US university leaders are increasingly shying away from collaborations with China for fear of getting blacklisted by national research funders, academics have warned. As tensions rise between the US and China, top administrators were opting to discourage research partnerships rather than make a misstep that could result in the loss of millions of dollars in institutional funding, explained two scholars with decades of experience in brokering Sino-US research. 'I have no doubt whatsoever that many, but not all, risk-averse administrators are doing so.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-afraid-get-blacklisted-funders-avoid-china-collaborations

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A rebalancing of undergraduate admissions in the UK appears to be under way with non-elite institutions increasing their intakes during clearing. After three years in which higher tariff institutions hoovered up the rise in 18-year-olds wanting to go to university, the 2022 cycle saw the beginnings of a return to parity with medium and lower tariff options, according to Ucas data. Mark Corver, co-founder of DataHE and former director of analysis and research at Ucas, said there were 'tentative signs' that the worst years are behind the universities that tend to attract students with lower grades.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/non-elite-universities-claw-back-ground-admissions-race

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This autumn marks the 10th anniversary of tuition fees rising to £9,000 a year in most parts of the UK but the debate about whether this represents 'value for money' seems more urgent than ever. Although their value in 2012 prices is approaching £6,000, tuition fees still loom large in the national consciousness – and on student loan arrears sheets – prompting universities to make the case whenever they can about why higher education provides good value for students. For the economists and politicians who have championed growing student enrolments, the clear link between achieving a university degree and future earning potential is often the strongest proof that students receive value for money.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-values-are-missing-student-value-money-debate

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There is no one way to find success in an academic career. In this webinar, three senior academics reflect on their unique trajectories to success and offer advice on promotions, workload management and accepting that it's never a linear path to the top.  The panellists are: Sarah Birrell Ivory, the director of the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability and senior lecturer in climate change and business strategy at the University of Edinburgh Business School. Her textbook Becoming a Critical Thinker: For Your University Studies and Beyond, published by Oxford University Press, has been adopted by universities across the world to support students' university journey.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/campus-webinar-keys-successful-academic-career

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Living allowances should be granted to all students regardless of their families' wealth because the educational and social benefits would outweigh the financial costs, two Australian academics have argued. Political scientists Susan Goodwin and Ariadne Vromen say students from all socio-economic backgrounds suffer from an income support regime premised on 'ongoing parental dependency'. Students from the poorest households must earn money to supplement living allowances well below the poverty line, while those from the 'squeezed middle' – whose parental incomes render them ineligible for income support – must work just as hard to 'compensate for the pressure…on family resources'.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/benefits-universal-income-support-students-outweigh-costs

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Australia's academic union has launched a 'week of action', as staff rebuff the latest university attempt to bargain directly with employees. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) says members across the country will participate in industrial action ranging from full-day strikes to May Day rallies and a 'solidarity barbecue'. The campaign will peak on 3 May when staff from all Victorian universities converge on Trades Hall in Melbourne. They include workers from Australia's largest educator of domestic university students, Deakin, where 62 per cent of voting staff last week rejected an enterprise agreement proposed by management.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/industrial-turmoil-australian-campuses

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Uncertainty about accommodation is becoming a deal-breaker for international students, factoring into their decisions about where they study – and whether they head abroad in the first place. An IDP survey has found that housing is now a prime consideration for prospective international students from East Asia. Almost two-thirds of Chinese respondents said they wanted to secure accommodation before leaving their country, and of these, almost three-quarters said they would not travel otherwise.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/overseas-students-tell-universities-no-housing-no-enrolment

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A university-led nationwide tutoring programme in schools could help hundreds of thousands of poorer pupils progress, it has been claimed, after a pilot study showed that help from undergraduates led to a 100 per cent improvement in children's basic writing skills. Year 8 pupils who had been struggling in their English lessons at St James School in Exeter were offered tutoring sessions in small groups during the autumn term of 2022, thanks to a partnership with the . Assessments testing the 18 pupils' ability to write accurate sentences were taken before and after the nine-week intervention, with the average score of all who took part improving from 10.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/undergraduate-tutors-help-local-school-pupils-double-grades

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Chinese universities are not equipping their graduates with the skills they need to secure a job amid soaring rates of youth unemployment, researchers say. Even as China's overall employment prospects have improved somewhat , the country's young people continue to face record-high joblessness rates, with nearly 20 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds not working, according to  government figures published in March. In a recent editorial for the China-focused publication Sixth Tone , Li Xiaoguang, an assistant professor of sociology at Xi'an Jiaotong University and author of a forthcoming study on youth unemployment, suggested that universities might be to blame.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-partly-blame-chinese-graduates-job-woes

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The international community needs to coordinate better and act more coherently to ensure more refugees are able to attend universities, according to a senior United Nations adviser. Khaled Khalifa, who represents the UN's refugee agency to countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said the world was at risk of missing its  target of ensuring 15 per cent of refugees are in higher education by 2030 unless institutions work together. More coordination was key to ensuring progress across all the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mr Khalifa  told Times Higher Education 's Global Sustainable Development Congress , hosted by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/work-together-ensure-refugees-can-access-he-un-adviser-says

