University World News

🌏HONG KONG-CHINA: New internationalisation drive amid geopolitical shifts, reports Yojana Sharma. The year 2024 was a turbulent one for #HongKong #universities, which had to contend with another security law and governance disputes threatening university autonomy. At the same time, however, the city’s new #internationalisation drive could facilitate diversification amid heightened geopolitical scrutiny. It became increasingly clear during 2024 that Beijing wants Hong Kong to increase its global #highered and #research networks following an exodus of #academics and foreign businesses during and after the strict restrictions and travel suspensions of the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Sharma. With five #universities ranked within the world’s top 100, Hong Kong’s higher education sector is considered a form of soft power for China, according to an academic at CUHK’s Hong Kong campus, speaking on condition of anonymity. 📌Access the full story in UWN Global: https://lnkd.in/djCivza2 Laurie Pearcey The Chinese University of Hong Kong Ka Ho Mok Postiglione Gerard Miguel Antonio Lim

With just under three weeks to go, there’s still time to register for our upcoming webinar, "Trends in AI for Student Assessment". Taking place on 21 January 2025 at 4 PM UTC, this free online event will explore how AI is changing the way universities approach student assessment. From automated grading to personalised learning pathways, we’ll cover practical insights, emerging challenges, and the latest developments in the field. This is a great opportunity for academics, university staff, and higher education professionals to stay ahead of the curve. Sign up today and join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/dxKETb3w We look forward to seeing you there, if you have a question on this topic you'd like us to cover leave it in the comments below an we'll put the best ones to our panel. #AIandHE #HigherEducation #EdTech

⛓️💥💡 It’s time to go beyond last century’s information frontiers, urge Hamish Coates and Angel Calderon. But what kind of #information would help #universities flourish? Much education information swirling around #highered today was designed 20-25 years ago in response to very different educational and institutional arrangements. It's time, the authors argue, to promulgate information that is relevant to understanding and leading future university education. They outline an approach that certainly does not involve throwing away the excellent foundations set by data designed in the 1980s and 2000s. Rather, they argue for adding to these foundations in useful and impactful ways. Among other focus areas for insights, they discuss: 💡Learning opportunities. 💡Academic partnerships. 💡Resource use. 💡Resilience. 💡Situated resources. 💡Teachers and teaching. 💡Social co-creation. 💡Education returns. 💡Academic value. #Learners would be really satisfied and engaged if #academics and university #leaders acted on such information to forge opportunities that are relevant to them, they argue. 📌Access the full story in UWN: https://lnkd.in/dsVD_cxm #students #graduates #skills #impact #SDGs #data

#Skills and #employment: Africa’s HE sector is at a crossroads. 🌍How can #African #highered systems create more opportunities for quality #jobs? 🌍Can the global #remotefreelancing job market be transformed into #decentwork for Africans? 🌍Is there a growing #talent pool in Africa that can accelerate the continent’s socio-economic development? These are some of the questions education experts attending the 23rd International Economic Forum on Africa 2024 tried to answer in Paris in December. The forum was organised jointly by: 🔸The OECD - OCDE. 🔸ASCI - The African Sports & Creative Institute. 🔸The African Union Commission. African #highered is expected to provide in-demand job skills to a vast working-age population, which will double by 2050, accounting for 85% of the global increase. Andreas SCHLEICHER, the director for education and skills at the OECD, told participants that, if the productivity of Africa’s talent pool and the creation of decent jobs are to be realised, there is a need for investment early on in better #foundational skills, before students proceed to the tertiary level. The potential value of #education is dormant in Africa, he argues, and it needs to be reawakened, not by throwing money at the problem, but by removing #inefficiencies. “Poverty is not destiny, as some schools in other poor regions of the world are posting good foundational skills,” said Schleicher. Wachira Kigotho outlines this and other views and takeaways from the webinar. 📌Access the full story in UWN Africa Edition: https://lnkd.in/de7sPM9Q William DJAMFA MBIAKOP Stefania Giannini Hicham El Habti Rosine Sori Coulibaly Amel Karboul The Education Outcomes Fund Matina Razafimahefa Camelia NTOUTOUME- LECLERCQ

🟥⭐🔴China: Students see ‘diminishing returns’ from #postgraduate study Huge growth in the number of Chinese graduates pursuing postgraduate studies, caused in part by the country’s tight #employment market, may be levelling off, reports Amber Ziye Wang. New figures show the number of #students registering for the annual postgrad admissions examination this month dropped for a second consecutive year (down by 11.4%: 500,000 individuals) from the previous year. The number peaked in 2023 at 4.74 million candidates. Are student choices changing, even as the government has expanded postgraduate places? In #China, an advanced #degree has long been seen as a pathway to better #career prospects in a highly competitive #graduateemployment market. Many, from non-elite universities in particular, pin their hopes on a second chance to gain a competitive advantage. However, the continued decline indicates #graduates may be making more rational choices, said wenqin shen, associate professor of #highered at Peking University, Beijing. 📌Read the full story in UWN Global: https://lnkd.in/d7tUbUmR #KaoGong #graduateemployability #jobs #income #careerprospects 21st Century Education Research Institute

