World news

Expulsion marks escalation of long-running crisis at the University of the South Pacific

Universities and government dispute magnitude of sector’s losses as it braces for worse in 2021

Danish-born viticultural scientist arrives with strong accolades and a reputation for cosiness with China

Accelerating trend adds to nightmare scenario for admissions staff and forces universities to lift their game on student experience

New South Wales sidesteps call for more reporting of universities’ foreign fee fix

With scientists forced to work from home, many now conduct experiments from a distance, and the continent’s biggest research facilities think this change is here to stay

Covid-19 proves both a stimulant and restraint on the jettisoning of long-form lectures

University leaders harnessed an ephemeral income stream to realise ‘ambitious’ institutional strategies

‘No-cost’ administrative changes would save money and heartache, Australian researchers tell new minister

British oncologist announces departure from Sydney institution, citing family pressures

International student flows kept on drip feed as politics, fear and logistics trump large-scale influxes

University Hospital Institute Méditerranée Infection, under leadership of ‘populist’ microbiologist Didier Raoult, continues to push hydroxychloroquine in the face of evidence

Australian study suggests academics’ recruitment habits exacerbate their workload problems

While Greg Craven warns competition for business and law students could bankrupt some universities, colleagues disagree

OECD finds science rose to the challenge of coronavirus, but this led to cancelled projects elsewhere and academics working outside their expertise

Reassessing operations through an institutional mission lens will prove more palatable than business-driven decisions, says ex-Adelaide boss

Institutions with overseas links seen to be acting ‘on behalf of’ foreign interests

Appointment of Melih Bulu, a former ruling party political candidate, has triggered days of protests from staff and students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul

Student demographics will guide whether universities retain or discard large-scale lectures, administrator says

Agricultural agreements between Australian universities and government agencies could overhaul farm profitability

Defence controls, research fields and New Colombo Plan in the frame, as bureaucracies flag foreign interference risks

Sector leaders question viability even when people can again gather in big crowds, with Australians leading the sceptics

Perfunctory guidelines tell Australian universities little they did not already know, but herald welcome dialogue

If the UK wins more money from the EU’s flagship research programme it will have to pay it back – but only if the imbalance is structural

Turing scheme will not cover tuition fees, travel costs to the UK or staff exchanges, leaving UK universities to negotiate fee waivers

New minister’s old work on online education could be revived to encourage tertiary sector integration, experts say

With just a few notable exceptions, it’s no surprise to find that this year’s most popular stories were dominated by one particular topic

Queensland institution spies ‘opportunities’ beyond Java

Overruling of funding recommendations, apparently over security concerns, divulged following minister’s departure

Australian incident could reflect exasperation at ‘spike’ in misconduct detections

Daily check-ins launched during the Covid outbreak appear to be increasingly normalised

Critics say draft benchmarks for assessment of scholarly activity are overprescriptive, exclusionary and onerous

MP brings ‘a good understanding’ of international education and a chequered record on refugees and staff relations

Long-standing cost pressures exacerbated by the pandemic swamping Canberra’s efforts to mould university efforts to economic needs

Expert says favourable treatment of Catholic university is “logical”, but criticises optics of handout to another Catholic institution

Trying to steer a sustainable middle course, Dutch universities have been at 20 per cent capacity this semester

Commercial aid steers research agenda away from public health impacts, Australian study suggests

Murdoch gives the language another year and backs away from proposal to sideline some academics from research

Virus management earns no brownie points for Antipodean education, with UK ranked higher even on safety

More than 50 rectors with no international publications continuously tweet pro-government messages, reflecting country’s waning academic freedom

Fearful of lagging behind the US and China, the continent now has multiple Darpa-like agencies. But they face challenges securing political independence, funding, and turning prototypes into reality

MPs say institutions are wasting money on things like car parking spaces and meditation rooms

Australian trials cancelled over interference with HIV tests

Visa applications to Australia put in too-hard basket, as waiting times approach 30 months

Survey finds females already carry disproportionate debt burden, ahead of fee hikes tipped to make things worse

New regime injects element of doubt into all foreign negotiations, research universities say

Australian stocktake urges pared back free speech policies, with civil behaviour desirable but not essential

Australian analysis uncovers marked improvement in student performance but marginal and mixed impacts on satisfaction

Professors accused of misconduct brought down by online complaints

Group’s regional credentials boosted in latest instance of institutional jockeying in and out of representative networks

Struggling financially, the private Jacobs University is seeking new backers, but academics have been left shocked by plans for it to be turned into an AI institute by software giants

Dean at University of Colorado Boulder plans to replace tenured and tenure-track faculty with instructors, but critics say the move tells students that ‘their education doesn’t really matter’

Institution aims to end national reluctance to ask about racial and ethnic identity, with other universities across the country showing interest in following suit

Rurally based university had faced financial and regulatory challenges coinciding with Andrew Vann’s sabbatical

Focus on revenue and ignorance of reporting obligations ‘provide opportunities for corruption’, watchdog finds

Meeting of government-industry council charts new ‘path’ emphasising transnational and distance learning

Governments must step in because remuneration committees cannot resist upward pressure on executive salaries, researchers argue

Australian proposal the latest in a raft of security-related interventions

Students are lobbying for extensions to the pass-fail grading system that was widely adopted earlier this year, but most universities are proving less lenient than they were in spring

Survey finds Australia and other destinations are losing ground to the UK, with health management becoming ‘less of a differentiator’