By Yojana Sharma. A new project to benchmark the performance of higher education systems is on the cards at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, to replace the discredited Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes, or AHELO, project, which failed to gain the backing of key OECD member states to go ahead. Read more...

By Yojana Sharma. The development of technology, particularly online learning, and the emergence of Asian countries as strong higher education performers and a major source of students will shape the future of higher education in the coming years, the "Higher Education Futures" conference, jointly organised by the OECD and Singapore government, heard last Wednesday. Read more...

By Sungula Nkabinde. The African Virtual University, Nigerian higher education leader Olugbemiro Jegede and Russian academic Irina Smirnova were awarded major global awards related to open, distance and e-learning by the International Council for Open and Distance Education on Friday. Read more...

By Sungula Nkabinde. The availability of credits for a MOOC – massive open online course – at St George’s University in Grenada in the Caribbean was a prime driver of a more than five-fold rise in student retention, from 11% completion in 2013 to 58% the following year, the International Council for Open and Distance Education conference heard last week. Read more...

By Stephen Coan. A “tricky world with pervasive war and tragedy” is nevertheless one that “could see the golden age of open learning”. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. Online education holds promise – and also danger when adopted without transformation, in the name of benefiting everyone who needs it – according to Tressie McMillan Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States. Read more...

By Stephen Coan. “You have got to get good at managing ongoing uncertainty,” was Laura Czerniewicz’s blunt message to higher education leaders at the biennial conference of the International Council for Open and Distance Education. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. Boundaries between contact and distance universities are rapidly blurring, and boundaries between institutions and developers of technology-enhanced learning ought to be broken down if both worlds are to benefit from each other’s expertise in the interests of sustainable development, thought leaders told a global conference on open, distance and e-learning. Read more...

Minister for Tourism and International Education, Senator Richard Colbeck, has announced a sharp rise in the number of tertiary students being supported to study abroad with government Endeavour Mobility Grants in 2016. Read more...

Nearly two-thirds of Brazilian agents expect to have sent fewer students abroad this year compared to last year, and nine in 10 say the exchange rate and economic crisis are the main influence on this decrease. Read more...