By Yojana Sharma. Student groups that led Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy protests – also known as the Umbrella movement – have set up their own political parties in Hong Kong to continue to press their demands using political means after they failed to wrest concessions from the Hong Kong government during huge street protests. Read more...

By Yojana Sharma. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology or EIT, set up by the European Union to bring together academic research, science and business, is not as effective as it could be and is beset with management problems, according to a damning new report by the European Court of Auditors. Read more...

By President Michael D Higgins. Much of the literature on the future of higher education in the digital age has been almost apocalyptic. Predicting the transformation of the sector by "the forces of technology and globalisation", the UK’s Institute for Public Policy Research warned in its 2013 report, An Avalanche is Coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead: "the solid classical buildings of great universities may look permanent but the storms of change now threaten them". Read more...

By Chris Roche. As for ‘transformation’, a word that features frequently in the recently agreed Sustainable Development Goals, the concept is rarely carefully defined. Instead it is usually taken to mean change that is ‘unprecedented’ or simply large in its scope and ambition. Read more...

By Maina Waruru. The fellowship initiative is for female students who want to pursue postgraduate training leading to a PhD at centres of excellence in the global South, outside their own country. Read more...

By Fareeda Khodabocus. Research is one of the three major pillars of higher education. For a university to progress and to address the needs and challenges of the knowledge industry, academics must constantly be engaged in research. Read more...

By Kevin Marsh. The idea that Africa’s development depends critically on science, technology and innovation is embodied in the African Union’s Agenda 2063. This document emphasises economies that are led by innovation and driven by knowledge. But the continent has some serious work to do if it’s to create such economies. Read more...

By Wachira Kigotho. Faced with donor fatigue and declining public funding, universities across Sub-Saharan Africa should search for new models of financing specific initiatives such as hubs for research and innovation. One proposal from higher education experts gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, recently was to tap Africa’s growing number of billionaires. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. The Republic of the Congo, also called Congo-Brazzaville, has set aside more than FCFA242 billion (US$416 million) for the construction of a new university to be named after the country’s current president, Denis Sassou N'Guesso, who has ruled for a quarter of a century. Read more...