International News

Japan: Unique research institution

Japanese universities’ challenges in attracting overseas talent and promoting the use of English in scholarship are well-documented. Yet, on an island hundreds of miles south of Tokyo, a small graduate…

The Rankings: THE Top 200

If you were asked to name the fastest-rising higher education system in the world, the likely answer would be China. Results of the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings…

United States: Vax resistance crisis

The persistent partisan split in the US over COVID is increasingly dividing higher education over vaccination rules, stimulating protests, lawsuits, resignations, infections and renewed migration to online teaching. As with…

Canada: Scathing micro-degrees criticism

Micro-degrees are “gig credentials for the gig economy,” exacerbating the tenuous existence of struggling workers and turning universities into job coaching services that save companies money on in-house training, according…

Afghanistan: Ominous portents

Education activists and leaders are desperately trying to rescue Afghan scholars — particularly girls and women — from the Taliban, while experts warn that the country could lose the gains…

Bangladesh: School bells ring after 543 days of Covid-19 outbreak

School bells rang after a hiatus of 543 days in Bangladesh on Sunday, as tens of thousands of students returned to classes, amid an ease in the coronavirus situation in…

China: Mental health initiative

China is set to become one of the first countries to make mental health a compulsory credit-bearing module for all undergraduate students, in a sign of growing concern over the…

Krishna Rajagopal and Christopher Paucek

United States: EdX sale row

The dean of digital learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has resigned as a staff revolt against the sale of non-profit online course platform edX to for-profit competitor…

France: Historians protest censorship

French historians have raised the alarm that a new terrorism and intelligence law will stop the release of state military and security archival documents, amid accusations that elements in the…

Azerbaijan: Oxford’s suspect research centre

A member of the family of Azerbaijan’s autocratic ruler sits on the board of a University of Oxford research centre that studies the country, raising conflict of interest concerns for…

United Kingdom: Quarantine capacity problem

The arrival in the UK of a potential 100,000 international students from Covid red-list countries in the coming months presents a “clear quarantine-capacity problem” that could “overwhelm” the system, with…

Japan: Hagoromo chalk panic

If you ever want to see mathematicians get really excited, ask them about Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk. Writing on a blackboard with the deluxe Japanese chalk made of oyster shells is…

Turkey: Minor victory hopes

Academics in Turkey say they have won a rare victory for university autonomy after a politically appointed rector was dismissed following six months of protest. The sacking of Melih Bulu,…

India: Headless varsities speculation

More than one in three of India’s Central universities is without a permanent vice-chancellor, raising concerns about growing political interference in appointments and flagging questions about the planned transformation of…

Germany: Research video row

Precariously employed German academics have forced the country’s research ministry to take down a video that argued that temporary academic contracts are good for the economy and prevent one generation…

United Kingdom: Imminent exams reform

In the sort of formal ceremony beloved in this part of the world, VIPs posed on stage, holding shovels decorated with giant gold bows, to mark the launch of a…

China: Sword over coaching institutions

Until children reach the age of about 15 in China, education is free. So why is it that more than half of a typical family’s spending goes on it? The…

Colombia: School reopening pains

If all goes to plan, schools in Colombia (pop.50 million) will finally reopen over the next two weeks, with most children back by July 15. Better late than never. Schools…

OECD: Will schooling change?

BIG SHOCKS HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED schooling for the better. The Second World War midwifed the Butler Act in Britain, which increased years of compulsory schooling and abolished fees still charged…

Essex Preparation Programme to help students overcome educational setbacks

The University of Essex has stepped in to help final year school and college students around the world bounce back from all the setbacks they’ve faced due to COVID with…

South-east Asia: Higher ed spending spree

In the sort of formal ceremony beloved in this part of the world, VIPs posed on stage, holding shovels decorated with giant gold bows, to mark the launch of a…

India: Pandemic jugaad charges

Indian universities are facing mounting criticism of their response to the country’s deadly coronavirus surge, with concern focusing on the fate of insecurely employed teaching staff. At the flagship University…

United Kingdom: Brexit hits research

UK universities could struggle to fill key professorial and postdoctoral researcher roles amid growing frustration among European academics at Brexit-related bureaucracy and costs, Times Higher Education has been told. Since…

China: Lab leak theory revival

Just a month ago, the idea that Coronavirus came from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan was derided by much of the press as a fringe conspiracy theory and banned…

German graduates: pandemic era degrees cloud

Germany: Online exams cheating spurt

Students are twice as likely to cheat in online exams following the rapid switch to digital assessment last summer, suggests a survey. A survey of 1,608 students in higher education…

Covid 19 vaccine for children: Is India way behind?

Shreyosi Chakraborty With the Covid-19 graph indicates a downward trend, several Indian state governments are already thinking of re-opening the schools. While doctors and researchers predicted the third wave of…

France: Sexual assaults indictment

In December 2019, the French investigative journalist Iban Rais was in the student bar of ESSEC Business School, consistently ranked as one of the leading institutions of its kind in…

China: Laureate labs strategy

China is ramping up its efforts to poach Nobel laureates from universities around the world to establish laboratories in the country. But questions are being raised whether this initiative will…

Emerging Economies: Higher ed Top 10

From access to basic equipment, technology and quiet working spaces to childcare burdens and job cuts, the pandemic has exacerbated existing disparities among individuals, communities, institutions and countries. Increased attention…

United States: End of public exams?

To the delight of campaigners and some parents, Covid-19 has de-popularised school-leaving exams. With support from the Trump administration, all 50 states cancelled accountability testing last March, freeing 51 million…

United States: Critical alumni role

Why are American universities pre-eminent in global higher education? Previous explanations have included the country’s massive economy, its enormous budget for scientific research and its history of immigration. But a…

Australia: Confusing admissions scenario

Australian universities’ new recruits are taking advantage of online education by ‘sampling’ degrees before committing to them, in a trend that complicates planning and pressures universities to deliver good experiences…

Russia: Greater regulation fears

Russian academics have expressed alarm about sweeping legal amendments that propose government regulation over “educational activities”, fearing that the change could hit international collaboration, stop scholars making public lectures and…

Canada: Intellectual property conundrum

A university has apologised for its handling of an online course that was based on lectures by a professor who had died, in a case which highlights the risk of…

United States: International admissions uptick

The number of international students applying to US universities for the coming academic year has jumped by 11 percent, according to initial estimates, raising hopes of a quick rebound under…

China: Child fitness drive

In exam-obsessed China, educators have long struggled with the problem of overworked schoolchildren. Attempts to do away with some test-oriented teaching often face resistance from parents, who worry their offspring…

Europe: Schools closure pains

No one is ever truly ready for lockdown. But when the Netherlands closed its schools last December, the Herman Wesselink College, a government high school in a well-off suburb of…

President Erdoğan: twitter qualification partiality

Turkey: Political rectors

Dozens of Turkish university rectors have no international research record but tweet prolifically in support of the Ankara government, scholars have warned, raising further concerns about academic independence as the…

China: Moocs revival

China has declared itself the world’s leader in massive open online courses (Moocs), in terms of the number of courses and participants. This announcement has directed academic attention to a…

United Kingdom: Imperial bullying row

Professors who chair disciplinary panels at Imperial College, London, have warned that the institution’s handling of bullying cases involving its president and finance chief could hamper their ability to fulfill…