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Robert Gerwarth is a German-born historian and author of several popular books on the major figures and forces behind the 20th century's worst conflicts, with his work translated into 30 languages. As an academic, he helped to establish the Centre for War Studies and won Ireland's first European Research Council Starting Grant in the humanities in 2009. He won the Irish Research Council Researcher of the Year Award for 2022. Where and when were you born and how has this shaped who you are? I was born in 1976 in Cold War West Berlin.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/people/interview-robert-gerwarth

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Enquiry-based learning closes the gap between theory and practice by asking students to actively engage with ideas or topics, investigating and questioning as they build knowledge. In simple terms, it is learning by doing. The Open University is pioneering enquiry-based learning in which students meet virtually once a fortnight with a facilitator via Adobe Connect in small groups consisting of seven to 10 students. Students will typically be employed in practice while studying, so they should be encouraged to bring examples from their on-the-job experience to help them efficiently match the theory and practice and spark discussion in the wider group.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/enquirybased-learning-five-steps

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With the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol in June 2020, the growing visibility of black characters in historical dramas from Bridgerton to The Last Kingdom and recent TV documentary series by David Olusoga and Lenny Henry, the profile of what is often called 'black British history' has never been higher. But Hakim Adi, who became the UK's first black history professor in 2015, is not entirely happy this label has become so popular. 'It suggests there is white British history and black British history,' said Professor Adi, now professor of the history of Africa and the African diaspora at the University of Chichester.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/hakim-adi-millions-black-britons-written-out-history

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England's higher education regulator has been warned that the departure of its designated quality body (DQB) means it faces losing expertise and credibility just as it attempts to take a more interventionist approach. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education's (QAA) decision to relinquish its long-standing role in the English system has raised 'fundamental questions' about whether the Office for Students (OfS) can continue with its new strategy for regulation, according to Paul Ashwin, professor of higher education at Lancaster University.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/qaas-departure-leaves-english-sector-lacking-expertise-crucial-time

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Two students have been 'debarred' by a top Indian institution after screening a controversial BBC documentary critiquing the country's prime minister – a move that some academics fear could have a 'chilling effect' on free speech on the nation's campuses. When it was released in January, the series India: The Modi Question – which investigates Narendra Modi's role in riots in Gujarat that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2002 – was condemned by the country's government, with several universities issuing warnings to students against screening it.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/delhi-universitys-punishment-students-over-modi-doc-chilling

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The late-stage draft of England's campus speech bill is light on academic rights, leaving university governing bodies to define notions of intellectual autonomy and free expression on their campus, senior sector figures have argued. The House of Lords again tweaked the Westminster government's Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill on 21 March, with Conservative former universities minister Lord Willetts telling an event at King's College London that peers had added 'some constraints' to a controversial mechanism for suing universities and students' unions that limit speech, such as requiring all regulatory remedies to be tried first.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/free-speech-bill-universities-need-clear-conception-freedoms

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In Samira Makhmalbaf's film Blackboards (2000), a group of men trek through the mountainous regions of Iranian Kurdistan, stooped under the huge blackboards strapped to their backs. They are itinerant teachers looking for pupils, anyone who will pay them for lessons with money or food. 'Do you know how to write? Would you like to learn?' they say to everyone they meet in earnest, badgering tones. In mountain villages, where the locals hide inside their houses, they shout: 'Open the windows. Answer me! I've come a long way to teach your children to read and write.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/we-dont-need-oversell-value-humanities

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The head of Australia's higher education regulatory body has warned the country's universities to brace for more competition, with some 'very strong' rivals about to claim the prized mantle of self-accrediting status. Peter Coaldrake, chief commissioner of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa), said a 'significant number' of higher education providers had the 'maturity' to warrant self-accrediting authority. 'There will be an opportunity for some…to start moving in that direction fairly soon,' he told the Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit in Sydney.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-universities-set-face-more-competition

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China's largest academic portal has curtailed access for universities outside its borders, apparently in response to a security services directive, a move that researchers warn could damage mutual understanding between China and the West. Effective from 1 April, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), estimated to hold more than 90 per cent of scholarly publications published in the country, cut off access to some of its resources for foreign users. Affected databases include the China Dissertation and Master's Theses, the China Conference Proceedings, China Statistical Yearbooks and the National Population Census of China, according to regional press .

