Ministers to promote zero-rated access to online content
African information and communications technology (ICT) ministers have agreed to promote the zero rating of access to educational content to support university students confined at home during COVID-19 lockdowns on the continent.
The ministers forged the declaration after meeting via video conferencing on 5 May as the Bureau of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT.
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Western Cape students rejoice as live graduations return after 2 years of virtual ceremonies
Universities across Cape Town commenced their autumn in-person graduation ceremonies on Monday, two years after the Covid-19 pandemic halted their face-to-face celebrations.
For many students, their studies were disrupted by the deadly pandemic, and they had the daunting task of adjusting to the new normal of online studies and virtual graduations.
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) both kicked off their graduations on Monday, with a combined total of 10 723 students expected to graduate.
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Higher Ed’s ‘Productivity Poison’
The pandemic accelerated remote work across the economy, and colleges are still grappling with the ramifications. Big questions remain unanswered or inadequately answered: Will more campuses adopt a remote work force? What is the best way to carve out time to focus as digital-communication technology, whether email or Slack or social media, constantly pulls at our attention? And as many people report experiencing burnout, what are the right ways for higher-ed leaders and administrators to support faculty and staff members?
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Education and Climate Donors Should Join Forces to Develop Green Schools, Expand Climate Instruction
Even as students flooded back into classrooms this fall following months of remote pandemic learning, more than 1 million were forced to miss additional school time due to another catastrophe: climate change. Flooding from Hurricane Ida and fires on the West Coast shuttered schools for weeks at the start of the school year.
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Universities South Africa | The Engaged University: 6-8 October 2021
HELM programmes have been designed to assist individuals and organisations to identify their capacity needs within their specific context and align individual leadership development pathways with organisational objectives.
Click here to register for the conference.
REPORT: Supporting recovery and driving growth in global higher education – Canada International Student Survey 2021 report
This report explores a range of issues relevant to international student marketers and recruiters at Canadian universities, including:
In what ways have the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout changed study intentions for prospective students?
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South African universities heading in the right direction by mandating Covid-19 vaccination
Arguing against mandatory vaccinations using human rights as a point of reference has been largely divisive and disingenuous. Not all arguments hold water. Does our Constitution, read properly, allow anyone as a right to go into a crowded lecture hall or workplace unmasked, unvaccinated, untested amid pandemics? The answer is no.
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Decolonising is about adding, not cancelling, knowledge
The past few months in Britain have seen a growing ridiculing of calls to decolonise the curriculum. However, these criticisms have failed to understand what decolonising the curriculum is about.
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UJ provides two free, online open courses for students and citizens
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is offering two free massive open online courses (MOOCs) – one on artificial intelligence (AI) in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the other on African insights – to the public.
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Dell Technologies – SA universities must fast track digital transformation to remain competitive
This year we have heard contradicting cases for digital transformation, with one side arguing that the pandemic has forced organisations to embrace technology and the other side noting that the pandemic has pushed its plans backwards.
These arguments seem to shift depending on what industry you find yourself, but in the case of education, it lands somewhere in the middle.
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Personalised, hybrid, lifelong: experts predict the future of higher education
ith Covid-19 the catalyst, the higher education sector is undergoing rapid evolution that could see future education models that focus on digitised, personalised and lifelong education. Higher education could potentially move away from traditional degree and diploma courses to instead incorporate a broad range of modules from which students can choose, a blend of in-person and online teaching and learning, and even new methods of assessment.
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Sisulu Foundation: Africa responds to COVID’s ‘hard lessons’
Senior African academics and scientists have positioned a new initiative of African universities and research institutions as an important step forward in accelerating disease and pandemic responses on the continent through research and development.
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The access funding challenge: A combined effort needed now
You should have seen it coming. In the wake of the recent student protests and the resulting suspension of tuition on some higher education campuses throughout the country, management teams from public universities have become used to having this bit of stinging criticism levelled against them from various fronts.
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How technology brings higher education within reach during COVID-19
Earlier this year, the founder and CEO of The Student Hub, Hertzy Kabeya, spoke to Michael Avery, anchor for BusinessDay TV's Covid-19 Business Watch, about how the ed-tech sector has been accelerated by the pandemic and what the sector could look like in a post-pandemic world.
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Towards the regeneration of the university and public policy in Africa (Part One)
A grounded university curriculum that reflects the realities and is responsive to the needs of the poor, hungry and homeless of Africa is urgent and long overdue. This translates to a radical rethink of the purpose and mission of higher education. Taking billions away from higher education to bail out a historically mismanaged and looted state airline must surely reflect poorly on the agenda and prioritisation of governing elites. Part One of a two-part series.
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NSFAS ready to turn things around
Billions have been spent to fund higher education students. That’s according to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). It says although it’s dealt with funding challenges and delays, it’s turning things around.