💡🤝💡10 Mediterranean states reaffirm links, adopt HE framework, as wagdy sawahel reports. The 10 countries of the Western Mediterranean (5+5 Dialogue) have adopted a #highered and #scientific #research framework aimed at fostering integration by nurturing an innovative, inclusive and resilient Western Mediterranean Region, with particular emphasis on #science diplomacy for #youth empowerment and #sustainable development. The #Maghreb countries involved are: 🔸Algeria. 🔸Libya. 🔸Mauritania. 🔸Morocco. 🔸Tunisia. The #WesternMediterranean nations are: 🔸France. 🔸Italy. 🔸Malta. 🔸Portugal. 🔸Spain. The declaration emphasises a common determination to strengthen #collaboration to reinforce the potential of youth and #women, and inclusive access to research, #innovation and higher education as fundamental to development and prosperity in the Mediterranean Region. #linkages #PRIMA #Lisbondeclaration Keith Azzopardi Tanti European Commission Professor Ellen Hazelkorn Abdennasser Naji AMAQUEN Foundation TWAS – The World Academy of Sciences Abdul Benahnia 📌Access the full story in UWN: https://lnkd.in/dxCVayrR

🤖Do students use ChatGPT to #cheat? 🤖What constitutes an acceptable use of #AI in supporting learning, writing essays, online exams etc? And what should be considered unacceptable? 🤖Are the “rules of the game” clear for #university staff and #students? 🤖And to what extent is AI literacy part of training in #highered? These were just a few of the questions debated by delegates from 33 countries that convened in Rome for the recent eighth plenary meeting of the Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education (ETINED), organised in collaboration with CIMEA (the Information Centre on Academic Mobility and Equivalence) at Marconi University (Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi). 📌Find the full story at: https://lnkd.in/dDq8qfmH Also consider registering for our webinar of 21 January 2025: Trends in AI for student assessment – Learn from experts #Pedagogical experts will shed light on developments in AI around measuring and improving student performance. It is the first in a series of webinars on key developments in higher education hosted by UWN and ABET, the global non-profit quality assurance and accreditation agency. 📌Find the link to that webinar info here: https://lnkd.in/dw2AMz2J #fraud #TNE #ethics #assessment #AGI Luca Lantero Chiara Finocchietti Adam Liwak, PhD CIMEA-NARIC Italia International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO) Gloria Rogers Craig Kaplan Nigel Francis Brendan O'Malley

🔭🔥🌍🔬Meet two remarkable academics: Rorisang Mahomo and Prof. Sabiha Essack! For our UWN Africa Edition, Desmond Thompson and Mamello Mokoena bring us these fascinating and inspiring Q&As: ☄️ Mahomo, a final-year business management student at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, has made an #astronomical discovery, proving that you don't have to be a natural #sciences boffin to reach for the stars. Mahomo (20), who hails from #Lesotho, has been credited with the detection of an object orbiting the Sun at a staggering distance of nearly 300 million kilometres from Earth in the Main Asteroid Belt between the Red Planet (Mars) and the Gas Giant (Jupiter). Mahomo’s journey to asteroid hunter began as a child and was reignited when she encountered a student #space society on campus. 📌Access that full Q&A: https://lnkd.in/gBHQact2 🩸Essack, an expert in #antimicrobial resistance (#AMR), based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, has been honoured with the international Christiana Figueres Policy to Practice Award for her work in addressing the global crisis of AMR. Essack, an expert in AMR, the South African Research Chair in Antibiotic Resistance and One Health, a professor in pharmaceutical sciences, and an honorary professor of #pharmacy at the University of Jordan, has been recognised for her contributions to bridging #research and #policy. She intends using the funds from her latest award to assist #students experiencing financial challenges in completing their #postgraduate studies as well as to fund students to present their research and create networks at international conferences. 📌Access that full Q&A: https://lnkd.in/d6JwF6Ny Happy holidays to you all! As always, read, engage, share, comment and let us know your thoughts. 🙏 #highered #universities #Africa #women #academics Pan - African Citizen Science e - lab I NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration I The International Astronomical Union I International Astronomical Search Collaboration I BlueCraneSpace I Heystek Grobler I Keketso Qhomane I World Health Organization African Region

🟢⚫⚪🔴 Male #Syrian #university #students managed to escape compulsory military service in Bashar al-Assad’s army through a number of strategies, writes wagdy sawahel. These included ‘deliberate failing’ of their courses, and travelling abroad, a new investigation published six days after the end of Assad’s rule has revealed. Using official data, an investigative report, titled “Escape to failure: How did university students flee from serving in Assad’s army?”, authored by Syrian journalist Ghadeer Barhoum and published by independent media platform Al Araby Al Jadeed on 14 December unveils the strategies employed by students to escape conscription, shedding light on why many male students remained without university qualifications for years. Abdullah Mrndi, secretary general for the Union of Free Syrian Students, who was expelled from Aleppo University in 2011 due to peaceful revolutionary activity against the #Assad regime, told UWN the report’s findings depict a “bitter reality for university students in their dealings with the oppressive Assad regime which used the army for its own aims”. “Students cannot be blamed for deliberately failing to postpone conscription. It is more appropriate to place the responsibility on the regime,” the report notes, quoting a professor at the University of Aleppo who used a pseudonym, fearing for his safety. 📌Access the full story on UWN Global Edition: https://lnkd.in/efd2ZXdu #highered #war Mohamed Al-Rubeai Mhd Yaman Zabad Omran Center for Strategic Studies National Union of Syrian Students

🩸🔬Meet Dr. Sweetness Laizer (31), a PhD student who, once a year, exchanges her office at the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI) in Tanzania for a desk at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Dr Laizer's working to identify gaps in #diabetes and #TB care, and to develop strategies to improve health outcomes for those affected by both diseases. Desmond Thompson catches up with her for UWN, finding out more about the link between her #PhD #research and the clinical trial she's working on; why it makes sense to do her PhD in the Netherlands; the link between diabetes and TB; and her career aspirations. 📌 Access the full story in UWN Africa Edition: https://lnkd.in/dqcaCngq #MedEd #studyabroad #Africa #intled #highered #universities Quirijn de Mast Reinout van Crevel