Major research into African universities has been 'myth-busting', says Professor Peter Maassen of the University of Oslo, co-author of a new report on higher education and development on the continent. The study revealed that flagship universities in eight African countries are more similar to institutions elsewhere than is generally perceived, with well-qualified staff, positive student-to-staff ratios, and rising enrolments including in science, engineering and technology.

The burden of paying for education in Madagascar has shifted to the poor after donor funding was frozen in the wake of a coup on 17 March 2009. About 70 per cent of the education sector had been funded by donor countries, but since Andry Rajoelina seized power from former President Marc Ravalomanana with the backing of the military, state financial support to the education sector has become erratic.

Attending the World Assembly of Migrants at WSF Dakar, Colin Rajah is disappointed by the emphasis on ‘individual migrants, rather than movements and organizations’, the lack of global representation among participants, and the exclusion of key issues from the assembly’s final charter.

May Brutus, wife of South African poet-activist Dennis, died suddenly on 12 March in London. ‘Those who knew May will remember a feisty, outspoken and awe-inspiring figure, speaking her mind on racism and injustice wherever she found it,’ writes her son, Tony Brutus.

Human rights activist Munyaradzi Gwisai and five others, detained on treason charges in Harare, were on Wednesday (16 March) granted bail, more than three weeks since their arrest. The group, who have been held in solitary confinement for more than a week, appeared in a Harare court on Wednesday for a bail hearing. The judge granted them US$2,000 bail each, with conditions to report three times a week to the police.

The Institute of Peace Leadership and Governance (IPLG) at Africa University seeks to contribute to a culture of peace, good governance, security and socio-economic development in Africa through research, teaching, networking and community-level action.

The SIDENSI/IKM/ESAACH international interdisciplinary colloquium on traducture aims to create an intercultural dialogue on the significance of the dynamics of translation as a lever for knowledge management in international development and the question of power. Its purpose is to bring together translation and knowledge management practitioners and networks, researchers, policy makers, advocacy agents, academics, practitioners and end users to share insights, experiences, strategies, knowled...read more

When violence broke out in the western Libyan town of Zawiyah, Bangladeshi migrant worker Mohammed Nienn, 28, was doing a shift as a steelworker. In a hurry to leave, he persuaded his Libyan supervisor to hand back his passport, but not the wages he was due. Then he jumped into a taxi with four other Bangladeshis and headed for the Tunisian border, where a bus eventually took him to Choucha transit camp, 25km from the frontier town of Ras Ajdir. Ten days later, he was still there, waiting for...read more

The UN estimates that some 60,000 people could come into Niger from Libya in the coming weeks. As of 10 March, 2,205 had arrived - 1,865 of them Nigeriens and the rest from other West African countries - according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Visit this multimedia page on for the latest videos on the situation in Libya.

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