Corruption is a blight on African universities but there are ways to clean up

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Goolam Mohamedbhai says ever-increasing demand and lack of accountability is fuelling corruption across African higher education systems and outlines ways to address bribery, cheating, plagiarism by students; nepotism, extortion, sexual harassment by staff; and the buying and selling of fake degrees.
Pushkar says China is way ahead of India in global quality indicators for universities and patents filed and asks why Indian premier Narendra Modi missed the opportunity on his trip to Beijing to build greater and deeper engagement with Chinese higher education. Morshidi Sirat and CD Wan say Malaysia’s education blueprint articulates the goals of higher education but not the philosophy behind them and this is inhibiting discussion of the overarching approaches to the plan.
And Iván F Pacheco says overproduction of PhDs and deteriorating working conditions for faculty staff in industrialised countries offer an opportunity for developing countries to lure talent.
In Features, Suluck Lamubol says one year on from Thailand’s military coup, the junta is stepping up pressure against exiled academics it has charged under draconian lèse majesté laws.
In our World Blog, Grace Karram Stephenson says funding is the most powerful lever of change for post-secondary systems and Ontario’s higher education system is being skewed by providing incentives only for enrolment.
In the first of two Special Reports on the British Council’s Going Global conference for international education leaders, held in London, Yojana Sharma hears experts argue forcefully that the battle to contain extremist violence across the world should not be allowed to prevent radical thought flourishing on campus. Brendan O’Malley hears Francisco Marmolejo of the World Bank argue that charging tuition fees can be the key to ensuring higher education funding is not contributing to social inequality, and Yojana Sharma reports on calls for the explosive growth in overseas degrees delivered to students in their home country to be underpinned by monitoring and benchmarking to enable comparison of quality. Read more...