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Student housing demand remains a hurdle
Johannesburg – A study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank, has laid bare the challenges faced by South Africa’s higher education sector in providing enough beds for the ever-growing student population.
South Africa’s post-school education and training sector comprises 26 public universities, 50 public technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges, nine community education and training colleges and numerous private universities and private colleges.
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Funding flaws and dreams deferred at South Africa’s universities: We need a long-term solution
Prof Shireen Motala is the South African Research Chair in Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg.
Since the advent of democracy in 1994, the South African government has relentlessly pursued equity in education, despite increasingly limited public finances. While discrimination in social spending has reduced, with race no longer a criterion, inequalities remain because of the high costs of achieving fiscal parity in education.
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The After School Investment Case 2021
For some time, there has been a need for new and local research into the impact of After School Programmes (ASPs) on learners’ education outcomes. We now bring the After School Investment Case, a report that outlines the return on investments into programmes serving learners in lower quintiles.
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Finland supports 4IR education and reducing the digital divide in Southern Africa
Local Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) laboratory and education facility Forge Academy on April 28 said Finland has reiterated its intention to help narrow the digital divide in Southern Africa by focusing on skills development in the technology sector.
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Two new universities for South Africa – planning starts this year
The Department of Higher Education and Training says that it will begin planning on the formation of two new universities for South Africa this year.
Writing in his department’s annual performance plan for 2021/2022, Higher Education minister Blade Nzimande said that the first university will be constructed in Johannesburg’s East Rand in the City of Ekurhuleni.
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Military invades campuses, student leaders tortured
Myanmar’s military regime has invaded and seized control of many universities and public hospitals across the country and arrested hundreds of students and teachers in a violent crackdown that has led to over 200 deaths and has involved student leaders being tortured.
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Tertiary education needs a funding model that caters for all students, says Council on Higher Education
Every year students take to the streets to protest against the exorbitant cost of university fees and the resulting financial exclusion. To escape this annual quandary, SA needs a viable funding model perceptive to the needs of all students in the higher education system, says the CEO of the Council on Higher Education, Dr Whitfield Green.
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Remote learning is set to dramatically change the academic landscape
The future of work has been irreversibly altered. Some version of a hybrid remote-office-industry working model is here to stay, depending on the industry. Universities will do well to create curricula that nurture the next level of skills to allow students to succeed in a hybrid working environment.
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Leading women in academia offer 7 tips for tackling 2021
Women in South Africa have come a long way since the 1950s. With the determination to break stereotypes, grit to shatter glass ceilings and contemporary thinking to create and channel leading innovations – there’s no stopping us now.
The year 2020 will go down in history as the great disruptor of plans. This was the year that forced us out of our comfort zones and had us adapt quickly to a new normal. However, the pandemic has also empowered many women in academia to gain insight into new possibilities and opportunities this year.
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MultiChoice invests R26m in bursary programme
MultiChoice South Africa is offering 236 students from local institutions an opportunity to benefit from its 2021 MultiChoice bursary programme worth R26 million.
The pay-TV operator says it is making tertiary education a reality for students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths, broadcasting, media, film and television, human resources, finance, economics, law, communications, ui/ux/cx design, consumer insights and advertising.
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Minister Nzimande in data talks with telcos as academic year looms
Dr Blade Nzimande, minister of higher education, science and innovation, says his department will soon resume negotiations with mobile network operators (MNOs) for a long-term solution on the provision of data for students.
Addressing the media yesterday, Nzimande said together with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, they intend to make sure no student gets left behind during the turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Department of Higher Education pumps R68m into Covid-19 research and vaccine development
The Department of Higher Education has invested more than R68m into Covid-19 research and vaccine development. A further R25m has been allocated to the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp) to combat SARS-CoV-2 variants.
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Minister Blade Nzimande spells out plans for higher education
Pretoria - The country’s universities and colleges are on track to complete the 2020 and 2021 academic years, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Dr Blade Nzimande said yesterday.
Nzimande told a media briefing that 10 of the country’s 26 institutions had finished their formal academic years. He said they were wrapping up special exams. The remainder would follow suit at different times, according to the minister.
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Sacpo, Huawei to roll out ICT academies across South African TVET colleges by 2021
The South African College Principals Organisation (Sacpo) and Huawei have signed a memorandum of understanding to roll out information and communication technology (ICT) academies in all of South Africa’s 50 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges, by 2021, Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande has announced.
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University fee hikes a gremlin for students in the ‘missing middle’
With few options for funding, students in the missing middle bear the brunt of rising fees. These students typically have an annual household income of between R350,000 and R600,000. An estimated 350,000 students fall into this category and funding options are scarce.
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R230m fund will commercialise SA university tech projects
The University Technology Fund (UTF) has secured R230 million in funding, to help commercialise technology, research and intellectual property (IP) originating from South African universities.
The UTF is a venture fund launched in January.
