After 50 years as a university teacher, researcher and student, Raewyn Connell wrote a book, The Good University. Today, universities face a more toxic set of challenges than she has ever seen before.
In a volatile and uncertain world, academic freedom is the foundation of universities’ capacity to be responsive to all of the challenges we face today.
More than 90% of universities in the world have been built since 1949. The vast majority built large campuses outside city centres, and all for much the same reasons.
The way in which Australians think about leadership in the education sector has changed throughout the pandemic. It’s seen as a public good, with ethics and accountability gaining in importance.
Universities Australia chair Deborah Terry’s job description includes openly lobbying government, an approach that has its origins in the sector’s post-war financial crisis.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
A post-war funding crisis forced universities to take the initiative in making their case to the public. A new history explores how universities did it and the changes they brought about.
A humanities degree can open people’s minds in the fourth industrial revolution.
Shutterstock
Populist movements are on the rise. Their supporters distrust the establishment, elites, authority and official sources. The post-truth world is a post-expert world.
The decolonisation of South Africa’s university curriculum seems to have fallen off the agenda, overtaken by the push for free higher education.
Shutterstock
Calls for the decolonisation of countries, institutions, the mind and of knowledge are not new. In South Africa, these changes are crucial and long overdue. But they must be carefully thought through.
What are universities losing in their obsession with competition?
Shutterstock
Indonesia should cultivate a culture of peer-review to support academics produce basic social research, essential in creating good policies in the world’s fourth most populous country.
Africa’s flagship universities have a great deal to offer as the continent continues to grow and develop.
Shutterstock
When talking about the role that higher education can play in developing Africa, it’s important not to forget the continuing and crucial role of the continent’s flagship universities.
Yes, universities need to produce good scientists - but their graduates should be good citizens, too.
Shutterstock
University protests in South Africa have showed that the countries students are hungry for real change. This desire can be harnessed to create a generation of “citizen scholars”.
Xenophobia is a huge problem in South Africa. Could better university teaching about Africa make a difference?
Reuters
South African university students are as guilty of xenophobia as anyone else. Three approaches through teaching and research could make a huge difference.
There’s a huge role for universities to play beyond the ivory tower.
From www.shutterstock.com
Evidence-based solutions to our systemic dilemmas won’t be conjured out of thin air. Universities, governments and businesses all have to work together.
‘Beginning and Ending’, a sculpture by David Hlongwane, stands at the entrance to the University of the Western Cape.
University of the Western Cape media office
Professor of Management & Organizations; Professor of Environment & Sustainability; Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan