While e-learning programmes in African Universities may be faced with challenges, it is important to point out that even universities in other parts of the world are faced with difficulties when implementing the same programmes. For example, in Digital Hemlock: Internet Education and the Poisoning of Teaching, the author observed that in 2000, $483 million was spent on companies building courses for the educational market. By 2002, the amount spent on building online material for commercial purposes reduced to US$17 million. This means that African universities must conduct needs assessment before designing and launching e-learning programmes.

Forced Migration Online is pleased to announce the launch of an extensive new resource, a Research Guide on Internal displacement. This Research Guide provides an introduction to some of the main debates regarding internal displacement. It summarizes the challenge of internal displacement at a policy level and also addresses its social consequences. It explores the experiences of physical dislocation, separation from everyday practices and familiar environments, social disruption and material dispossession. The Research Guide provides links to many resources online, lists many reference materials, and is launched in conjunction with Forced Migration Review 24 – IDP Supplement.

‘Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present’ is an accessible and up-to-date introduction to the key concepts, terms, personalities, and real-world issues associated with the surge of immigration from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. It focuses on the United States, but is also the first encyclopaedic work on the subject that reflects a truly global perspective. With contributions from the world's foremost authorities on the subject, Immigration and Asylum offers nearly 200 entries organized around four themes: immigration and asylum; the major migrating groups around the world; expulsions and other forced population movements; and the politics of migration.

On a routine repatriation day in the Ngara District of northwestern Tanzania, convoys organised by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, lined up to take Burundi refugees home. An 11-year-old boy stood crying next to one of the trucks. Momentarily, there was a flurry of activity as UNHCR officials tried to verify that the boy had not been left behind. He had not. Still crying, the boy explained that he was sad because his "family" was leaving. Even though he was staying at the camp with his biological mother, he was heartbroken that another family he had considered his own was returning to Burundi without him.

If there's one struggle that's looking on the up at the moment, writes Raj Patel on his blog Voice of the Turtle, it's the fight to get Ashwin Desai's job back at the Centre for Civil Society. Patel explains why Desai, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle and author of ‘We are the Poors’, has been banned from the University of KwaZulu-Natal for his uncompromising honesty. Desai applied for funding earlier this year to undertake research on the history of race and sport in South Africa, but the Vice-Chancellor, Malegapuru William Makgoba, instructed the selection committee at the University of KwaZulu-Natal not to consider Desai's application. Visit Voice of the Turtle for the full story and sign a petition in support of Desai by visiting http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/567835610?ltl=1136454112