By Dominic Wyse, Ann Hodgson, Clare Brooks, Melanie Ehren and Simon Marginson. As part of Theresa May’s reshuffle in her first full day as prime minister, Justine Greening was appointed as the secretary of state for education. She will take charge at the Department for Education, which will also assume responsibility for higher education and skills, formerly within the remit of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. More...

By Michael Betz. College graduates of the new millennium are different than previous generations. Not just because they prefer Snapchat to email and have mountains of school loans, but also because of their choices of where to live. More...

By Abbas Barzegar. Ramadan, a month of intense prayer and fasting, has been especially trying for American Muslims this summer: Other than the heat, the small community has been grappling with the aftermath of the massacre in Orlando and the presumptive Republican Party candidate Donald Trump’s call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, not to mention multiple Islamic State attacks on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the otherwise joyous celebration of the end of the month. More...

By Hanne Kirstine Adriansen. Higher education in Africa is as old as the pyramids in Egypt. But the continent’s ancient institutions have long disappeared. The type of higher education that’s delivered in Africa today, from curriculum to degree structure and the languages of instruction, is rooted in colonialism. This has led many to question whether African universities are still suffering from a sort of colonisation – of the mind. More...

By D. Zachary Hambrick and Fredrik Ullén. Some people are dramatically better at activities like sports, music and chess than other people. More...

By David H. Feldman and Robert B. Archibald. On July 6, Hillary Clinton took a half-step toward Bernie Sanders’ free public college tuition plan. She proposed partnering with states to zero out tuition by 2020 for families making US$125,000 or less. More...

By Richard Cook and Daniel Yon. At the same time, imitation appears to act as a form of “social glue”: we tend to like those who imitate us, and unconsciously imitate the people we like. Studies suggest that this can have surprising effects on our social interactions. Being imitated can increase the trust you have in a total stranger, prompt you to give more to charity, and see you leaving a bigger tip at the end of your meal. More...

By Samantha Bernstein and Adrianna Kezar. The State College of Florida recently scrapped tenure for incoming faculty. New professors at this public university will be hired on the basis of annual contracts that the school can decline to renew at any time. More...

By Michele S. Moses, Christina Paguyo and Daryl Maeda. After eight years, the Abigail Fisher case finally has been put to rest. In a landmark judgment on June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of race-conscious affirmative action in university admissions. More...