The fund, garnered since February, bridges the gap between technology ideation, research and intellectual property development and the commercialisation thereof, providing an opportunity to catalyse and commercialise the technology transfer industry in SA, ensuring it achieves its full potential and social impact.
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Uncertain financial outlook for tertiary sector in 2021
Amid the prospect of subsidy cuts brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, South African universities are facing significant financial hurdles in 2021. But while some institutions are expecting cutbacks, most are hopeful that they will survive without job losses, salary cuts or threats to departments or educational programmes.
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Naspers invests R45-million in The Student Hub
Naspers has agreed to invest R45-million for a stake in online learning platform The Student Hub, which helps TVET (technical and vocational education and training) colleges overcome physical infrastructure constraints.
The investment is being made through Naspers Foundry, the company’s R1.4-billion early-stage technology investment vehicle. It is Foundry’s fourth deal, bringing its investments since launch in early 2019 to about R200-million.
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Teaching cannot live on technology alone
Educators in South African higher education constantly have to deal with new challenges. In an effort to truly transform our society by enabling access to and facilitating success in tertiary institutions, we often face what appear to be insurmountable obstacles, many of them systemic in nature. When Covid-19 shook the world and educators were required to make the rapid transition to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT), a great many claims were made that the pandemic was driving a long overdue revolution in education and that educators have at last been forced into the 21st century.
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Re-imagining a post-Covid learning environment
There’s no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has upended higher education institutions across the world and severely impacted the traditional sense of learning.
Its devastating effects have further exposed inequality in education as well as test the lengths of damage control, and the government’s resilience to an invisible enemy.
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South Africa: COVID-19: A time to reimagine and reposition universities
It seems obvious to say that higher education or universities have been deeply disrupted by COVID-19. This effect is not surprising – we have been and are, after all, living in an age of disruptions and crises that have not spared universities. COVID-19 has simply exacerbated those ongoing disruptions and crises.
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Philanthropic investments in education are among our most urgent priorities
It is a well-known fact that corporate social investment and private philanthropy in South Africa are heavily invested in education at all levels. This is not accidental, but is based on strategic decisions on what needs to be prioritised in the country in order to progress. Nelson Mandela once said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
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Public universities to jointly curb COVID-19-risky student behaviour on campuses
The Board of Directors of Universities South Africa (USAf) has noted with grave concern, reports of reckless student behaviour on campuses since South Africa relaxed the national lockdown to Levels 2 and 1, respectively. Noting that COVID-19 remains alive and active in this country, as evidenced by over 1,000 new cases being reported daily, nationally, the vice-chancellors of all 26 public universities have cautioned students at their institutions to keep this in mind in their day-to-day behaviour on campuses and in residences.
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Focus on the learning, not just the spread of COVID-19
Universities have been in overdrive in recent weeks making sure students starting or returning after the summer break know what to expect and understand the new rules they will need to follow to prevent the spread of COVID-19. And rightly so.
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US and UK universities hit by thousands of new COVID cases
Thousands of new cases of COVID-19 are continuing to emerge in United States and United Kingdom universities following the return of students to campuses in recent weeks.
A New York Times rolling survey tracking case numbers in 1,700 US colleges and universities, updated on 8 October, has found 178,000 cases at 1,400+ colleges and at least 70 deaths since the pandemic began, with most cases discovered since the return of students in advance of the fall term but all but two deaths having occurred earlier, in the spring. Click here for more details.
A New York Times rolling survey tracking case numbers in 1,700 US colleges and universities, updated on 8 October, has found 178,000 cases at 1,400+ colleges and at least 70 deaths since the pandemic began, with most cases discovered since the return of students in advance of the fall term but all but two deaths having occurred earlier, in the spring. Click here for more details.
Publish, profit, predate, perish and peer review
From the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’, dubious practices from peer reviewers to academics and predatory publishers, the South African Journal of Science’s latest edition sets out to detail the measures in place to mitigate against ‘bad, fast science’ and ensure the integrity of critical academic citizenhood.
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What skills will employers seek in graduates in future?
Digitalisation, data exploitation and the development of artificial intelligence are driving a period of rapid and ever-increasing change and inequality across the world.
The global digital revolution has received added impetus from the impact of COVID-19, speeding up the transfer to online educational provision and shopping and to many other services being provided online. Click here for more details.
The global digital revolution has received added impetus from the impact of COVID-19, speeding up the transfer to online educational provision and shopping and to many other services being provided online. Click here for more details.
Taking a more focused approach to strategic planning
Strategic planning has become an integral part of the management and leadership rituals of African universities and many other tertiary institutions. For some universities, the strategic planning cycle is every five years, but for others it is every 10 years.
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Universities brace for rise in student mental health issues
Universities are bracing themselves for a sharp increase in the number of students suffering mental health problems. Given the turmoil of recent months, the lingering health threat and students being largely confined to their rooms, vice-chancellors are promising more support than ever, writes Will Hazell for iNews.
