Africa Top Stories
FRANCE-AFRICA
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Recruiters focus increasingly on English-speaking Africans
Maina Waruru
African students constituted nearly half of all foreign students in France in 2023, well ahead of those from the more mobile and populous European and Asian countries, including India and China.
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EAST AFRICA
Wachira Kigotho
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AFRICA-EUROPE
Desmond Thompson
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AFRICA
Elias Ngalame
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Africa News
TUNISIA
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Wagdy Sawahel
Tunisia’s first public engineering institute that specialises in artificial intelligence will start its work at the University of Tunis when the next academic year starts in September. Experts believe it will fill an existing educational gap in the higher education system.
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NIGERIA
Afeez Bolaji
The Plateau State University in Bokkos, in the northern part of central Nigeria, has been temporarily closed following a bandit attack on communities around the institution in which 14 locals and a second-year computer science student were killed.
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EGYPT
Wagdy Sawahel
Students at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, have called for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the university administration to cut ties with corporations that are allegedly supporting Israel. There has been a security clampdown on protesting students amid ongoing pro-Palestine protests.
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ALGERIA
Wagdy Sawahel
Algeria has unveiled a plan for a new e-platform that will use artificial intelligence to guide high school graduates to choose their post-school educational paths based on their academic records. The platform, which was announced recently, is expected to reduce student dropouts.
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Q&A
GHANA
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Francis Kokutse
It was an adventure for a Microsoft executive in the United States to relocate to Ghana to set up a not-for-profit university. After 20 years, Ashesi University has become a leading place of higher learning, attracting students from all over Africa.
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Research
NIGERIA
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Jesusegun Alagbe
Nigerian researchers are warning of dire consequences for the state of scientific research in the country as the cost of materials and equipment needed to conduct quality research continues to mount due to rising inflation and the lack of a stable and affordable power supply.
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AFRICA
Maina Waruru
A new report on the status of education research in Africa reveals a “promising landscape” characterised by resolute local researchers, a rapid growth in research publications, the emergence of research networks with institutional repositories and dissemination platforms, raising the profile of African research and researchers.
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KENYA
Wilson Odhiambo
The future of Kenya’s academia will look promising once the government finally actualises its plan to increase research funding. To boost the science, technology and innovation sector, the ministry of education has made a bold proposal that will increase research funding significantly.
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Africa Features
GLOBAL
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Nathan M Greenfield
Ensuring that AI stays aligned with human values requires that we pay attention to the ethical, moral and historical training of AI systems and that, along with technical knowledge, the system is exposed to the ethical frameworks of a multitude of different people.
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Top Africa Stories from Last Week
AFRICA
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Wagdy Sawahel
PhD programmes that form part of research consortia offer positive outcomes, ranging from improved infrastructure and equipment to access to international networks and professional development opportunities, all of which help to create an environment in which students are well-supported and can flourish.
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TUNISIA
Wagdy Sawahel
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AFRICA
Wachira Kigotho
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TANZANIA
Wachira Kigotho
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SOUTHERN AFRICA
Eve Ruwoko
The Southern African Regional Universities Association, or SARUA, has launched a project to identify the incentives for and barriers to conducting meaningful, solutions-driven research in countries in the Southern African Development Community. It is funded by the Canadian International Development Research Centre.
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SOUTH AFRICA
Edwin Naidu
As South Africa prepares to celebrate 30 years of democracy, Professor Jairam Reddy, one of the architects behind the founding vision of tertiary education in the post-apartheid era, has called for a review of the state of higher education. Reddy chaired the National Commission on Higher Education in 1995.
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Special Report: AI and Research
GLOBAL
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Research that uses generative AI is expanding rapidly across fields, and is said to be accelerating and transforming scientific knowledge. University World News is publishing a weekly series of articles on AI and Research exploring the multiplying ways in which AI is involved in higher education research. The series will culminate in a special briefing in June.
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LATIN AMERICA
Karen MacGregor
A new continental collaboration around AI in science and research was the unanimous outcome of a gathering of experts from countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, led by the International Science Council. Only by listening to all regions can there be a proper global conversation about generative AI.
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CANADA
Nathan M Greenfield
A team at the University of Ottawa in Canada has produced a mathematical equation that reveals how dendrites in the human body process the information they receive from other neurons. The work has implications for AI, understanding learning, and treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s.
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Global Features
UNITED KINGDOM-EUROPE
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Brendan O’Malley
The European Commission is seeking permission from the European Council to open talks with the United Kingdom on a new arrangement that would allow greater freedom of movement for 18- to 30-year-olds and restore some of the pre-Brexit mobility enjoyed by European Union and UK students.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Nic Mitchell
An umbrella organisation representing Indian students and alumni in the United Kingdom has urged the Migration Advisory Committee to protect the post-study Graduate Route, which allows international students to stay in the UK for two years after graduation to work and gain experience.
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BANGLADESH
Mohiuddin Alamgir
Bangladesh is likely to miss the Sustainable Development Goal of equal access to tertiary education for all women and men by 2030 unless there is proper planning and increased financing to ensure an increase in women in higher education, according to experts.
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YEMEN
Mohammed Almahfali and Abdulghani Muthanna
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NORTH KOREA-RUSSIA
Yojana Sharma
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Sponsored Article
Jessica Silwick
The fast-changing developments in artificial intelligence, a field that is dominated by men, are threatening to disrupt many economic and professional sectors worldwide. ABET has developed comprehensive guidance which it hopes will boost the role women play in STEM education and professions, including in AI.
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Sponsored Article
UAE University staff
In support of both national and global initiatives to address climate change, the United Arab Emirates University launched the ‘Green Research Projects’, a programme designed to finance and bolster research endeavours focused on sustainability and climate change.
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Sponsored Article
UAE University staff
In support of national and global efforts to find innovative solutions to the challenges of climate change and within the UAE University’s roadmap toward COP28 and beyond, the university has aligned its research priorities with the UAE’s (COP28) historic consensus.
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Sponsored Article
University of the Free State staff
The University of the Free State in South Africa has excelled over recent years as a research-led, student-centred and regionally engaged university that contributes to development and social justice through the production of globally competitive graduates and knowledge.
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Sponsored Article
The Education Collaborative staff
The Education Collaborative, an initiative started by Ashesi University in Ghana in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, is one of Africa’s biggest platforms of higher education stakeholders. Since 2017, the Collaborative has led a new model for collaboration in African higher education that is helping to grow the strength of the ecosystem.
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India has an important position as an emerging global leader in knowledge production and has an opportunity to play a key role in initiating partnerships with Global South countries by identifying common challenges that can be tackled jointly through education and research collaborations.
International qualification provider Cambridge has established three global higher education advisory councils which cover its international reach across 160 countries and 10,000 schools. The councils’ aim is to ensure that Cambridge qualifications are adaptable and applicable to an ever-broader spectrum of international students.
An innovative initiative centred around the direct involvement of students in scholarly activities beyond traditional coursework is based on the recognition that students, as future leaders of academia, must be actively involved in shaping a culture of honesty and scholarly rigour.
While Australia’s student loan system is better than the one in the United States and has been copied around the world, it’s far from perfect. But there are measures the government can take to reduce the debt burden and even get more people into housing.