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/china-block-foreign-access-journal-portal-damages-knowledge

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Students in Iran have ignored an official warning to stay off the streets despite authorities cracking down in an attempt to quell widespread revolt. On 29 October, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards told protesters that Saturday would be their 'last day of riots'. According to news reports, security forces may be preparing to ramp up their response to demonstrators, having already used tear gas and live rounds to disperse crowds. But the protests – now in their seventh week after the death of a young woman in custody – appear to show no signs of letting up, with students raising their voices against the government both in the streets and on university campuses.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/iranian-students-defy-official-demand-end-protests

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A group of 400 students was awarded compensation totalling £640,000 as a rising number of grievances from medics and international students pushed complaints to record levels in England and Wales yet again. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) has released data detailing the cases it dealt with in 2022 , when 2,850 complaints were received by the ombudsman – a  3 per cent increase on 2021 . Among the complaints settled – but excluded from the overall figures because of its volume – was a case related to a group of more than 400 students at a provider who complained about disruption to their arts-based courses caused by the pandemic.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-complaints-universities-pay-out-more-ps1-million

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Disruption caused by an indefinite marking boycott might prove effective in securing UK academics a better deal on pay and working conditions, but 'war-weariness' and heavy-handed tactics from employers could still derail the effort at a 'fragile' moment. Up to 145 universities could be affected by the University and College Union (UCU) action, which started on 20 April , with graduations said to be in doubt as assessment grinds to a halt in some departments. General secretary Jo Grady said university staff 'have been crystal clear that they are worth more than what has been put on the table, and now bosses need to wake up and prevent widespread disruption'.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ucu-faces-ultimate-test-v-cs-seek-blunt-marking-boycott

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Australia will toughen entry requirements for international students to make sure they are not 'pretending' to come for study, home affairs minister Clare O'Neil has announced. Canberra will also tighten the 'points test' that governs eligibility for permanent residency, and raise the minimum threshold on foreigners' earnings before they can shift from student to temporary skilled visas. But Ms O'Neil has also promised to give all temporary skilled workers the opportunity to apply for permanent residency, and to provide 'faster, simpler' immigration pathways for overseas students with the 'special skills and capabilities that we need'.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australia-crack-down-student-dominated-guest-worker-scheme

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Australia's representative university organisation has proposed a 'shake-up' of research funding, blaming Canberra for endemic job insecurity that has infuriated the academic union. In a prepared speech to a conference organised by the university employer association, Universities Australia (UA) chief executive Catriona Jackson will link precarity in the university workforce with uncertainty in research funding. The speech relates how declining investment from business and the Commonwealth, with government research spending slumping below 0.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/insecure-employment-inevitable-when-funding-insecure

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Australia's immigration overhaul could pop its post-Covid international education bubble, experts have warned, as the federal government flags an end to easy migration pathways in policy moves that could have knock-on effects for the global higher education recruitment race. The newly released migration review has urged the government to 'recalibrate' the points test that governs eligibility for permanent residency, to consider imposing tougher English-language requirements on students and graduates, and to limit the time former students can remain in Australia on a temporary basis.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-migration-plans-threaten-international-education-rebound

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Undergraduates working part-time alongside their studies is becoming 'the norm' during the cost-of-living crisis, forcing universities to reassess their teaching practices and judge how much of a role they wish to play in securing their students decent employment. In the UK, polling earlier this year from the charity the Sutton Trust found that 27 per cent of students it surveyed had been forced to take on jobs or work longer hours as loans became stretched and other forms of income – such as parental support – dried up.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/rise-working-students-should-prompt-radical-teaching-rethink

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The English regulator has written to 23 institutions concerning their 'high levels' of recruitment of Chinese students, to ensure they have 'contingency plans' in case there is a 'sudden drop' in numbers. The Office for Students (OfS) annual report on financial sustainability  finds that university finances generally remain in good shape , but cites the growing risk of an over-reliance on international students. Overseas student fees play an important role in university finances, the report says, but it  cautions that any event that reduces the flow of such students to English providers could have a 'significant impact'.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ofs-writes-23-institutions-over-high-levels-chinese-students

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Australian agencies would establish a 'red flag' system to identify suspicious 'visa hopping' by foreign students, under reforms being considered by a parliamentary group. The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, which is enquiring into the post-Covid state of Australia's international education and tourism industries, has heard that tough action is needed to tackle college-based work scams. Concern largely centres around students enrolling with universities to boost their chances of obtaining visas, coming to Australia and then switching to cheaper vocational education and training (VET) colleges with lax attendance standards.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/nuclear-options-needed-stamp-out-student-work-scams

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The leader of a small, religiously affiliated campus in New Hampshire has defended the decision to host a nationally televised forum with the former US president, Donald Trump, despite facing protests from staff and students. agreed to host Mr Trump for an on-stage interview with the CNN network that occurred just a day after a New York jury found he had sexually assaulted an advice columnist, E. Jean Carroll, in the mid-1990s. Mr Trump,  a frequent  and  enthusiastic critic  of US higher education, took the hour-long opportunity to put forth a series of false claims on policy and political matters to the point where CNN's own media reporter  called it  a 'spectacle of lies' and 'shameful antics' that the network should not have aired.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/us-college-criticised-hosting-trumps-spectacle-lies

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England's first ever free speech 'tsar' has been hailed as a champion of academic freedom by his supporters and someone who will rightfully 'ruffle some feathers' in the sector. But critics have warned that philosopher Arif Ahmed's appointment will open the door to more outside interference in the running of universities, based on an overblown reaction to a 'non-existent crisis'. The newly announced director for freedom of speech and academic freedom at the Office for Students (OfS) will be responsible for implementing the country's new legislation , which requires universities and students' unions to protect and promote free speech on campuses.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/arif-ahmed-englands-new-free-speech-tsar-heretic-or-hero

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