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An exciting scholarship opportunity with Schmidt Futures
The Reimagine Challenge 2020 is calling for university students at all levels (including those pursuing bachelor’s degrees and graduate degrees) to submit a short (no longer than 1 200 words) essay that addresses one of two topics:
Sparking a Global Movement
What is one concrete way that YOU could motivate 1 000 000 people to work in concert to make the world meaningfully better within 10 years? What would you do, what would be the key steps to grow an effective massive action, and why would this have significant impact? Why should we have confidence that you will succeed and how would we know that you had succeeded?
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Reclaiming optimism in a shifting higher education landscape
COVID-19 has served as a non-negotiable change agent in higher education, leaving universities with little choice but to migrate to online technologies – in the process disrupting notions of space, place and time. In the fifth and final webinar in a series of “challenging conversations” hosted by South Africa’s University of Cape Town (UCT), academics from Australia, Egypt and Kenya grappled with the question: “How does changing the medium change the way of doing things?”
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Reporting on student retention – From retrospective to predictive
South Africa has a low-participation, high-attrition higher education system, according to the National Development Plan, a government blueprint for economic growth. Student retention – and, in particular, corresponding drop-out and graduation rates – have become critical issues, as in most countries around the world.
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HE gender-based violence plan – Milestone or ‘soft nudge’?
Efforts to end the scourge of gender-based violence (GBV) at institutions of higher education in South Africa have often been marred by inefficient coordination and inadequate budget provisions. A new policy framework developed by the Department of Higher Education and Training now compels higher education institutions to take GBV more seriously.
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Amid economic meltdown, we must reimagine the university
Beginning with the first pandemic near modern-day Port Said, in north-eastern Egypt in 541 CE, pandemics have been, by their very nature, disruptive and tend to produce long-lasting change. The current pandemic is no exception to creating chaos and disruption, and higher education is not immune to disruption.
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South Africa: Policy framework to address Gender-based violence in the post-school education and training system
The President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, in his address at the Presidential
Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide on 1 November 2018, said that gender-based violence is “a crisis that is
tearing our society apart. It is a crisis that affects every community in our country and that touches the lives of most
families in one way or another. Gender-based violence is an affront to our shared humanity”.
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HE must prepare for change, not be forced into it
Students worldwide have been affected by higher education institution closures as a result of COVID-19 which has brought a forced change in how they learn. For some, used to receiving their learning in traditional face-to-face lecture mode with other students, the change has been huge.
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How Covid-19 could change the higher education sector permanently
Across the world, the higher education sector is changing because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Conversation Africa’s Nontobeko Mtshali asked vice-chancellors from three South African universities to share their insights about what these changes could mean for the country’s higher education landscape.
What long-lasting changes to South Africa’s higher education sector has the pandemic brought? And how will these affect the way universities deliver teaching and research?
Mamokgethi Phakeng, University of Cape Town: University teaching will draw from various methods that range between fully face-to-face and fully online. Long before Covid-19, the University of Cape Town recognised the need to prepare students for a digitally mediated world. For example, by the beginning of this year about 60% of UCT lecturers had chosen to record their lectures.
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OPINION: Covid-19 will accelerate digital transformation in higher education sector
Due to the demands imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, South African universities that were previously dependent on face-to-face contact with students have turned to online and remote learning almost overnight.
While this has been a culture shock, I believe that this different way of learning will bring an element of flexibility and dexterity to the learning process. Equally so, it will accelerate digital transformation in the higher education sector.
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“Covid-19 is endangering education in SA” – Wits VC, Adam Habib voices concerns
There’s a hidden danger that Adam Habib, Vice Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, says needs to be considered…
Covid-19 is presenting a clear and present danger to education in South Africa; and it’s not just the danger of a delayed – or lost – academic year.
Speaking during a webinar held on Tuesday, 4 August as part of PSG’s Think Big series Adam Habib, Vice Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, said the real danger is financial. The webinar was hosted by Anet Ahern, CEO of PSG Asset Management.
“As Covid-19 continues to impact the economy, the state doesn’t have money, and if the state doesn’t have money, it’s going to impact on future subsidies for universities. On top of this, people are also losing jobs; and if they don’t have jobs, they can’t pay their children’s fees.
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Pandemic shows need for HE for the global common good
There are striking differences between countries and cultures in the manner in which the pandemic experience has been regulated. These differences are associated with variations in the outcomes of the pandemic and have also had practical consequences for higher education.
Remarkably, the market model of higher education has been expected to operate more or less as normal in this highly abnormal time. However, the ‘business as usual’ approach to the pandemic in higher education is emblematic of broader attitudes.
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Universities of technology in the post-COVID-19 landscape
Similar to commerce and industry, universities have in recent times had to revert to coping and turnaround strategies to address economic, geo-political, societal, technological and environmental demands – with some of these infringing on their mandates of freedom, independence and innovation. Such strategies have increasingly required universities to adopt a generally lower risk appetite, facilitated by centralised and expanded line-function, reduced delegated authority, and protracted decision-making and bureaucracy.
