World-Class Universities and Institutional Autonomy in China

With the release of Scholars at Risk’s (SAR’s) Obstacles to Excellence: Academic Freedom and China’s Quest for World-Class Universities, institutional autonomy ascends to the fore. In China’s pursuit to transform its institutions into world-class universities, global rankings have offered metrics to purported advancement but too often lack consideration of academic freedom and institutional autonomy, permitting only a shrinking space for vital questions as China applies enormous effort to impose control while seeking the status of a world-class knowledge producer. This article is based on a Scholars at Risk’s report entitled Obstacles to Excellence: Academic Freedom and China’s Quest for World-Class Universities, available on SAR’s website at https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/.

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Engaging the Ethiopian Knowledge Diaspora

Although there is a consensus that Africa has considerable intellectual resources in its diaspora, the benefit that the continent is garnering from it is limited for different reasons. The political climate in several countries and the absence of well-articulated strategies are among the main factors preventing the African knowledge diaspora from engaging with their home countries. Even when, occasionally, political relations improve—such as currently in Ethiopia, diaspora engagement in higher education is challenged by routine issues such as bureaucratic processes, the absence of a coordinating body, and a mismatch between demand and supply.

“More with Less” in Higher Education in Mexico

This article analyzes the higher education agenda of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico as a case of a neopopulist regime. The authors review the trajectory of the agenda, considering campaign promises, the budget projected for higher education during the first year of his presidency, the constitutional educational reform, and the first public policy actions. It reflects on the difficulty to conduct reforms under heavy financial constraints.

International Graduate Outcomes in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom’s International Education Strategy sets a target to attract 600,000 international students by 2030, an increase of 30 percent. With Brexit, there is a sharper awareness across government of the benefits that international students and graduates confer in economic terms and in long-term positive influence on perceptions of the United Kingdom itself. To reach this target, the country needs to offer opportunities for international graduates to remain in the United Kingdom and work for a period post graduation. It also needs to understand, and where possible improve upon, the strength of its offer to prospective international students.

What Works to Reduce Inequality in Higher Education?

Policy makers are increasingly searching for ways to reduce inequality in higher education. There is now a sizeable and high-quality body of literature that estimates the effects of interventions on access and completion in higher education. Our new paper reviews 75 quasi-experimental studies and rigorously compares more than 200 causal effects of outreach and financial aid interventions on disadvantaged students. We found that outreach and financial aid can both work, but important lessons should be learned from interventions that do not show an effect. In this article, we first provide an overview of the main mechanisms driving exclusion, both in terms of access to and completion from higher education. We then summarize the evidence for policy makers, highlighting key lessons, while we also indicate directions for future research.

Concentration of Institutions and Urban Bias in India

Higher education development in India shows signs of concentration and urban bias. As in many countries, the permeation of market processes and proliferation of private higher education institutions seem to have contributed to increased regional inequalities. Relying on the concentration ratio, a measure developed by a CPRHE/NIEPA research study, this article discusses the nature and extent of regional inequalities in the current provision of higher education and identifies locations to be prioritized for establishing new institutions to level off regional inequalities in the future.

Reforms in France: When Competition and Cooperation Clash

France has experienced two major waves of reforms in the past fifteen years. The first one enhanced cooperation at the local level and the second increased the level of competition. This paper describes these reforms and analyses how they interfered one with another.

Indian Research Universities and Global Rankings

There is a strong desire, in countries like India, to see some of the best national research institutions recognized among top universities globally. In this article, we show that the age, size, and funding profile of top Indian institutions is radically different from that of the top 200 global universities. Top global universities are generally old, large in size, and well-funded—while Indian institutions are generally quite young, small in size, and have modest funding. The article suggests that top Indian universities might make it to global rankings if the two parameters that are in control—size and funding—are aligned to the global pattern.

Why India Will Fail to Attract Global Faculty

India is trying to attract international faculty to teach and do research in Indian universities. The challenges of this initiative are considerable, including low salaries, government regulations and bureaucracy, and a lack of appropriate infrastructure.