By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. This week we introduce our second series on Transformative Leadership, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, looking at the role of universities in driving positive change in the world. Nadine Burquel writes that higher education institutions of today need vision, strategy and direction and the transformative leaders who are able to deliver them.In Commentary, Philip G Altbach and Nanette A Svenson recommend that Panama use its geographic advantage as a crucial regional and global crossroads to propel its lagging higher education and research base to ensure its continued economic success. And Rami M Ayoubi and Engin Akcay say science diplomacy needs to be reformed to play a greater role in African higher education as it has potential to promote development and foster a culture of peaceful co-existence.
In our World Blog, Nita Temmerman praises the agility of smaller higher education institutions, which are often more nimble and responsive to new ideas or changes in industry and technology than many traditional universities that have become too big and bureaucratic.
In Features, Rebecca Warden reports from a European University Association funding forum held last week that funding for Europe’s universities is rising but this is not happening fast enough. And Mimi Leung reports that Hong Kong will top up its research endowment fund by US$2.6 billion as it steps up research collaborations with the Chinese mainland.
In a continuation of our report on the publishing crisis, Ryan Allen looks at the recent proliferation of predatory academic journals and its root cause, which can be attributed to the rise of university rankings and other performance indicator-driven issues.
In our Student View this week, Mark Pace of the National Union of Students in Australia identifies with the ‘thousands upon thousands’ of Australian students who experience financial hardship, as detailed in a survey by Universities Australia.
Profiling our new UWN University Partner, Brenda Dionisi explains how Italy’s International Telematic University Uninettuno has carved a place for itself in the international distance learning space for its research into and novel use of emerging technologies. More...
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