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Varsities try to tackle cash crunch
The vice-chancellors (VCs) of South Africa’s 26 public universities will meet on Friday to hold a special board meeting to discuss the cash crunch facing the sector because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Universities South Africa (Usaf), an umbrella body made up of vice-chancellors, said the meeting would also be attended by chief finance officers of universities.
University of Pretoria VC Tawana Kupe, who also chairs Usaf’s funding strategy group, and Ahmed Bawa, the Usaf CEO, were tasked with guiding the the workshop. Bawa said this special gathering would “look at the factors impacting the long-term sustainability of the higher education sector, scenarios for 2021 and beyond, as well as what the future holds for the sector. “Furthermore, it was suggested to explore a stimulus package for the sector,” he said.
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How the CARES Act Impacts Charitable Giving
On March 27, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act includes tax benefits related to charitable giving.
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Urgent need for HE to bridge digital divide and share resources
COVID-19 has thrown into stark relief the imperatives to bridge the digital divide and to share resources across Africa. Higher education has a key role to play in advancing both of those goals, including by teaching digital skills and collaborating in postgraduate training and research, according to the World Bank and African Development Bank.
An example of the potential of regional collaboration was given. The World Bank-supported African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Redeemer’s University managed within three days of COVID-19 arriving in Nigeria, to produce Africa’s first sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 – signalling Africa’s growing contribution to global science.
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COVID-19 drives development of online laboratories
African universities have recognised the potential of online laboratories in promoting science education. And while online experiments are especially relevant during COVID-19, there are significant challenges.
"The current situation has prompted African universities to switch their training to distance learning," Professor Abdelhalim Benachenhou, director of electromagnetism and guided optics in the faculty of exact and computer science at the University of Abdelhamid Ibn Badis Mostaganem in Algeria, told University World News.
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Donor funding – “COVID-19 will change everything”
The growing need for universities to reduce their dependence on external funding and international philanthropy and pursue sustainable, locally focused funding strategies was highlighted in discussions at last week’s webinar hosted by the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP).
Speaking frankly on the topic of “COVID-19 Impact in Africa: Opportunities for Partnership and Engagement”, Innocent Chukwuma, West African regional director for the Ford Foundation, said funding for universities and civil society organisations in Africa was likely to dwindle after current efforts by private foundations to assist institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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One thousand scholarships for disadvantaged students
Up to 1,000 high-performing undergraduate university students in Africa are expected to benefit from a partnership between the United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) in Kenya and the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program.
The US$63.2 million partnership will enable students across the continent to receive good-quality higher education and leadership development over the next 10 years, with the first scholarships expected to begin in the 2020-21 academic year. It will offer end-to-end support to the students, including access to internships and industry-driven career services.
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Unleashing academic conferences: “We need to seize this opportunity”
The University of Cape Town (UCT) hosted the first in its series of digital events aimed at reimagining the new global university on Monday 29 June. Challenging international thoughtleaders on the globalisation of higher education, the first conversation asked: how virtual can academic conferences go?
A return to the old normal, with its privileges and patronage, is not possible – or desirable – said UCT vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng as she introduced the series. “This moment of crisis presents us with an opportunity to reshape the world, and we should not let it pass.
“Lockdown has forced us to address the problems of internationalisation that we were already aware of,” she said, among them the unsustainable costs of conference travel and its associated impacts on the environment.
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New Wits University leader – A choice widely welcomed
The appointment of nuclear physicist Professor Zeblon Vilakazi as the new vice-chancellor of one of South Africa’s premier institutions, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), has received widespread support from stakeholders and industry representatives.
The current vice-principal and deputy vice-chancellor for research and postgraduate studies at Wits, Vilakazi was named as successor to current incumbent, Professor Adam Habib, on 25 June.
Vilakazi chairs the Department of Science and Innovation’s National Working Committee to develop a framework for quantum computing and quantum technology-driven research and innovation in South Africa.
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Higher Education adjusts 2021 academic calendar due to time lost to COVID-19
The academic year for universities will only be completed in the early part of next year, announced Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande on Wednesday afternoon. He was speaking about the progress made and measures implemented by his department during level 3 of the Covid-19-enforced national lockdown.
“This will mean a later start to the 2021 academic year for many students and a readjustment of the 2021 academic calendar,” Nzimande said.
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Cambodia: Going digital – The second phase of HE transformation
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on higher education institutions globally, including in Cambodia. The physical closure of campuses has meant the rapid adoption of digital technologies to continue the delivery of education to students.
This unplanned move to online platforms and pedagogies has meant a leapfrog into a future of digital learning that no higher education institution was truly prepared for. It has been suggested that, although COVID-19 has disrupted education systems, it has also offered an opportunity for new ways of learning and teaching through the digital transformation of education delivery.
