taught in South Africa’s classrooms. This East African lingua franca, which is also an official language of the African Union, will be an optional subject. More...
Bilingualism: how to get your child to speak your language – and why it matters
Humans have been migrating since prehistoric times – moving within and beyond geographical borders – in search of food, for survival or for better prospects in life. In the European Union alone, the latest figures show that in 2016 more than 4m people immigrated to an EU country, while at least 3m emigrated and left an EU member state. More...
Universities need to take note of the gap between expectations and experience
The student population at South African universities have changed dramatically in the last two decades. It’s now much more diverse in terms of age, race, culture, backgrounds, educational experience and academic potential. More...
Questions academics can ask to decolonise their classrooms
In South African universities, curriculum issues came to the fore during a series of nationwide student protests between 2015 and 2017. Students have argued that what’s being taught in university courses is imported from the global North and doesn’t draw enough on African-based research and the work of academics from the global South. More...
It’s time to take a new, more creative approach to career counselling
The problem is that career counselling hasn’t, for the most part, adapted to these new realities. In the developing world, traditional career counselling approaches are still the order of the day. Young people – usually in their second last or last year of secondary schooling, and who are able to afford such a service – consult a professional career counsellor. More...
South African universities shouldn’t be playing the global rankings game
Once again, Times Higher Education’s annual global university rankings have drawn a lot of attention from the media and in the higher education sector. In South Africa, this has focused on the four institutions from the country that made the top 500 on the 2019 list. More...
The cost of accessing academic research is way too high. This must change
In the last week of October each year, libraries and open access activists around the world celebrate Open Access Week. It’s a week dedicated to increasing access to knowledge resources hosted by libraries, such as online journals and academic books. More...
From slavery to colonialism and school rules: a history of myths about black hair
“Your hair feels like pubic hair.” That was one of the first insults that someone hurled at my hair. She was a junior at my school. She would touch my hair and repeat this sentence to all present. I had to threaten her with violence to get her to stop touching my hair and comparing it to her pubes. More...
