Higher education, skills training rises up the China-Africa agenda

By Karen MacGregor – Africa Editor. In Africa Analysis, following a major summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation where a new collaboration agenda was announced, Simon Ngalomba looks at China’s growing presence in higher education in Africa and the role of Confucius Institutes. South African Minister of Science and Technology Naledi Pandor welcomes a book on doctoral education that reveals new approaches the country can take for a ‘radical rethink’ to meet its PhD targets.
In Africa Features, Wachira Kigotho unpacks a World Bank report that shows steady progress in research but a decline in the fields of STEM – science, technology, engineering and maths. Munyaradzi Makoni charts developments in Eritrea’s challenged higher education sector that indicate the country may be turning a corner after a war-torn past.
In a Q&A, Brendan O'Malley interviews Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Kvit about the country’s struggle to reform higher education and shake off a Soviet-era legacy of state control. Problems that are limiting Ukraine’s attractiveness to international students – such as low quality, red tape and corruption – are described by Ararat L Osipian in a Special Report on student mobility that also features articles from Germany and Saudi Arabia.
In Commentary, Paul Ayris says that the League of European Research Universities' Statement on Open Access has the power to change the way research is published and disseminated across the globe. Lucy Shackleton warns that the United Kingdom, in turning its back on the European Union, will put up barriers to international collaboration that will limit its competitiveness. And Elizabeth Nixon warns that more power to students as the ‘sovereign consumer’ is likely to be profoundly damaging. Read more...