There is no easy way out of the higher education 'trilemma'

By Sharon Dell – Africa Editor. In this first edition of 2017, Jens Jungblut argues that South African students should push for both free higher education and matching increases in public spending, or risk incentivising government to take the easy way out and compromise higher education quality.
In Africa Features Wagdy Sawahel interviews higher education experts in North Africa and the Arab world about expected trends for 2017.
In our Africa Special Report on the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa, HERANA, meeting held in Franschhoek near Cape Town from 20-24 November 2016, Karen MacGregor reports on indications that Africa’s flagship universities are showing upward trends in a number of areas. In a blog forming part of the special report, Robert Tijssen and Erika Kraemer-Mbula argue that African science “can and should take the concept of excellence more literally”, while Sharon Dell reports on the challenges of planned institutional reform from a European perspective and provides some impressions of a Festschrift written for Norwegian higher education expert Peter Maassen and launched at the HERANA meeting. Seven university presentations made at the meeting containing comprehensive research-related institutional data are also part of the report.
In Africa News, Tunde Fatunde writes about a string of recent investigations led by a state agency against high-level university administrators and the implications for governing council autonomy, while Tonderayi Mukeredzi reports on the lack of adequate funding to support the Zimbabwean government’s ambitious plans for university sector expansion.
The Global Special Report examines the usefulness and accuracy of global university rankings. Among other articles, Philip G Altbach and Ellen Hazelkorn suggest that rankings are a losing game for most mid-range universities as they are not worth the resources required nor the changes in mission. Ranking experts counter some of the arguments, including Ben Sowter of QS who says criticism should be evidence-based and take the positive and negative into account.
This is the first Africa edition since my editorship became official on 1 January 2017. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor Karen MacGregor for her exceptional editorial leadership of University World News, and the Africa edition in particular. We wish her well in her new role as director of University World News – Africa. Read more...