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Collegiality, communication key to easing pandemic psych problems
Amid the psychosocial fallout of COVID-19 on campuses, where fear and anxiety levels run high, some actions have proved helpful to students and staff, including collegiality, regular debriefings and intensive, clear communication. There has been demand for resilience and life skills training.
So agreed presenters at a webinar hosted by the Alliance for African Partnership or AAP, a consortium of 11 universities in Africa and Michigan State University. “Coping with Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19 in Higher Education: Responses and lessons learned” was the fifth in a series of six AAP public dialogues. University World News is the media partner.
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South Korea: University is first to agree partial tuition fees refund
A major private university in Seoul became the first Korean institution this week to say it would partially refund tuition fees to students. This has boosted a major student campaign to have fees returned because of online classes, which students say have been substandard.
Konkuk University on Tuesday 16 June announced plans to cut tuition fees for the fall semester which begins in September, saying it would set the amount of the discount for some 15,000 students after discussions with student representatives this week. It has held a series of meetings with the student council since April.
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Climate change is universities’ most important mission
Universities are confronting the possibility of profound sector-wide transformation due to the continuing effects of COVID-19. It is prompting much-needed debate about what such transformation should look like and what kind of system is in the public interest.
This is now an urgent conversation. If universities want a say in what the future of higher education will look like, they will need to generate ideas quickly and in a way that attracts wide public support.
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Special Report: Food security/insecurity
Reduced food and nutrition security, particularly for the poor, as a result of COVID-19 prompts an immediate policy response. In the fourth of a six-part dialogue series hosted by the Alliance for African Partnership or AAP, university leaders discussed the lessons learned from and policy responses to economic, food security and livelihood impacts of COVID-19 in Africa. The next webinar – dealing with the mental health impacts of COVID-19 in Africa – is on 24 June.
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Unleashing the new global university
The pandemic has disrupted higher education international activities and the income on which universities increasingly depend. But the previous model was already problematic, contributing to global warming and benefitting rich universities more than poor. Unleashing the new global university is a series of virtual events in which we invite innovative, international and local speakers to have challenging conversations that help us rethink global collaborations for a sustainable and equitable planet.
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COVID-19 – A triple threat to food security
Food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa is not news – the region is widely recognised as the world’s most food insecure. And, as participants to last week’s webinar highlighted, the COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest of three threats in as many years to the region’s food systems, following as it does the devastating fall armyworm and desert locust invasions in 2018 and 2019. Such destruction comes over and above the ongoing instability caused by drought and climate change.
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Latin America: The stark COVID-19 challenges HE faces in Latin America
Since the COVID-19 outbreak reached Latin American and Caribbean countries around three months ago, more than 28 million university students (according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics) are now learning remotely in the region. In the meantime, both universities and students are facing truly intense, unprecedented challenges in terms of technological infrastructure, financial matters and resources, among others.
University leaders have had to overcome different issues and universities have had to reinvent themselves so as not to lag behind and also to supply services to millions of students, taking into account that higher education has been one of the sectors that has not stopped despite the devastating nature of the pandemic.
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Netflix CEO donates towards historically black colleges
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, announced on Wednesday 17 June that they have given US$120 million towards scholarships at historically black colleges and universities – the largest individual donation to the institutions to date, writes Kristi Sturgill for the Los Angeles Times.
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COVID-19 hits HE capacity building ties with Global South
The need for capacity development in higher education in the Global South will remain, if not increase, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But can and will initiatives in this area be sustained during the current crisis and beyond?
Many universities support, in one way or another, partner institutions in poorer countries and regions, often in the Global South. Usually the aim is to strengthen the capacity of these partners to offer higher education of good quality, to underscore local development agendas and, along the way, contribute to the global sustainable development agenda. Sometimes research capacity is also developed with similar aims.
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Kenya: Decentralised learning offers a silver lining to COVID-19
Since the arrival of COVID-19 and the consequent closure of colleges and universities, learning is gradually moving online. Many higher institutions of learning in Kenya are doing whatever they can to build an online learning culture among students and faculty. The government announced that learning institutions are not due to reopen until September 2020 and, even then, the opening shall be gradual.
With brick and mortar lecture halls being replaced by networked rooms on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, KENET and other web conferencing platforms, decentralised learning is becoming more pronounced. By decentralised learning I mean the distribution of the key university functions of teaching, research and community service away from a central concrete setup that has a fixed geographic location, to a set up that is internet-based and nearly limitless.
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We need to reimagine higher education, not just repair it
“America is in crisis. Employers say paradoxically they cannot find the right people to fill jobs even though the country is facing its highest unemployment rates in a generation. Competition with a rising China and India and their vast populations lends urgency to the need for the country as a whole to do a better job of educating its citizens.”
