Asia Top Stories
BANGLADESH
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Mohiuddin Alamgir
Private universities in Bangladesh are at loggerheads with the country’s tax authorities over payment of 15% income tax, which was imposed following a verdict by the appellate division of the Supreme Court, pushing private higher education institutions into crisis.
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JAPAN
Suvendrini Kakuchi
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CHINA
Caroline Wagner
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SOUTH KOREA
Minji Kim and Meseret F Hailu
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AFRICA-JAPAN
Maina Waruru
An international project by the government of Japan and local African partners, AFRICA-ai-JAPAN, that started in 2020, has recently identified agriculture, engineering and information and communications technology as starting points for establishing stronger regional collaboration that would involve a regional hub in Kenya and 10 countries in Africa.
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PHILIPPINES
Kalinga Seneviratne
Far-reaching legislation lifting constitutional restrictions on foreign investment could pave the way, if successful, for the establishment of branch campuses of foreign universities. But there is disagreement among the Philippines’ leading government higher education agencies and other stakeholders on the benefits of foreign universities.
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Asia News
CHINA-MIDDLE EAST
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Yojana Sharma
China has been stepping up research collaborations with countries in the Middle East – especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – but the United States is pressing some Arab countries to scale back research collaboration in potentially sensitive areas such as artificial intelligence.
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GLOBAL
Nic Mitchell
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INDIA
Mukhtar Ahmad
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INDIA
Shuriah Niazi
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HONG KONG
Yojana Sharma
Academics anticipate that the ambiguously worded new security law will increase self-censorship among academics in Hong Kong and put a damper on open academic research. The law, passed unanimously, comes into effect on 23 March 2024 and carries jail terms which include life imprisonment.
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CHINA
Yojana Sharma
A prominent Peking University academic has said recent anti-espionage laws introduced by the Chinese government are deterring prospective foreign students, while overly stringent restrictions are also preventing Chinese academics from attending international events, despite the government’s avowed commitment to academic exchanges.
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INDIA
Nitika Singh
While a curriculum that includes Indian indigenous or local knowledge alongside modern, global knowledge is likely to increase India’s appeal to international students, it is also important to provide post-study work visas that facilitate employment opportunities for international students in the Indian job market.
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INDONESIA
Kafil Yamin
Concerned about election irregularities and amid separate legal challenges to the results by two unsuccessful candidates, academics are stepping up criticism of last month’s poll which saw the Indonesian Electoral Commission declare Minister of Defence Prabowo Subianto the country’s president-elect on 20 March.
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SOUTH KOREA
Yumi Jeung
Professors from medical schools in South Korea began to tender their resignations this week in opposition to the government’s plan to increase medical school admissions quotas, leaving the country’s medical education and training in deep crisis. The resignations take place amid government threats to penalise striking specialists, including revoking their medical licences.
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NETHERLANDS-CHINA-EUROPE
Yojana Sharma
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Special Report: AI and HE – Asia
ASIA
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Asian countries tend to be early adopters of new technologies and generative AI is no exception. Universities and researchers across the region are working on fundamental research as well as with tech companies and governments on practical applications. This special report exploring developments in generative AI in higher education is part of our ongoing AI and Higher Education series, with a focus on Asia.
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THAILAND
Yojana Sharma
As artificial intelligence-assisted technologies are developing rapidly in areas such as the healthcare sector, university researchers are helping policy-makers across Asia and the Pacific to identify the gaps and barriers to rapid implementation, under a major initiative led by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities.
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TAIWAN
Yojana Sharma
Taiwan’s leading global position in the semiconductor industry – producing 60% of the world’s chips and 90% of the most advanced ones – helps to attract artificial intelligence talent and investment in research. The emergence of generative AI has led to a mushrooming of research projects.
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Asia Features
AFGHANISTAN
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Yojana Sharma
The rapid relocation of the American University of Afghanistan to Qatar after the fall of Kabul is enabling students to beat the Taliban’s ban on women going to university. University World News visited the campus to speak to some of the Afghan women able to continue their education.
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SDGs in Asia
AFRICA-TAIWAN
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Eve Ruwoko and Maina Waruru
Three universities in Malawi, Kenya and Ethiopia are working closely with a group of universities from Taiwan to improve the quality of their health-related programmes, while also focusing on other pressing challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa such as clean water access and climate action.
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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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