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By John Gerritsen. Schools and universities across New Zealand have been startled by an unexpected slump in the pass rate for students to gain entry to the nation’s universities. More...

By Brendan O’Malley. The government has amended the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill in an attempt to ease widespread concern among university leaders and academics that the proposed law will threaten academic freedom. More...

By Linda Yeung. An ideological crackdown in China’s universities, promoting Communist Party allegiance and slamming any adherence to ‘Western values’, accompanied by a heightened suppression of freedom of speech, has fuelled concerns about the future of higher education, academic freedom and liberal academics in the country. More...

In a highly diverse edition this week, our correspondents cover a range of issues confronting higher education around the world. Russian scholar Igor Chirikov describes in his Commentary article how students in that northern Eurasian nation accept without question the poor quality of their universities.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Ukraine, researchers Sonja Knutson and Valentyna Kushnarenko describe how higher education reforms are paving the way to a more international future – except that ongoing hostilities in the east could affect the hopes for change.
From South Africa, Janice McMillan argues that higher education needs teaching and learning that engages students not only as emergent professionals but also as committed, thoughtful and civic-minded young citizens. But this requires rethinking pedagogy and the complex relationship between knowledge, skills and values.
Also in Africa, Eric Fredua-Kwarteng and Francis Ahia describe how Ghana’s plan to convert its polytechnics into technical universities is misguided and panders to elitist views about universities. They argue that the name tag `technical’ or `university’ is not “a silver bullet for creating jobs and wealth or reducing poverty and unemployment”.
Geoff Maslen – Acting Global Editor. More...

The University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits University, in Johannesburg is to host technology giant IBM’s second major research, development and innovation laboratory in Africa. The US$62 million investment comes after IBM launched a research centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in late 2013 and is the global company’s 12th international research lab. More...

By Eric Fredua-Kwarteng and Francis Ahia. The government of Ghana is planning to convert the country’s polytechnics into technical universities by September 2016. Each of the 10 administrative regions in Ghana has a polytechnic, making a total of 10 polytechnics that derive their legal framework for operation from the Polytechnics Law of 2007 (Act 745), which replaced the Polytechnic Law of 1992 (PNDC Law 321). More...

By Janice McMillan. Living in the age of ‘supercomplexity’ in which the world is increasingly unknowable, disruptive, unequal and disturbing, we are constantly assailed by difficult questions, competing priorities and a multiplicity of choices and options. In South Africa and Africa more broadly, we see this daily in the urgent, complex, heated debates around poverty, inequality, democracy, justice, responsibility and restitution. More...

By Patrício Langa. After 10 years of being split under Armando Guebuza’s two terms as Mozambique’s head of state, under the new President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, higher education has been reunited with science and technology, and technical and professional education, in a newly established ministry. The ministry needs to institutionalise practices and coordinating structures, and to promote a more bottom-up approach with input from universities and other key stakeholders. More...

By Alecia D McKenzie. The recognition – or not – of qualifications when a student moves from one country to another has long caused headaches in the academic world and hampered the mobility of students, especially in developing or middle-income countries. UNESCO believes there was a breakthrough for Africa last December when 16 countries signed an amended version of the ‘Arusha Convention’ on the recognition of qualifications across the continent. More...

By Maina Waruru. The African Union is granting postgraduate scholarships to people with disabilities from across the continent – the first time that the continental body has tailored grants specifically for disadvantaged learners. More...