The COVID crisis is wreaking havoc with the student experience and higher education institutions around the world. Colleges and universities shifted to remote learning as they were forced to suddenly shut down. Now students and lecturers are anxiously waiting to find out if, when classes resume in September, they will be in person. At some United States colleges, students are staging tuition fee strikes in despair that their degree won’t be considered as valuable under the circumstances.
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South Africa: An inclusive approach to a post-pandemic future
While the South African government took early strides to contain the spread of the coronavirus, a group of academics and civil society actors are now turning their collective thinking to how the country should be managing its socio-economic recovery in a post-pandemic dispensation – using the wealth of expertise available in the country to do so.
A lengthy position paper, recently drafted by the South African Technology Network (SATN) in partnership with national scientists and civil society organisations, has identified a number of priority areas critical to manage post-pandemic challenges. The areas include: human rights and governance, the economy, healthcare, food security and safety, housing, the environment, and water and sanitation.
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A severe risk of growing inequality between universities
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world as no other recent phenomenon has. Higher education did not escape the storm. According to UNESCO, on 1 April 2020 schools and higher education institutions were closed in 185 countries, affecting more than 1.5 billion learners, constituting 89.4% of total enrolled learners.
In order to better understand the disruption caused by COVID-19 on higher education and to investigate the first measures undertaken by higher education institutions around the world to respond to the crisis, the International Association of Universities (IAU) launched the IAU Global Survey on the Impact of COVID-19 on Higher Education around the World.
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Philosophy Prof does more than her fair share
Mandela University Professor in Philosophy, Andrea Hurst, really has gone above and beyond to embrace the University’s #MaskUp Mandela campaign philosophy of “…each one of us doing something ordinary to ensure an extraordinary impact – that of protecting ourselves and protecting others by simply (making and) wearing masks.”
Starting out very early in the pandemic, Andrea was concerned about the shortage of masks and other protective equipment. So she sat down at her old sewing machine and churned out a whopping 250 masks!
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Race to raise funds for Tshwane University of Technology needy
Pretoria - Tshwane University of Technology lecturers and academic staff rocked their running shoes and engaged in a marathon on Saturday to raise funds for their student food support programme.
The lecturers ran distances ranging from 10km to 90km, led by Professor Khumbulani Mpofu, from SuperSport Park in Centurion to the university’s Pretoria West Campus.
Their mission was to raise money for students facing hunger during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Championing the initiative was Khumbuzile Mdlalose, an alumni and Doctor of Engineering, who said food insecurity was a reality for many students.
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NWU hosts online concert for all
he North-West University (NWU) understands how difficult life is at the moment for both musicians and their fans. With concert venues across the country on lockdown, the NWU has found a way for students, staff and members of the public to enjoy musical performances from the safety of their own homes.
The NWU will be hosting a virtual concert, The NWU Alumni & Friends Concert, on 19 June. It will start at 19:00 and will be live-streamed on the NWU’s various Facebook and Twitter pages.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly changed life as we know it. As a university we wanted to share some musical joy with our stakeholders during these uncertain times, because no one knows when things will get back to what they used to be,” says NWU stakeholder relations practitioner Louis Janse van Rensburg.
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Mutual support: UP students raise funds to help each other during pandemic
As South Africa and the world have faced rapidly changing circumstances as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Pretoria (UP) has developed a number of programmes to help students and staff cope with lockdowns as well as the switch to online teaching and learning. But not only has UP been working to help students who might be disadvantaged by the switch to online learning, many UP students have also swung into action to help their classmates and the broader society.
The leaders of the University of Pretoria’s residences have established the TukRes Solidarity Fund to assist residence students around the country. The fund has distributed R200 000 thus far to help with groceries, toiletries and data required for fellow students in need. Everyone including members of the community who wish to contribute can click here.
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Eastern Cape university goes all in to assist provincial health-care efforts (Nelson Mandela University)
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the health system gaps in the Eastern Cape and nationally. Countrywide, we have to start looking after the health of the entire population in far more streamlined ways, and in close collaboration with the clinicians and health services teams on the ground.
The clinicians in our hospitals are in direct contact with Covid-19 patients; they are at the frontline of the fight against the pandemic, yet their voices are not being sufficiently heard.
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15 Ways Colleges Are Mobilizing to Support Their Communities
As the pandemic has closed campuses, forcing higher education to reinvent itself, many colleges are also meeting this unprecedented moment with a renewed sense of purpose about their role in the community.
Faculty and staff members, as well as students, are contributing and producing medical equipment, preparing buildings for use as health-care facilities, providing Wi-Fi to local residents, and offering services like public information, small-business support, legal aid, and spiritual counseling. From Bonnie Resinski, the costume designer and wardrobe manager for the Center for Fine Arts at Saint Francis University, in Pennsylvania, who realized she could turn yards of fabric left over from a 1998 production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest into medical masks, to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who are developing a design for a simple, inexpensive emergency ventilator, the sector is responding to what the Tufts University president, Anthony Monaco, has called “a Dunkirk moment for our country.”
