African Higher Education Summit – A continental agenda for next 50 years

By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. This week we publish a Special Report on the African Higher Education Summit held in Dakar. The summit covered topics ranging from the rapid expansion and governance of universities to investment in higher education, graduate employability, equity and gender issues, and higher education harmonisation.
John Kirkland OBE argues that building African higher education will take time – but the investment will be worthwhile – and Damtew Teferra outlines five ‘talking points’ for African leaders to consider at a heads of state meeting in June 2015, where higher education revitalisation will be on the agenda.
In World Blog, Hans de Wit wonders what the much bandied-about term ‘international university’ actually means and how it can be defined in ways that enhance education.
In Commentary, Mike Gow contends that Western universities are complicit in creating a study abroad recruitment system that serves neither students nor their parents. Serhiy Kvit, Ukraine’s minister of education, explains why science is at the heart of the reform process, and Maurits van Rooijen writes that when selecting a university students are rightly as interested in the lifestyle it offers as in the institution itself. Read more...