In the battle of ideas, Sweden climbed to second place, Finland cracked into the top five, but South Korea dominated the 2017 Bloomberg Innovation Index, which scores economies using factors including research and development spending and the concentration of high-tech public companies, write Michelle Jamrisko and Wei Lu for Bloomberg. Read more...

By Anand Kulkarni. A new day, a new acronym it seems. First we have had the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – countries, then the MINT – Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey – nations, CIVETS – Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa – and now most recently the TACTICS – Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Turkey, Iran, Colombia and Serbia – nations. Read more...

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Marguerite Dennis advises on trends that should be taken into account in planning for future international student recruitment as the ‘dark alchemy of disruption and unpredictability’ demand a new way of thinking. Mark Ashwill argues that the election of Donald Trump as US president indicates a rise in ‘nativism’ – not ‘nationalism’ as colleagues have recently written – though both make it hard for international educators to build bridges of trust around the world. Marion Lloyd applauds Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa for making the improvement of quality and equity of the country’s higher education system a centrepiece of his administration – albeit not without controversy. Anand Kulkarni says the latest acronym for emerging nations in higher education is TACTICS – Thailand, Argentina, Chile, Turkey, Iran, Colombia and Serbia – but there is nothing in particular that binds these countries together. And Lisa Anderson looks at the pros and cons of universities with explicit international affiliations in the Arab world today.
In our World Blog this week, Grace Karram Stephenson draws attention to some recent Canadian research which highlights techniques to facilitate a successful search process when choosing a new university president.
In Features, Munyaradzi Makoni reports that calls for the decolonisation of curricula at South African universities have led to a model for decolonised intellectual property law curricula.
On Wednesday 8 February University World News, as part of its Transformative Leadership series published in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, will be joining DrEducation in hosting their third international free webinar, entitled “Are universities crucibles of transformative leadership?” You are invited to register. Read more...