By Brendan O'Malley – Managing Editor. In our World Blog this week, Tom Abeles says the traditional idea of the university is changing, their funding models are up for debate as never before and they are in for a long cycle of disruption as alternatives compete to provide qualifications.
   In Commentary, Miguel Antonio Lim pieces together the puzzle of why university rankings are so influential given the relative scepticism with which they are perceived by academics, while Damtew Teferra explains why it would be wise for the world, especially Africa, to ignore reputation-based global university rankings.
   Also in Commentary, Mariam Aman Shah and David Santandreu Calonge suggest a ‘frugal MOOC’ model to overcome barriers to online education for refugees, and list four critical elements of such a model. And Yves Gingras writes that science funding decisions should be based on evidence-based policies – which scientists usually love to promote – and that concentrating funding in a few hands goes against the data on diminishing returns and does not maximise the probability of scientific breakthroughs.
   In Features, Wagdy Sawahel reports that the rising number of suicides among North African students and graduates has seen the spotlight turned onto the role of universities in supporting vulnerable students, and Jan Petter Myklebust reports on a new protest movement in Norwegian academia that questions the way universities are increasingly being run like businesses. More...