Venezuelan Universities Feel The Consequences Of Political And Economic Crisis

Will student’s suicide induce higher education reform in Afghanistan?

After her final thesis had been failed multiple times by her supervisor Gul Mohammad Tanin, Zahra Khawari commited a suicide at the age of 25. She was a senior student of Veterinary Science department at Kabul University and her death has triggered outcry and led to calls to end discrimination and corruption in Afghanistan’s higher education system. Many are hoping that this tragic case could at least initiate some sort of improvement within the higher education and encourage students to share their own stories and suggestions for reforms.

Druham University rugby club forced to cancel event after mocking miners

Trevelyan College’s rugby club planned an event ”Backs vs Forwards”, but it was marked as ”wholly unacceptable” by university officials since it is a ”Thatcher vs Miners”-themed social event in the heart of the mining community still shaken by violent clashes 30 years ago, reports Huffington Post. A series of pit closures in the 1980s damaged Durham’s economy, and violent stand-offs, with police bursting into miners’ homes still brings bad memories. The Durham Miners’ Association stated: “We are pleased that Durham University and Trevelyan College took very prompt and appropriate action by cancelling this event.”

Venezuelan universities feel the consequences of political and economic crisis

Venezuela’s economic and political crisis is taking its tool on higher education. The national preminence of the Central University of Venezuela, or UCV in Spanish is in jeopardy, as students began to drop out and professors began to join a broader exodus of emigrating professionals, reports the Washington Post.  Also, severe budget shortages have resulted in a rash of unlit classrooms, broken toilets, leaking ceilings and cracked floors. President Nicolas Maduro’s government is taking aim at the institutions percieved as bastions of the wealthy – enemies of the state.

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