Debates over the legacy of colonialism on South African campuses have been reignited by recent publication of a report examining the impact of anti-fees and anti-racism protests that rocked the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The Institutional Reconciliation and Transformation Commission, which produced the report, was created in the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall […]
While China’s higher education strategy is often characterised by its focus on competition, with a range of excellence initiatives pouring additional funding into a select number of institutions over the past two decades, one of the most interesting recent developments in the nation is an initiative that is ostensibly about collaboration.
My uncle Jack was a ‘great teacher’, and when he died, that was what I had inscribed on his gravestone. He was born in a Lancashire cotton town to a mill worker’s family, and spent all six years of World War II in the army — bravely too, though it was something he would never […]
A drive to legislate against research misconduct and student cheating across Europe is under way, with the Balkans in the lead. In March, tiny Montenegro (pop.629,355) became one of the first countries to pass stringent legislation outlawing not only plagiarism, but also the donation of authorship, the fabrication of research results and a variety of […]
Chinese university presidents describe themselves as “dancers with chains on our legs,” warning that the influence of government-appointed party secretaries leaves them with little real autonomy. Fifteen presidents who offered rare interviews for a new study say that much-heralded reforms ostensibly designed to loosen Beijing’s grip on higher education institutions are “largely symbolic” and have […]
New bespoke immigration assistance for academics considering a move to Canada will help to continue the steady influx of research talent into the country which began after the election of Donald Trump, says the head of Universities Canada.
Speaking to Times Higher Education, Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada, which represents 96 higher education institutions, said […]
The University of Auckland has topped a pioneering new ranking that assesses the social and economic impact of universities based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings is the world’s first global attempt to document evidence of universities’ impact on society, rather than just research and teaching […]
As total student debt in the US reaches $1.5 trillion (Rs.104 lakh crore), policymakers and private lenders — as well as universities — are increasingly turning to income-based repayment as a potential solution. The model ties repayments to salaries for a fixed term and is seen as a way of preventing borrowers from owing more […]
Home education is becoming a hot button topic in the UK just as it is in India, as reported in the brilliant cover story ‘India’s nascent homeschooling revolution’ of EW’s affiliate publication ParentsWorld (March 15). How I wish we had a similar pair of excellent complementary journals for education and parenting in Britain! This informative […]
Meiduo (not her real name) is one of more than 141,000 children from Tibet who have taken part in a scheme known as ‘inland classes’, or neidiban. Set up in 1985, it offers selected students places at secondary schools in parts of China inhabited by the country’s Han majority. There are dozens of schools scattered […]
German university leaders are overwhelmingly male, all German, almost entirely white, and many have limited experience outside their own institutions, according to a report that has sparked debate about university presidents’ homogeneity. There are fears that their lack of outside experience could be harming German universities in the new globalised world.
Roly poly right, right, right. Roly poly left, left, left,” sings a class of five-year-olds at a government primary school in Sarojini Nagar on the outskirts of Lucknow, a city in India’s Hindi-speaking heartland. This English-medium school, one of seven that was inaugurated last year, is part of an effort by the government of Uttar […]
Leading universities in South Korea and China have improved at a faster rate over the past three years than top institutions in other major Asia-Pacific countries, according to Times Higher Education’s latest Asia-Pacific University Rankings. South Korea is the most-improved nation since 2017, with its average overall score increasing by 15 percent during that time. […]
US government investigators have charged dozens of people — including celebrities, business leaders and sports coaches — over allegations that bribes were paid to admit favoured students in elite universities. FBI spokespersons trace the scandal back to 2011, involving coaches, testing officials and private admissions counsellors who allegedly accepted millions of dollars in bribes to […]
There’s a raging debate on the financial and quality crises of the UK’s tertiary education system with particular reference to new universities, many of which are upgraded polytechnics rather than traditional multi-disciplinary universities. The evidence indicates massive failure of management in higher education institutions. Yet so many of the captains who are running many of […]
China’s surge in global university rankings has come largely at the expense of its neighbours, with competitors shunted backwards by the momentum of the world’s most populous nation. But for its diminutive half-sibling, China’s hulking presence is a launch platform for new opportunities.
Hong Kong’s university leaders say the benefits of living next door to China […]
Academics say that the violent crackdown on protests in Zimbabwe has squashed any optimism for the future of universities in the country that remained after the ousting of former president Robert Mugabe in 2017.
Zimbabwe has experienced its worst violence in over a decade as the forces of Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s successor as president, brutally suppress […]
University leaders in Venezuela have called on the United Nations to intervene in the country’s political crisis amid warnings that deterioration of the higher education system is approaching the point of no return.
After years of political turmoil resulting in sky-high inflation and scant public investment, some 3 million Venezuelans are said to have left the […]
In a restaurant in the backstreets of Beijing, 12 Pakistanis and Afghans studying at the China University of Communications tell scary stories of their arrival in China. But any ill feeling about those early days has long since dissipated. They agree that apart from some taxi drivers, the Chinese are very helpful. Friendly relations between […]
From hot dogs, to automobiles, to diesel fuel, Americans have been touched by plenty of German inventions. Kindergarten (‘children-garden’) is one of them. The programme for educating youngest children through play and social interaction, meant to ease transition from home to formal schooling, was first brought to America in the 1850s and spread quickly. Kindergarten […]
In my last Letter from London I discussed the continuing and accelerating decline in the financing and quality of tertiary education in the UK, and promised to examine some of the fundamental principles on which our higher education system is based.
