Breaking News
HONG KONG
Yojana Sharma
Hong Kong’s eight publicly funded universities have signed three-year ‘accountability agreements’ with the city authorities, aligning them more closely with the national and education goals of the Beijing government. The agreements also increase government control over university budgets, which experts say undermines university autonomy.
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
CHINA-UNITED STATES
Denis Simon
UNITED STATES
Brendan Cantwell
AFRICA-CHINA
Clemence Manyukwe
UNITED STATES-AFRICA
Jonathan E Cohen
Top Stories
UNITED KINGDOM-GLOBAL
In 2023 US$208 million flowed overseas via UK
Andrew Wigley
At a time of rising populism and anti-immigration sentiment, an analysis of United Kingdom-based charitable trusts shows that alumni are continuing to give – and are giving more – to their alma maters in recognition of the impact higher education has had on them.
INDIA-UNITED STATES
Shuriah Niazi
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
AFRICA
Matthew Hattingh
News
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
Citing ‘national interest’, the United States announced on 22 July that it would be withdrawing from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. UNESCO is the third multilateral organisation President Donald J Trump has withdrawn from since returning to the Oval Office.
UNITED KINGDOM
Nic Mitchell
The United Kingdom has joined the race to attract international research talent disillusioned by the Trump administration’s attack on science and universities in the United States. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is investing £54 million over the next five years.
CHINA
Amber Wang
To support the country’s plans to transition to high-end manufacturing and technology, China’s Ministry of Education this month unveiled plans to strengthen and accelerate the reform of engineering education and cultivate more ‘elite’ talent, particularly in shortage areas such as semiconductors and other strategic areas.
SOUTH AFRICA
Edwin Naidu
The head of South Africa’s representative vice-chancellors’ body has welcomed the appointment of Buti Manamela as the country’s new minister of higher education and training following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s removal of the incumbent Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, who allegedly lied to parliament.
Special Report: HE at the UN High-Level Political Forum
GLOBAL
The United Nations High-Level Political Forum on sustainable development, or HLPF2025, was held in New York from 14 to 23 July. University World News explores the growing roles of universities and research in advancing global sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals, as debated at the forum, which focused on advancing science- and evidence-based sustainability solutions.
GLOBAL
Karen MacGregor
Science was in the spotlight at this year’s main United Nations event monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals – advancing science-based solutions was in its theme. Global higher education gathered to craft a greater role for universities in shaping the post-2030 sustainability agenda.
GLOBAL
Eve Ruwoko
At a time when multilateralism is under pressure and the global community faces overlapping crises from climate disasters to biodiversity loss, geopolitical tension and misinformation, science continues to emerge as a reminder of the urgent need for collective action in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.
Featured HE Jobs
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Academic Affairs Division
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Academic Affairs Division
Edtech, AI and Higher Education
GLOBAL
James Yoonil Auh
Artificial intelligence can serve not as a threat but as a co-intellectual partner in reimagining university structures, pedagogy and public purpose. Given accelerating shifts in climate, technology and democratic institutions, what must higher education confront, and what might it become in the future?
ISRAEL
Naomi Hausman, Oren Rigbi and Sarit Weisburd
An Israeli study tracking 36,000 students shows that easy access to ChatGPT boosts course grades but blurs the information grades convey about underlying skills. The most productive graduates of the AI era will combine robust domain knowledge and critical thinking with the ability to deploy AI judiciously.
MIDDLE EAST-NORTH AFRICA
Wagdy Sawahel
The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation in Tunisia has adopted a code of ethics for the use of artificial intelligence in the Arab world to preserve cultural and traditional values while integrating generative AI tools and technologies into university education and scientific research.
Global Innovators
TURKIYE
Dara Melnyk
MEF University in Türkiye is an example of innovation in action, responding to modern higher education challenges by closing the gap between ever-evolving industry needs and graduates’ skill sets through using flipped learning and AI to adapt to a fast-changing world that gives students guided control.
Book Review
LATIN AMERICA-CARIBBEAN
Sjur Bergan
A new book aims to stimulate debate on the democratic mission of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean, discussing the history of global higher education cooperation on ideas of democracy, as well as working with local communities and developing inclusive, democratic values.
Features
UNITED KINGDOM
Nic Mitchell
Universities are in danger of becoming a footnote in a planned skills revolution if the United Kingdom government presses ahead with equating skills with the further education sector and axes masters-level degree apprenticeships as it shifts funding to lower-level qualifications for 16- to 21-year-olds.
DENMARK
Jan Petter Myklebust
New reports from Denmark show a changing higher education landscape, with student applications to study French and German in free fall, applications for humanities falling by 42% in the past decade, and international students – notably non-European ones – on the rise.
SOUTH AFRICA
Burtram C Fielding
The current PhD system in South Africa encourages researchers to complete their studies in three to four years, which is seen as efficient, affordable and internationally competitive. But, are we creating researchers who can only do research or professionals who can teach, lead and drive change in society?
World Blog
GLOBAL
Brent Ramdin
Amid ongoing cutbacks in higher education budgets around the world, defending the status quo is not the answer. Universities must stop treating revenue like a dirty word and start to focus on clarifying their sustainability mission and responding pragmatically to modern economic demands.
SDGs
GLOBAL
Nermeen Mustafa
In an age where the demands of the workplace evolve faster than traditional curricula can adapt to, universities are rethinking one of their most fundamental components: assessment. This requires a mindset shift where employers are viewed as collaborators in the teaching and learning process.
Top Stories from the Last Edition
INDIA
Shuriah Niazi
Thirty-two Indian universities have been flagged as being among the most ‘at risk’ worldwide by a new Research Integrity Risk Index, which identifies academic institutions with systemic research irregularities. This is a notable increase from the initial seven universities flagged with the most publications.
EUROPE
Nic Mitchell
INDIA
Shuriah Niazi
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
AUSTRALIA
Shadi Khan Saif
GLOBAL
Ignacio Sánchez, Diego Durán and Emilio RodrÃguez-Ponce
More research is being conducted into the importance of institutional ethics for university development, but there is still a need for more evidence from a range of countries on the impact of embedding ethics into the university system and its contribution to society.
GLOBAL
James Yoonil Auh
At a time when people are betting on the outcomes of war through unregulated crypto-backed prediction markets, it is time for universities to take a moral stand. Instead, they have capitulated to the market and ‘innovation’. This isn’t a missed opportunity. It’s complicity.