By Wagdy Sawahel. Entitled The Reality of Higher Education in Libya, the study was published last month by the Libyan Organization of Policies and Strategies or LOOPS, an independent, non-profit public policy research body that provides analysis and recommendations on current and emerging issues to promote the adoption of sound policies. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. Mathematics is “vital” for achieving a thriving science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, workforce in Africa, according to experts. Yet it faces critical challenges: low university funding, a regional brain drain, and reduced intake of undergraduate students, particularly women, in university mathematics programmes. Read more...

By Munyaradzi Makoni. Germany’s federal and state governments have opted to continue the Excellence Initiative funding programme for top-level research, ending a lengthy political debate on the issue. Read more...

Safe Schools co-founder Roz Ward will return to work after Melbourne's La Trobe University decided against pursuing serious misconduct allegations against her, reports ABC Net. Read more...

The Chinese government is wholly funding the construction of what is thought to be Africa’s largest university library, which is being built in Tanzania, writes Chris Havergal for Times Higher Education. Read more...

For the first time, students who cheat during this year’s university entrance exams in China risk being jailed, state media said recently, as the government tries to crack down on a pervasive problem for the highly competitive exams, writes Ben Blanchard for Reuters. Read more...

Students from ethnic minority backgrounds are up to six times as likely to get a place at top universities despite accusations of racism, official figures show, as it emerged white students are now under-represented at just under half of institutions, write Javier Espinoza and Jess Staufenberg for The Telegraph. Read more...

Paying a CAN$20,000 (US$15,700) ransom may seem like a lot of money, but one expert says it's better than trying to wrestle control of the system back from hackers at the risk of losing data, write Dave Dormer and Stephanie Wiebe for CBC News. Read more...

A flood of foreign undergraduates on America’s campuses is improving the financial health of universities. It also sometimes clashes with a fundamental value of US scholarship: academic integrity, write Miriam Jordan and Douglas Belkin for The Wall Street Journal. Read more...

Two of Brazil’s biggest education companies are facing off in a quest to merge with Estacio Participacoes SA, the country’s second-largest for-profit firm in the sector, write Sabrina Valle and Fabiola Moura for Bloomberg. Read more...