For a start, there is nothing sacrosanct about the three-year university course. The private University […]
Concern about corruption in South African higher education has mounted in the aftermath of the murder of a senior scholar who tried to blow the whistle on academic fraud. Gregory Kamwendo, dean of arts at the University of Zululand, was shot and killed outside his home in May last year. Two men appeared in court […]
A US-style controversy over freedom of speech on campus has gripped Germany after a philosophy professor invited two far-right speakers to give talks as part of a seminar series. Marc Jongen, an MP and culture spokesman for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was set to speak at the University of Siegen on December […]
Students who attended single-sex schools feel more anxious and stressed when participating in mixed-gender activities at university, according to a study. The research, based on an analysis of students at a co-educational college in Hong Kong, has led to suggestions that universities should introduce specific support for learners who attended all-male or all-female schools.
Academics worldwide are facing threats of secret recording and denunciation online by their own students, a sign that tactics used by far-right activists in the US are being adopted more widely.
In the US, websites such as the Professor Watchlist — which purports to challenge those who “discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in […]
Good preschool education helps get kids from poor families ready for school proper and do better in standardised tests, but it is expensive. Average preschool per capita spending in the US in 2017 was about $5,000 (Rs.3.5 lakh), a drop in real terms compared with 2002. Seven states had no government programme at all.
Leaders of the US ‘free college’ movement are hoping to ride a wave of grassroots reforms to put the issue at the heart of the national debate ahead of the next presidential election.
With total student debt in the US totalling $1.5 trillion (Rs.105 lakh crore), the large Democratic field of potential challengers to Donald Trump […]
In my January despatch in which I expressed cautious optimism about the UK’s secondary education reforms that are at last tackling the disastrous exam grades inflation of the past three decades, I noted that nothing is being done about similar problems in higher education, and the desperate financial situation of many British universities. These two […]
As we enter 2019, Britain is evaluating the outcome of the first public secondary education examinations following the reforms of former education secretary Michael Gove who resigned his office in 2014.
Our two main examinations are the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and the Advanced Level (A Level). The GCSE is taken at the end […]
Avanti House in Stanmore, north London, is one of a new generation of religious schools. Some 94,000 children in England now attend a non-Christian religious school, up from 64,000 in 2011. Over the past two decades, the number of Jewish schools has more than doubled and the number of Muslim ones has roughly sextupled. Although […]
Increasing tuition fees for international students in France — a move described as a “paradigm shift” by university presidents — is a key plank of the country’s plan to double overseas enrolments in a decade. France, along with some other continental European countries such as Germany, has traditionally set nominal or non-existent tuition fees for […]
Leading universities in Denmark are set to close several degree programmes and switch the medium of instruction from English to Danish in response to a government drive to reduce international student numbers.
Aalborg University has announced that it will close seven degree programmes, change the medium of instruction from English to Danish in six and put […]
Hangzhou, a city south-west of Shanghai, is freighted with meaning for Shi Yigong. His grandmother, a Communist, was jailed there by the Nationalist Chiang Kai-Shek government in the 1930s and died 18 days after giving birth to his father in prison.
Personal links drew Shi to Hangzhou when he chose a location for the first private […]
Canada’s reputation for tolerance and inclusion is increasingly being tested on campuses in the wake of the country’s international student boom, a conference heard. The number of international students at Canadian universities increased by 11 percent in 2017, with learners thought to be increasingly shifting their attentions north from a US perceived to be more […]
After five months in solitary confinement, his final court appearance lasted barely five minutes. On November 21, a court in Abu Dhabi convicted a British academic of espionage and sentenced him to life in prison. Matthew Hedges (31), a doctoral candidate at Durham University, travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early last year to […]
After five months in solitary confinement, his final court appearance lasted barely five minutes. On November 21, a court in Abu Dhabi convicted a British academic of espionage and sentenced him to life in prison. Matthew Hedges (31), a doctoral candidate at Durham University, travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early last year to […]
Readers of EW, which does so much to promote the quality of education in India and expose government failures, may be unaware about the great education mess in the UK. Recent media headlines in London are depressing.
Britain lagging behind in global education league’. ‘Private school pupils get nearly five times as many top grades in […]
A major study has concluded that teaching standards are lower in the US’ most prestigious universities than in the country’s less celebrated higher education providers. For the paper, published in Higher Education, 60 higher education experts were sent to observe 587 courses at nine US institutions, ranging from some of the most prestigious in the […]
Singapore’s schools have long been reputed for didactic teaching, rote learning and academic brilliance. Their pupils lead the rankings in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial test of 15-year-olds around the world, and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which measures ten and 14-year-olds.
In the popular imagination, school summer holidays conjure up a picture of carefree youthful exploration. But many parents rely on the term-time services that schools give their offspring, such as supervision and meals. Come the holidays, they can suddenly find their schedules and budgets stretched. Researchers also say that the long break often sets back […]
Indian Institute of Technology Madras’ (IIT Madras) Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS) has launched a landmark ‘Data Driven Hyperlocal Intervention’ (DDHI) programme to .....Read More
At least five people, including three children, were killed and several others injured in a suicide attack on a school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan .....Read More
