By Brendan O'Malley. European leaders and the European Commission have backed proposals to step up higher education mobility and exchanges and create a network of European universities with integrated study programmes and curricula that enable students to study abroad. More...

By Brendan O'Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Andrés Castro Samayoa suggests that universities in the United States could make international students feel more included by building coalitions between all those whose identities are under scrutiny in these politically turbulent times. Christopher Ziguras examines why so few students have taken up the promise of global online learning and considers how the market might grow in future. V Santhakumar says it is crucial to improve the quality of schooling in India to ensure that more students are better prepared and motivated for higher education, which would in turn benefit the economy. And Rebecca Schendel hopes that the publication of a widely contested essay on colonialism will serve as a wake-up call to academics to ensure that peer review does not lose its credibility as a guarantor of publication trustworthiness.
   In World Blog this week, Hans de Wit says threatening developments indicate that defending academic freedom will be high on the agenda for higher education in 2018, but there are also some positive trends worth working towards this year.
   In Features, Yojana Sharma interviews Christopher Tremewan, secretary general of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, about how the association is stepping up its impact on policy to help tackle major global and regional challenges.
   In a Special Report on a London seminar on the future of transnational education, Nic Mitchell reports that international campuses are increasingly blurring the lines between international student recruitment and mobility and transnational education. Mitchell also reported on discussions around the potential for transnational education to broaden higher education access to the world’s poorest communities.
   This Wednesday a webinar looking at how higher education megatrends will shape the future of global higher education and international student mobility will be hosted by StudyPortals, with University World News as the media partner. You are invited to register. More...

By Brendan O'Malley – Managing Editor. In our Academic Corruption column, published in partnership with the CHEA International Quality Group, Brendan O'Malley examines the drive to address academic corruption in Nigeria and other developing countries that are going further than many developed countries to institute laws against such corruption and to name and shame and punish offenders.
   In World Blog, Philip G Altbach predicts that 2018 is unlikely to be a particularly robust year for higher education, with nationalism, fiscal constraints and other conflicts continuing to have a negative influence, despite global economic growth and a recognition of the importance of higher education.
   In Commentary, Lennart Levi and Bo Rothstein propose that all universities offer training for future decision-makers to think critically and ethically in order to address future threats to the world, as many current leaders appear to lack this ability. Stig Arne Skjerven outlines how the Nordic region has positioned itself as a pioneer and role model in the field of automatic recognition of qualifications with the aim of encouraging greater academic mobility. And Marguerite Dennis gives several reasons why she believes the United States will continue to lose market share of international students and reminds US higher education managers that international students have a growing number of options.
   In Features, Mark Paterson and Nico Cloete review a new book entitled The Tertiary Knowledge Imperative by former tertiary education coordinator at the World Bank Jamil Salmi, while Yojana Sharma highlights rising concern in the academic community of Hong Kong over the ability of universities to maintain autonomy and academic freedom as the city comes under increasing pressure from Beijing.
   In a Special Report focused on a new book, Castells in Africa: Universities and Development, Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells explains why universities in Africa and beyond are the decisive battlefield in the struggle to re-establish legitimacy of government and reduce the appeal of demagogues, while Jamil Salmi, in a review, explains why he believes the book is an “indispensable reference” for policy-makers and higher education researchers.
   You are invited to register for an upcoming international webinar looking at how higher education megatrends will shape the future of global higher education and international student mobility. University World News is the media partner for the webinar which is hosted by StudyPortals and will take place on Wednesday 24 January. More...

By Brendan O'Malley – Managing Editor. In Features, Yojana Sharma interviews the outgoing president of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University Bertil Andersson who tells the story of the impressive transformation of Singapore into a globally competitive research nation.
   Also in Features, Wagdy Sawahel reports on the soft power rivalry playing out in the Middle East, with regional experts saying Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are building Islamic universities in Afghanistan in order to expand their ideological, cultural and political spheres of influence.
   In Commentary, Philip Warwick cautions university students and staff not to lose sight of the importance of human contact, dialogue and a sense of community in the rush to keep up with digital technology and being ‘connected’. Stig Arne Skjerven and Einar Meier hail the decision to continue work on UNESCO’s global recognition convention for academic mobility and outline the benefits such a convention will bring. Anne Corbett and Claire Gordon warn that, while the immediate Brexit deadlock has been broken, the next stage of negotiations opens with at least two clouds on the horizon for UK higher education and research.
   With many international branch campuses facing questions about their sustainability, Christine Lee outlines her research on the perceptions of students at such branch campuses regarding their future employability. And Simon Ngalomba writes about the benefits for agenda-setting of greater equality and reciprocity in China-Africa higher education collaborations.
   Given the scale of the global refugee problem, Patrick Blessinger and Enakshi Sengupta in our World Blog encourage colleges and universities to continue the good work of helping more refugees access higher education.
   In part two of a Special Report on the New Nationalism and Universities conference held at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States in November, for which University World News was the media partner, we highlight how the rise of nationalism is affecting higher education in the United States, whether China will seek to impose its values as it expands higher education cooperation along the New Silk Road, and how illiberal regimes are impacting on academic freedom in Hungary and Turkey. More...