England’s higher education regulator must rebuild trust with troubled sector after series of blunders under previous leadership

In its brief and unhappy life, England’s Office for Students has been offered a series of challenges it has largely failed to meet. This week the latest and most embarrassing of those was unveiled when the high court decisively rejected the higher education watchdog’s attempts to fine the University of Sussex more than £500,000 for regulatory failings relating to Kathleen Stock’s time as an academic at Sussex.

Stock quit Sussex in 2021, saying she felt ostracised and targeted for her views on gender identity and transgender rights. Here was the highest profile test case that the OfS had seen: a subject of enormous controversy and sensitivity, involving key issues of academic freedom and freedom of speech. But as we now know from Mrs Justice Lieven’s ruling, in its rush to intervene, the OfS managed to tie together its own shoelaces.

KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — The national education system must be based on a balance between mastery of knowledge, technological advancement and the strengthening of human values, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said educational institutions play an important role in producing a generation that is not only knowledgeable, but also possesses strong morals, ethics and identity.

“Therefore, I have asked the Ministry of Higher Education to monitor and safeguard the quality of universities.

“If universities do not move towards excellence, they will become dull and merely factories producing certificates of poor quality, which will in turn affect future generations,” he said at the Temu Anwar programme and the launch of the new building construction for UCSI University here today.

Also present were the Prime Minister’s wife and Bandar Tun Razak MP Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Deputy Higher Education Minister Adam Adli Abdul Halim and UCSI University chancellor Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin Tuanku Muhriz.

Anwar said rapid technological developments such as artificial intelligence, digital transformation and data centres offer vast opportunities for the country, but such progress must not neglect human development and values.

He said this approach is also in line with the Malaysia Madani aspiration, which emphasises balance between educational quality and moral values in producing a competitive society.

The Prime Minister also noted that Malaysia has now become one of the main destinations for international students, with about 160,000 foreign students studying at public and private universities.

This figure is among the highest in Asean and reflects global confidence in the country’s education system, he said. — Bernama

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has officially announced their winners of the 49th Student Academy Awards competition!
A total of 1,796 entries from 614 colleges and universities around the world were submitted.
Congratulations to the student winners below! 

Students Winners For Animation

Laika & Nemo

Names: Jan Gadermann and Sebastian Gadow
School: Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg
Location: Germany
About:
Nemo looks different. Nobody else wears a diving suit and such a huge helmet. But then he meets Laika, an astronaut.

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It,

Name: Lachlan Pendragon 
School: Griffith Film School
Location: Australia
About:
A young office worker uncovers the flaws in his stop-motion universe with the help of a mysterious talking ostrich.

The Seine’s Tears

Names:Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard and Nicolas Mayeur
School: Pôle 3D Digital & Creative School
Location: France
About:
Algerian workers take to the streets in October of 1961 to protest the mandatory curfew imposed by the Police prefecture.