Expertise across a broad range of disciplines – rather than exceptional performance in just a few – is key to success in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, THE's latest subject rankings suggest, writes Ellie Bothwell for Times Higher Education. Read more...

By Eugene Vorotnikov. Olga Vasilyeva, the recently appointed Minister of Education and Science, has suspended the process of consolidation of domestic universities initiated by Dmitry Livanov, her predecessor, who was fired from his post in August. Read more...

By Mary Beth Marklein. A higher education initiative that taps the African diaspora in North America as a way to reverse the effects of brain drain on the continent seeks to expand amid signs that it has had a positive and sustainable impact, new data shows. Read more...

By Nita Temmerman. Higher education is about learning, teaching, scholarship and research, and higher education providers should be continuously assuring and enhancing the quality of these areas. Read more...

By Mark Ashwill. It has been argued, in University World News and elsewhere, that the way to address the problem of unethical student recruitment agencies is to ban them. Read more...

By Julius Kravjar and Marek Hladík. Peer-review is the gold standard for scholarly publishing, and scholarly publishing is often one of the important performance indicators of scientific work. Read more...

By Richard Sharpe. Global higher education is in flux. The old established order based on the dominance of North American and European institutions is being challenged by the economic rise of East Asia and parts of South America. Read more...

By Nico Cloete. During the announcement by Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, about the government’s response to the student fees standoff, he frequently made reference to the ‘poor and the working class’ as one group, the ‘missing middle’ as another, and those who earn more than R600,000 (US$43,300) annually as a third group – bringing class into the higher education debate. Read more...

By François Therin. France Stratégie, the French government’s arm for national strategies, last week released the first ever comprehensive report on the state of French higher education institutions’ international activities (report in French here). Read more...

By Bruno Morche. Both public and private higher education institutions in Brazil are showing an increasing interest in internationalisation. Read more...