The World View

In August 2012 the Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, signed a bill making it mandatory for all federal universities in Brazil to reserve 50% of the places in each degree program for students coming from public schools according to their family incomes and their ethnic profile (self-declared descendants of blacks and Brazilian natives), and giving them four years to implement the programs. Not to be undone, in December of 2012 the governor of the State of São Paulo, Geraldo Alkimin, announced his own affirmative action project for the state universities, calling it a program of “social inclusion with merit”.

Corruption is one of the main afflictions of Russian society, especially in academia. At first glance, younger students seem to be more corrupt than their older colleagues. Our research shows that students who have just arrived at universities hear more about bribery at universities (83%) than students who are nearly finished with their studies (50%). The youngest students describe every possible means used, dividing them into monetary (cash) and non-monetary forms (alcohol, confectionary items, household durable goods and mobile phones).

In November, the Council of Presidents of Public Universities and the Federation of University Faculty Associations approved a collective bargaining agreement that defines a new structure for the teaching career at Argentine public universities.

If one looks around the world, the region perhaps least served by relevant research and analysis of higher education is sub-Saharan Africa.

More than orientation for international students, institutions that welcome students from abroad need to consider international orientation for their professors and national students. We tend to put the burden of bridging the cultural divides on the international students — they are in a new country and expected to adapt. After all, they made a choice. But when this accommodation moves in only one direction, much is lost.

Canada’s Waterloo University is shutting down after failing to make enrollment targets in Dubai at the same time that George Mason University is going to give it another go in Korea after a failed venture in the United Arab Emirates. What makes the desire for a foreign outpost so appealing?

Any observer of higher education in Africa would immediately realize that African universities, with the exception of a handful, stand no chance of appearing under the THE Rankings; or for that matter under other global university rankings that use criteria with a heavy bias on research, publications in international refereed journals and citations. African universities have to cope with huge student enrolment with limited financial and physical resources. They are short of academic staff, a large proportion of whom do not have a PhD. Not surprisingly, their research output and performance in postgraduate education are poor. It is clear that in the rankings race, they are playing on a non-level field.

In our knowledge society, research universities are key actors that can make national innovation systems more competitive. This task, however, is not easy in some Latin American countries and not only because they have a significantly lower per capita GDP than those countries with the top 100 universities. Building research universities implies concentrating funds in a handful of institutions. In a context of scarce resources and a mass education policy, this funding design may exacerbate conflict in the allocation process. So, from a political perspective it is not as feasible for Latin America to build world-class universities. Nonetheless, they should make the effort and thus close the advanced technology gap.