By Eugene Vorotnikov. The Russian government plans to increase the quota for international students studying at domestic higher education institutions by 30% this year – up to 200,000 places, according to the official press service. More...

By Karen MacGregor. There is something about the French that appeals to students, it seems. Though there are proportionately few major French-speaking cities, Montreal topped this year’s QS Best Student Cities ranking, knocking Paris into second place after five years at the top. More...

By Karen MacGregor. Reading and writing skills are changing with the use of digital technologies, “but students still see benefits of reading and writing with paper which they continue to use, especially to convey private emotions and intimate feelings”, according to a 10-country study. Students also found handwriting helps to retain knowledge. More...

By Yojana Sharma. Low mobility among young researchers within Asia and globally may be hampering wider research collaboration, exchange of ideas and more creative and innovative research, says a wide-ranging new study of young scientists in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. More...

By Mimi Leung and Yojana Sharma. Lawmakers have criticised Hong Kong’s higher education funding body, the University Grants Committee, for subsidising students from mainland China and from overseas while thousands of local students are unable to receive government assistance. More...

By Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education. The arrest and threatened deportation of a 23-year-old Mexican immigrant who was brought to the United States illegally when he was seven – but had a valid work permit under Barack Obama’s deferred action programme – has rekindled the fears of undocumented college students nationwide. More...

By Karen MacGregor. In Commentary, Eda Erdener explains why Turkey’s government has dismissed more than 4,000 academics, tells the chilling story of education’s ‘reconstruction’ and the country’s ‘descent into ignorance’, and argues that it must be possible to be both against last year’s coup attempt and critical of government.
Gabriel Hawawini peers into the future of the outward internationalisation of higher education, Roger Chao Jr calls for a mutual recognition agreement for teaching services to improve the quality and status of the teaching profession across the ASEAN region, and Tom Abeles argues that new ways of learning could help reduce the costs of higher education, and increase its availability and access.
In World Blog, Ming Cheng urges academics to reclaim educational quality from managerialism by stressing the moral basis of teaching and learning. In Student View, Casey O’Brien calls on American higher education to support students resisting the actions of President Donald Trump, and for more than 28 universities to become ‘sanctuary campuses’ that protect undocumented members of their communities.
In Features, Lucy Haire looks at how British universities are taking their inventions to market – there are now 2,000 university ‘spin-outs’ – Brennan Weiss reports on a University of the Philippines online public service television network that is helping to combat the spread of fake news, and Wagdy Sawahel finds that North African universities are not adequately preparing students for study abroad. Read more...