By Michaela Martin. Today, higher education systems and institutions are exposed, more than ever, to constant change and transformation. As the higher education sector is quickly expanding, institutions and programmes have become much more diversified and often privatised. Within this context, the quality of institutions and their programmes are more easily questioned. More...

By Brendan O’Malley – Managing Editor. In Commentary, Michaela Martin unpicks research by the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning that demonstrates the importance for universities of developing flexible and qualitative internal quality assurance tools in support of quality and employability – but also the need to balance them to avoid excessive specialisation of university graduates. Samuel Ofosu and Eric Fredua-Kwarteng propose that universities in Africa reform their admissions policies for mature students, with more emphasis on relevant work experience and bridging programmes. And Wondwosen Tamrat adds to discussions on changing patterns of international student mobility by looking at internal student mobility patterns on the African continent.
   In our World Blog, Namrata Rao and Anesa Hosein appeal to universities that aim to internationalise their workforce to consider that migrant academics may require support and training in a new and different teaching environment.
   In part two of the Special Report on the 2018 Centre for Global Higher Education conference, Rajani Naidoo questions the major share of national resources that are consumed by universities identified as world-class and their role in perpetuating inequality and explores options to remedy the situation. Karen MacGregor reports on Claire Callender’s presentation on the unintended consequences that higher education policies of successive English governments have had on student choice. And Eileen Kennedy and Diana Laurillard explore how massive open online courses or MOOCs, using a ‘cascade model’ for professional development of teachers, might help us meet the expected doubling of global demand for higher education by 2030.
   In Features, Jan Petter Myklebust reports on the achievement by Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology of attracting three European Research Council grants in the humanities in three years. More...