Breaking News
CANADA
Nathan M Greenfield
A higher-than-expected decline in the numbers of international students, whose tuition and fees have buoyed university and college bottom lines for years, has pitched many Canadian colleges and universities into deficit and caused layoffs and the closure of programmes across the country.
FINLAND
Jan Petter Myklebust
GLOBAL
Nathan M Greenfield
SRI LANKA
Kalinga Seneviratne
SWEDEN
Jan Petter Myklebust
GLOBAL
Afrooz Purarjomandlangrudi and Amir Ghapanchi
Top Stories
UNITED STATES-GLOBAL
HE ‘costs too much and is not teaching 21st century skills’
Nathan M Greenfield
Although unsparing in her critique of United States President Donald Trump and some of his key cabinet appointees, Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, is not blind to the contribution of American higher education to its own ‘crucible moment’.
UNITED KINGDOM
Nic Mitchell
SOUTH KOREA
Yumi Jeung
NEW ZEALAND
John Gerritsen
News
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
University bodies welcomed this week’s landmark ruling by a district judge that the Trump administration’s freezing of billions of dollars in federal research grants meant to be allocated to Harvard University was unlawful – a finding the White House quickly announced it will appeal.
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
MOROCCO
Wagdy Sawahel
Universities and higher education institutions in Morocco are starting, for the first time, to join a movement toward the increased use of Arabic as a medium of instruction, a development which has turned the spotlight on the sector’s readiness to teach scientific and technical programmes in Arabic.
INDIA
Shuriah Niazi
For the first time since it was launched 10 years ago, India’s recently released national university rankings introduced penalties for research paper retractions – the first ranking system, national or global, to do so. But exactly how such penalties affect this year’s ranking is unclear.
INDONESIA
Kafil Yamin
Police used tear gas on crowds of protesters near two universities in the capital of Indonesia’s West Java province this week, according to authorities and student groups, amid ongoing nationwide protests over government spending that have thus far resulted in multiple deaths.
DENMARK
Jan Petter Myklebust
Edtech, AI and Higher Education
GLOBAL
Jonathan Tserayi
Students should use generative AI tools as prompts for critical thinking and research, not for quick answers. AI is a game-changer when seen as a means to an end, not a solutions provider – otherwise, it risks becoming a short-changer, undermining research and effective learning.
Featured HE Jobs
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Academic Affairs Division
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Academic Affairs Division
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Academic Affairs Division
World Blog
KAZAKHSTAN
Aray Saniyazova
Amid the geopolitical fallout from the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, Kazakhstan is increasingly being seen as a stable, neutral and safe alternative for international students, particularly for those from countries such as Iran, Afghanistan and a growing number of African nations.
SDGs
GLOBAL
James Yoonil Auh
Music has a vital role to play in the Sustainable Development Goals if reimagined as being about co-creation, dialogue and dignity. But too often formal music education excludes the kind of community music that reflects the lives of the most marginalised.
AFRICA
Desmond Thompson
Planting trees is often hailed as a simple solution to climate change. But, when done indiscriminately in Africa, the practice can cause more harm than good, according to Professor Guy Midgley, the principal investigator of an ambitious research initiative working to tackle this problem – the Southern African Trees for Climate Adaptation and Resilience project.
CAMEROON
Elias Ngalame
The Higher Institute for Growth in Health Research for Women Consortium in Cameroon has become an incubator for female leadership in health and other scientific research, with a holistic and interdisciplinary approach. It recently celebrated a decade in which much has been achieved.
Features
AFRICA
Elias Ngalame
African oral literature is more than an academic subject; it is a living intellectual ecosystem that should be academically legitimised, according to Professor Mirabeau Enongene Sone, a Cameroonian-born scholar and lecturer in African literature and cultural studies at Walter Sisulu University in South Africa.
Top Stories from the Last Edition
GLOBAL
Riyad A Shajahan and Aik Paung Seinn
As calls to decolonise curricula and pedagogy in higher education grow, engineering education remains a vital yet often overlooked area of reform. However, there are several persistent challenges to implementing it, including student resistance, lack of institutional support and systemic barriers.
GLOBAL
Stig Arne Skjerven
UNITED STATES-CHINA
Denis Simon
UNITED KINGDOM
Louise Nicol
GLOBAL
Wagdy Sawahel
Despite a 12.05% annual growth in global productivity of scientific research papers related to Sustainable Development Goal 4 – quality education – over 10 years, its impact, as measured by the number of citations, is low, and various aspects of the goal remain underexplored.
SUDAN
Wagdy Sawahel
Sudan’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has unveiled a new strategy, including the reconstruction of universities and research centres that have been affected by the war that started in mid-April 2023, involving the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces.
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson hits out at a Supreme Court decision to support the termination of hundreds of millions of dollars of medical research, saying it will have a devastating impact and put scientific progress into reverse.
CHINA-THAILAND
Kreangchai Rungfamai
Chinese students dominate Thailand’s international student cohort and the numbers are growing. But there are challenges and risks unless Thailand looks to improve higher education quality and diversify its student body, led by a strategic vision for its role as a regional higher education hub.