Top Stories
GLOBAL
Universities forced to rethink internationalisation strategies
Futao Huang
Amid geopolitical tensions and political pressure, universities are adapting by diversifying partnerships, regionalising collaborations, strengthening risk governance and pursuing more strategically selective forms of engagement to sustain meaningful global engagement. Politics is now embedded within the structures, priorities and everyday operations of universities themselves.
AUSTRALIA-EUROPE
Shadi Khan Saif
GLOBAL
Wagdy Sawahel
UNITED KINGDOM
Louise Nicol
News
BRAZIL-AFRICA
Wagdy Sawahel
Higher education is being positioned as a key pillar in the growing South-South relationship between Brazil and Africa, following the launch of the CAPES-Move Africa programme, which includes 2,600 postgraduate scholarships for students from Africa to study at Brazilian higher education institutions.
SWEDEN
Jan Petter Myklebust
QATAR
Tarek Abd Elgalil
New agreements between the Qatar Foundation and three historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, in the US aim to expand study-abroad opportunities while also reflecting broader shifts in international student mobility, institutional engagement and cross-cultural exchange between Qatar and the US.
SOUTH AFRICA
Eve Ruwoko
South African universities are being urged to take a stronger stance against the fossil fuel industry’s influence after the release of Carbon Captured? A preliminary review of fossil fuel industry influence and greenwashing on SA campuses, a report by Fossil Free South Africa.
DENMARK
Jan Petter Myklebust
The agenda of the new Danish four-party centre-left government, announced on 3 June, includes merging the ministries of higher education and science and digitalisation, introducing a new AI strategy for the education sector and easing criticised masters reforms.
Webinar
GLOBAL
Leading global experts will speak in a webinar hosted by University World News on 25 June on a key global challenge: how to widen access and success for the millions of potential students from low-income and other backgrounds facing barriers to higher education participation.
Edtech, AI and Higher Education
AFRICA
Karen Joy Koopman and Oscar Koopman
The student is not a unit of bare educational life to be administered, but a person whose intellectual aptitude matters. That is what the AI debate in universities is missing – not a detection algorithm or a disclosure policy but a different question about what the student is.
EUROPE
Villano Qiriazi, Catherine Dolgova Dreyer, Noah W Sobe and Chiara Finocchietti
AI was a cross-cutting focus when the European National Information Centres on recognition of qualifications met in Athens last month. Key discussions were on human oversight, algorithmic transparency and governance for trustworthy AI – and on challenges such as ethical risks, verifying authenticity and supporting quality education.
INDIA
Shuriah Niazi
Universities are emerging as critical pillars in India’s AI ecosystem through talent development, research and innovation, entrepreneurship and industry engagement. Private universities – with their operational flexibility and strong industry collaborations – are playing a growing role in supporting India’s AI ambitions.
World Blog
CHILE
Ignacio Sánchez
In recent years, serious incidents of violence have occurred within educational institutions in most countries, affecting both secondary schools and tertiary institutions. Universities have an important role to play in inspiring respectful dialogue and the peaceful resolution of conflicts so that societies can coexist peacefully.
Academic Publishing
GLOBAL
Wagdy Sawahel
New analysis shows that University World News correspondents and expert commentary writers have been cited in thousands of academic publications and policy documents, embedding University World News in scholarly discourse as a trusted reference point for understanding higher education systems and policies and developments worldwide.
SDGs
GLOBAL
Evangelos Danopoulos
Universities produce scientific evidence every day, yet much of it never shapes policy. While researchers may be skilled at reporting methods and results, they can lack the ability to translate those results into policy-relevant recommendations. A solution is to bring science and policy closer.
RWANDA
Jean d’Amour Mbonyinshuti
SOUTH AFRICA
Desmond Thompson
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
Features
AFRICA
Tarek Abd Elgalil
Nearly 90 years after the earliest experimental steps of animation film in Africa, the field is undergoing a structural transformation. Universities are pushing to formalise the medium into a rigorous academic discipline, balancing technical workflows with ‘visual sovereignty’ and native scholarship.
Top Stories from Last Week
GERMANY
Romain Faure, Christiane Wolf Suzuki and Florian Kohstall
What will Germany’s research security architecture look like in the future? How will it affect the internationalisation of research? The proposed ‘National Platform for Knowledge Security’ on its own is not sufficient. What is needed is a broad culture of awareness and shared responsibility.
GLOBAL
Michael Edmondson
UNITED STATES
Nathan M Greenfield
PAKISTAN
Hamid Ali Khan
UNITED STATES
Alan Ruby and Matthew Hartley
The lessons that have been learnt from recent international partnerships show that universities should approach the need for sustained academic relationships that connect diverse cultural and political environments with greater institutional realism, continuous political analysis and contingency planning for environments that will change.
GLOBAL
Min Bahadur Bista
The structure of higher education was once built on a clear sequence: study first, work later. However, with most students now working alongside their studies, universities need to rethink how they operate to integrate work better, but carefully, so as not to create a two-tier system.
SOUTH AFRICA
Aslam Fataar, Shireen Motala and Crain Soudien
A national roundtable has focused on emerging institutional evidence about AI in South African universities. It pointed to six connected lines of inquiry that should keep the AI question grounded in the central purpose of higher education: the formation of critical and socially responsible human beings.
SOUTH AFRICA
Fulufhelo Nemavhola
South Africa does not need to decommission the PhD. It needs to be re-engineered for the country, continent and future we are buiding. The old model has served universities well, but the world around the doctorate has changed. It is no longer preparation for an academic career.