University students fear for their lives after threats from Burundi’s agents

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In a worrying week for academic freedom, in Features, Andrew Green reports on allegations in Burundi that students are being targeted with harassment, including death threats, by security forces, amid fears that the embattled government has put educated young people on its list of perceived enemies. In News, Yojana Sharma reports on fears that a new law in China will bring the activities of foreign higher education partners under the remit of China’s national security authorities. And in Commentary, Rachael Jolley, editor of the Index on Censorship magazine, says threats to academic freedom are looming large across the world from the USA to India, even in democratic societies.
Also, in Commentary, Martin Cohen says the Greek government is being led by academics and asks if its seemingly reckless negotiating strategy is informed by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis’s ‘game theory’ analysis of the ‘incredible threat’. And Daniel Obst examines the potential opportunities for collaboration arising from the recent meeting of US and Iranian higher education leaders in Iran.
In our World Blog Martin Ince says if there is one lesson to be learned from Nobel Prize winner Sir Tim Hunt’s life-altering blunder which led to his resignation from his honorary professorship at University College London, it is the need for even stellar academics to have media awareness training.
In Features Brendan O’Malley looks at who the winners were when the European Research Council announced its €445 million (US$493 million) worth of advanced grant awards going to 190 researchers for ground-breaking ideas. And Karen MacGregor reports on the World Bank’s US$150 million programme to strengthen Africa’s 19 centres of excellence. Read more...