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Research and Innovation response to COVID-19
The CEO of Universities South Africa (USAf) has requested universities to respond to a call in mapping out the available capacity at various public South African Universities in order to rapidly provide assistance to the public against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nelson Mandela University has identified the institutional strength and on-going research efforts that are available to provide a rapid response in assisting the South African government to protect the public. This mapping will help identify the areas where the university may be best positioned for impact in the immediate, short and long term.
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Public universities are readying themselves for virtual teaching and learning during the national lockdown
Since vice-chancellors received a joint briefing on the COVID-19 virus from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) on 19 February, they have sprung into action gearing up their institutions for a concerted response when the epidemic arrives on their campuses. With the number of confirmed cases tallied at 1460 in South Africa (as at 2 April), and with the presence of COVID-19 now confirmed in all provinces of the Republic, the arrival of this pandemic at all university campuses is proving more imminent than ever.
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Emergency Remote Teaching: AAU / OER Africa Webinar Series
The spread of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent closure of many universities has severely disrupted academic progress across the globe. To assist lecturers with the implementation of emergency remote teaching (ERT), the Association of African Universities (AAU) and OER Africa is presenting a series of four webinars on ERT strategies.
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Is this the crisis higher education needs to have?
On 29 November 1990, the then Australian treasurer (and future prime minister) Paul Keating, facing a financial crisis that would severely damage major sections of the Australian economy, said: “This was the recession we had to have.” Later, when asked about the statement in an interview, Keating reportedly responded that he would take the blame for it as long as he also got the credit for the subsequent flowering of the Australian economy, and the attendant income growth for average Australians
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Higher education opportunities after COVID-19
“The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
On the 21-27 March cover of The Economist is a picture of a globe with the sign ‘CLOSED’ around it. For most people throughout the world it does seem like the world as we knew it has hit the pause button.
Beginning with the first reported pandemic, near modern-day Port Said in north-eastern Egypt in 541, pandemics have been, by their very nature, disruptive, leaving after the crisis recedes, who knows what? COVID-19 is no different in the all-encompassing scope of its disruption.
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Lockdowns and research: what we lost and what we stand to gain
The COVID-19 pandemic – and the resulting lockdowns – have had a major impact on research at institutions across the world, and universities in particular.
Research is one of the pillars of academia. Important discoveries are made, careers are built and the opportunities to train students are virtually unlimited. Research is a way of life for many, their findings being fundamental to progress in all scientific fields which supports a vast range of industries and communities.
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Pandemic exposes need for new university funding strategy
As governments around the world redirect capital spending towards mitigating the socio-economic impact of the pandemic and health sector requirements, universities are bracing themselves against the financial impacts on their own operations.
Jamil Salmi, tertiary education expert and former World Bank tertiary education coordinator, told University World News the most urgent task for African countries was to “design and implement a sustainable financing strategy” to support their higher education systems.
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A global scan of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT)
Higher education institutions worldwide are grappling with measures to save the academic year in the midst of increasing and ongoing lockdowns in the Covid -19 pandemic. With students now being remote from the campus, academics are being forced to change their traditional teaching practice. The rapid switch to fully online learning is touted widely as the means of mitigating the impact of the virus with some academics demonstrating the creative potential of online learning in this difficult time.
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Keeping e-tutors at the cutting-edge of ODeL trends
The story: Unisa launches a new programme to provide e-tutors and academics from other universities with the necessary skills for advancing student learning within an open, distance and e-learning context.
What was said: "The programme will ensure that e-tutors have key competencies, which include knowledge and application of various pedagogies appropriate for the university’s context, as well as the capacity to choose and use appropriate technology to support students more effectively" - Prof Matshepo Matoane: Director of Instructional Support and Services.
Why it matters: An open approach implies that the courses can serve a national priority in terms of assisting SA universities to transition to the online space, thereby critically repositioning Unisa as the leading ODeL institution.
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Aspen donates 600 tablet devices worth R2.4m to university students
The University of Pretoria said on Wednesday its health sciences faculty had received a donation of 600 tablet devices worth R2.4 million from pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare to facilitate access to online resources for students from poor backgrounds.
South African schools and universities have been closed since mid-March in an effort to avoid the spread of Covid-19 among students and staff, and remain so even after the government relaxed the rules of a nationwide lockdown on May 1.
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As colleges go remote, students revolt against the state of higher ed
One morning over my spring break, I woke to screaming from outside my college dorm room window: "We have to move out in two days!"
That absurdly short moving window, it turns out, was real. In the wake of the pandemic, most American colleges opted to move teaching online for the remainder of the semester, while hundreds of thousands of college students were ordered to leave their campus dorm rooms — forcing some back to their childhood bedrooms, others scrambling for alternative accommodation.
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