In search of new measures of universities’ contribution to society

By Sharon Dell – Acting Africa Editor. In Africa Analysis, Colleen Howell outlines a new research project being undertaken across four African countries to explore how key tertiary education players understand higher education and the public good within their national and regional contexts, and Damtew Teferra says African academics and intellectuals on the continent and in the diaspora must play a role in countering the prejudice and misinformation about Africa on the part of leaders such as United States President Donald Trump. Martin Oosthuizen, who takes the helm this year at the Southern African Regional Universities Association, writes about the association’s plans for the next four years.
   As part of the global Transformative Leadership series, Fatumah Birungi writes about her transformative experience at Costa Rica’s EARTH University and the benefits she and her community back in Uganda have seen as a result.
   In Africa News, Ashraf Khaled reports from Egypt on a university that failed over a thousand medical students after they staged a mass walkout from an examination on surgery, and Tonderayi Mukeredzi canvasses opinion on the Zimbabwean government’s decision to halt a popular STEM scholarship scheme aimed at encouraging more students to take science subjects at tertiary institutions, and to scrap mathematics as an entry requirement for certain higher education courses.
   In Africa Features, Stephen Coan highlights the discussion at the recent annual Decoloniality Summer School held by the University of South Africa. More...