By Karen MacGregor. “There can never be a single, reliable, overarching ranking system that is acceptable to all universities and interested parties, because universities mean different things to different people,” says Gerald Wangenge-Ouma, director of institutional planning at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor. Going Global 2016 really began with a “constructive but feisty” steering meeting in Cape Town about what the focus could be – and why the British Council was even leading such a global higher education debate. The theme of “Building Nations and Connecting Cultures” came out of a rich discussion on local versus international priorities and how they mesh or don’t, said Jo Beall, director of education and society for the British Council. Read more...

By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. University World News is a media partner to the British Council’s Going Global 2016 conference, to be held in May in Africa for the first time. We preview this big international higher education event in an interview with Jo Beall, director of education and society for the British Council, and look at university rankings in discussion with Gerald Wangenge-Ouma, while Brendan O’Malley explores how universities can respond to the refugee crisis.
In Africa Analysis, Patrício Langa, Gerald Wangenge-Ouma, Jens Jungblut and Nico Cloete argue that South Africa should look to Africa to see that free higher education, which local students are demanding, failed to universalise access or advance social inclusion. In Africa Features, Wachira Kigotho finds three African countries among the top 50 globally that are leading in science and engineering publication.
With the British people due to vote on 23 June on whether to stay in the European Union, Commentary brings opposing views on Brexit: Anne Corbett confirms that the university sector has been pro-EU from the start and explains why; while Alan Sked contends that Brexit is the obvious future for Britain and vice-chancellors should stop panicking.
In World Blog, Grace Karram Stephenson takes up the plight of the rising number of precarious, part-time instructors in academia. And in Academic Freedom, Pavin Chachavalpongpun reports from personal experience that critical Thai academics are being threatened and their families harassed, while the West turns a blind eye, and Laurie A Brand says the Middle East Studies Association has written an unprecedented number of protest letters on academic freedom violations in the Middle East, with targeted attacks on academics in Turkey being the worst. Read more...