By Maina Waruru. Alarmed by the negative impact it may have on the United States president’s visit to Kenya next month, the authorities have hurriedly moved to shut down the private Barack Obama University, saying it does not have Commission for University Education, or CUE, authorisation. Read more...

By Guillaume Gouges. Leading scientist Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim was sworn in as the first female president of Mauritius this month. Although not politically active, she was selected by the Indian Ocean island’s new Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, to hold the position of head of state. Read more...

By Wagdy Sawahel. Tunisia is planning a 10-year reform initiative for higher education and research that will kick off this year and will focus on improving the employability of graduates and revitalising research. Read more...

By Keith Nuthall. The League of European Research Universities, LERU, has attacked a European Parliament committee for weakening a copyright reform statement, which had earlier clarified academics’ rights to data-mine and publish extracts from copyright protected material. Read more...

By Jan Petter Myklebust. Up to the end of February 2015, after 14 months, Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014-20, had received 45,000 applications. This represents a large surge in the number of applications. Read more...

By Nic Mitchell. Under the Erasmus+ Master Loan Guarantee Scheme launched this week, up to 200,000 postgraduate students are in line for loans of up to €12,000 (US$13,700) to help them study for a one-year masters degree in another European country or €18,000 for a two-year masters. Read more...

By Suchitra Behal. Some of India’s premier educational institutions and universities find themselves on a government blacklist for non-compliance with regard to funds received by them under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, or FCRA. Read more...

By Yojana Sharma. Students in China are being recruited in large numbers by their universities as an ‘army’ of online contributors to bolster the official party line, in a new drive by the Communist Youth League of China that will draw universities squarely into the country’s attempts to control the internet within its borders. Read more...

By Michael Gardner. A 102-year-old has been awarded her doctoral degree in Hamburg. Paediatrician and professor of medicine Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport was denied her title under the Nazis because her mother was a Jew.
At an award ceremony held at the University Clinic of Hamburg-Eppendorf, Syllm-Rapoport said she was also collecting her title on behalf of all those who had been in a far worse situation than she had under the Nazi dictatorship. Having her certificate awarded was “an encouraging sign of a new, different, humanistic spirit at a German university”. Read more...

By Pamela Tate. For more than 40 years we at the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, or CAEL, have been working with the public sector, private sector industries and higher education institutions to link learning and work and to ensure that adult students receive the most efficient training and education to occupy a meaningful professional place in a 21st century economy. Read more...