Iran’s prestigious Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and the renowned Paris Descartes University have signed a memorandum of understanding to boost mutual scientific collaboration and academic exchanges, reports Iran Front Page. More...

By Yojana Sharma. Two professors who taught at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) were among three United States-Korean citizens released last Wednesday from detention in North Korea, during the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to North Korea in advance of a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. More...

By Wagdy Sawahel. United States President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of a landmark international nuclear accord with Iran and reimpose US sanctions on Iran will have a negative effect on the US-based Iranian academic diaspora and will hamper ongoing US-Iran higher education cooperation, experts have said. More...

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In our lead News story, Brendan O’Malley reports on the disturbing findings of the latest Education under Attack report that deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on schools and universities have become more widespread over the past five years.
   In Commentary, Rosie Birchard wonders if universities in Europe – in their haste to internationalise their programmes – have misjudged the scale of the problem mobile students face in finding suitable and affordable accommodation. Hakan Ergin and Bruno Morche contend that distance learning is a key pathway – particularly for emerging countries – to facilitate equal opportunities for higher education internationalisation that go beyond physical mobility. Futao Huang and Tsukasa Daizen outline the findings of a survey of university leaders in Japan showing that internationalisation of Japanese higher education is highly valued and academically prioritised, with revenue generation viewed as a low priority, unlike the US and UK where generating money is a prime driver of internationalisation. And Peter van der Hijden says the upcoming Paris Ministerial Conference is an opportunity to rethink European higher education and to revitalise the Bologna Process.
   In our World Blog, Kirk Perris writes about how blended learning – combining distance and face-to-face learning – can boost access to higher education in countries such as Nigeria where universities are facing immense enrolment pressures.
   In Features, Yojana Sharma reports on China’s ambitious plans for ‘global dominance’ in artificial intelligence and its efforts to boost research and the training of talent in this high-tech field of the future. Wagdy Sawahel discusses a research report on corruption in higher education in Ukraine, which looks at the possible reasons behind this scourge and suggests a range of changes to combat corruption. And Christabel Ligami reports on recommendations put forward by the Commission for University Education in Kenya to boost quality in higher education. More...

By Paul Flather. Commonwealth ties are to be enhanced across the 53 member nations over the coming years with the announcement of 150 new graduate scholarships, named in honour of the head of the Commonwealth and testament to her widely admired decades of service. More...