World news

Lockdowns decimated the part-time jobs on which French students relied, and debate is now under way over how to fix ‘broken’ system of state support

Covid safety almost a liability as Australia and New Zealand relegated as ‘spectators’ rather than participants in international education recovery

Lawmakers ‘desperately seeking innovation nirvana’ fail to buttress it with steadfast policies or durable statistics

Relying on academic research, thinktanks translate findings into the language of politicians and media, EUA president Michael Murphy argues – but not always accurately

Losses far worse than they appear on paper, v-c warns, as institution reels from plunging investment and international income

Universities fear ‘emergency brake’ will halt essential medical training and lab work, but in the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal campuses are reopening

Region retains pre-eminence in league table based on alignment with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

Unfavourable policies stem from ‘frustrations’ over stymied reforms, former education minister says

Likely to enter government in the autumn, the party wants a big expansion of student support, 40 per cent female quotas in universities, and academic freedom at the heart of foreign policy

Sectors should bury the hatchet and bolster each other’s intelligence capabilities, Australian paper suggests

Opposition pledges unity ticket with government on ‘single most important piece of microeconomic reform that faces the nation today’

Australian astrophysicist adapts galaxy modelling techniques to track path of current employment practices

Centres of invention such as Silicon Valley ‘a model for burgeoning inequality’, summit hears

Australian minister offers no new details on proposed commercialisation scheme or timing of international students’ return

Stranded students ‘won’t put their lives on hold’, diplomats warn universities

Senior scholars increasingly victims of gossip, muttering and insubordination, researchers say

Three countries even received double-digit increases in 2020, but with so much new government debt, some fear cuts could be in store further down the line

While concern has centred on vulnerable flows from China, an Indian exodus could prove more devastating

Scholars fear threat of lawsuits is deterring academics from exploring Polish complicity in genocide

Security committee chairman does not want to cultivate a culture of ‘learned helplessness’ where universities defer judgement to the government

Paucity of agents, degree-averse students and lack of focus in Canberra hamper universities from cultivating alternative markets, webinar hears

Australian university shrugs off Covid’s financial wrecking ball and even manages to bolster its insurance against future ‘shocks’

Complaints about essay mills peaked as online delivery concerns subsided, regulator’s report says

First institutional accounts reveal mixed results, with many institutions weathering the Covid storm but some plunging into deficit

Legislators push for change to be adopted nationally

‘Extremely careful’ attitude reflects scepticism over vaccine roll-out, but also unexpected success of forced switch to online learning

Universities Australia not releasing its latest ‘health check’, after the previous one revealed ‘harsh’ perceptions

Equity expert also highlights the risks of competitive grading and the benefits of diverse groupings

Minister’s suggestion, which has a troubled history, among several medium-term ideas to revive international education

More pain in store for Australian universities, as bankruptcy beckons the colleges and agencies that scaffold their international operations

Science minister’s replacement could curb momentum on women’s progress in STEM, critics fear

Universities face ban on deals with foreign partners that lack ‘institutional autonomy’, as they wrestle with similar demons

Australian universities’ standing in global league tables may have plateaued

Research projects examining humanitarian crises and school inequality the latest to come under a cloud

Beijing has banned dozens of China researchers and their families, while the country’s embassy to France called an expert a “petty thug” on Twitter

Vietnamese analysis of Australian survey data affirms findings about education’s impacts on subjective well-being, but ‘does not settle the argument’

At the Future of Humanity Institute, early career researchers are given two years to work out which questions are really worth asking

Requirement for trainee doctors to undertake training in the bush has not been enough to keep them there after graduation

Most collaboration will continue, but emphasis on building the EU’s ‘strategic autonomy’ means academics in Israel, the UK and Switzerland could be shut out of some areas

Internal vetting found nothing wrong with rejected research projects, vice-chancellors tell parliament’s security committee

‘Ambiguous’ regulations and lack of clarity around national security concerns are keeping universities in the dark, Australian inquiry hears

Lift your game, minister tells Covid-struck universities, as students mark institutions down on engagement

Brussels-backed pilot project has borne fruit, but leaders say creating ‘seamless mobility’ across continent has been even more expensive and bureaucratic than expected

Chinese students becoming more supportive of authoritarian government during time in liberal democracy

Critics say university lent undue weight to analysis that was not peer-reviewed, but some worry scientists have shied away from fully investigating hypothesis

With every second institution sporting a new boss, or looking for one, the pool of replacements may be shrinking

New Sydney boss to earn much less than his predecessor – but more than Michael Spence’s current income in the UK

Selling the sector will be a key challenge for the former political adviser, journalist and media administrator chosen to lead Australia’s oldest university 

The pandemic may be goading Australia’s stay-at-home students to look further afield for their education, although some of them may ultimately decide to stay put

Educational link ‘as bad as it has ever been’, with billions of dollars at stake for universities

Sector leaders acknowledge ‘errors’ but deny deliberate withholding of pay

We want commercial success but can’t build it on an empty research larder, university lobby tells Canberra

Recession-driven domestic surge more than compensates for loss of international students at some institutions Down Under

Departures of Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell has prompted academics to ask if they should reconsider links with the technology giant

Debates around transgender rights illustrate why intellectual freedom rules must be in place before touchy topics arise, say authors

Unlike Dutch universities, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research cannot pay a ransom to attackers because it is a public body

Superficial thinking in Canberra is squandering transformative opportunity for higher education, Brisbane forum hears

Beijing follows Shenzhen and other cities in seeking to attract laureates, but experts question whether initiative will have trickle-down effect on basic science

As classes resume on Australian campuses, anxieties persist about the year ahead – domestically, and particularly internationally

Students who ‘strategically’ jettison subjects early are among the least likely to complete courses, Australian research finds