By Karen MacGregor. This has been the ‘Year of Education’, with a flurry of global policy statements key to online, open and flexible education, said Gard Titlestad, secretary general of the International Council for Open and Distance Education or ICDE. Read more...
Representatives of the American universities of Michigan State and California, Berkeley presented the MasterCard Foundation grants initiative to students at the University of Lomé in Togo, West Africa. Read more...
Théophile Mbemba, higher education and universities minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has closed 174 higher education institutions that have been judged ‘non-viable’. Read more...
By Emanuela Carleschi. The South African government’s research funding policy has long been criticised by academics. The policy has three major weaknesses. Read more...
By Chika Sehoole and James Otieno Jowi.The African Network for Internationalization of Education, or ANIE, held its 6th annual conference in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 7-9 October 2015. It could not have come at a better time – just a week after ratification of the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, at a meeting of heads of states in New York. Read more...
By Nico Jooste and Savo Heleta. Higher education internationalisation research and debates have, for decades, been dominated by organisations and individuals from the developed world, lacking inclusivity and genuine collaboration. Read more...
By Wachira Kigotho. The marginalisation of social sciences and humanities in African universities has radically stifled scholarship, according to CODESRIA – the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. At a workshop in Nairobi, scholars from the diaspora and from Sub-Saharan Africa heard that this had narrowed the region’s view on development. Read more...
By Wagdy Sawahel. Egypt is to establish a Higher Education Regulatory Funding Authority, or HERFA, in collaboration with the United Kingdom. The aim is to create an improved and more autonomous higher education system. Read more...
By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. In Africa News, Sharon Dell reports on a tumultuous week for South African higher education. Massive countrywide student protests closed universities and culminated in the government freezing fees at current levels.
A Special Report provides follow-on coverage of the 26th International Council for Open and Distance Education World Conference held in South Africa from 14 to 16 October.
In Africa Features, Wachira Kigotho attends a workshop in Nairobi of CODESRIA – Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa – where diaspora and African scholars heard that neglect of the humanities and social sciences had dangerously narrowed Sub-Saharan Africa’s view on development.
In Africa Analysis, Nico Jooste and Savo Heleta argue for a ‘global commons’ for internationalisation of higher education, to neutralise the global North’s dominance of debate and encourage collaboration. Chika Sehoole and James Otieno Jowi report on this month’s African Network for Internationalization of Education annual conference, which called on African universities to contribute to meeting the new Sustainable Development Goals.
In Commentary, Ellen Hazelkorn calls for citizens to be continually educated about science so they can participate in knowledge- and science-based decision-making and innovation.
In Australia, Bob Kinnaird argues that education policies should target wealthier foreign students as poorer students are exploited as temporary workers. Ly Tran and Cate Gribble focus on the benefits of international students to the country.
And in Global Features, Yojana Sharma asks International Association of Universities President Dzulkifli Abdul Razak about his concept of higher education for a single planet. Read more...
By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In News, Brendan OMalley unpacks the OECDs Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard report, which warns that cuts in research and development spending are threatening to destabilise science and research systems in many advanced economies. There is also coverage by Sharon Dell of the massive student protests in South Africa over the past week.
In Commentary, Ellen Hazelkorn, chair of the European Union Expert Group on Science Education, says that the groups recent report aims to start a public conversation around the necessity to embed scientific understanding in our societies. Nico Jooste and Savo Heleta argue for a global commons in higher education internationalisation research and debates, thus engaging in an inclusive dialogue where all are represented. Also in Commentary are two opposing points of view on international education policy in Australia: Bob Kinnaird argues that education provision should target only well-funded foreign students so as to avoid the exploitation of these students as temporary workers, and work visas should be restricted to protect Australian job seekers, while Ly Tran and Cate Gribble say that to assume that international students are taking the jobs of locals is narrow and ignores the enormous benefits that international students bring to the country.
Our World Blog focuses on Canada, where Grace Karram Stephenson suggests that universities may be able to learn from the research arrangements of polytechnics, particularly their links with industry.
In Features, Yojana Sharma asks International Association of Universities President Dzulkifli Abdul Razak about his concept of higher education for a single planet. And Wachira Kigotho attends a workshop in Nairobi of CODESRIA Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa where diaspora and African scholars heard that neglect of the humanities and social sciences had dangerously narrowed Sub-Saharan Africas view on development.
A Special Report provides follow-on coverage of the 26th International Council for Open and Distance Education World Conference held in South Africa from 14 to 16 October, and of a high-level policy forum following on from the conference, that Karen MacGregor says identified actions to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Read more...
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