University News from Africa

AFRICA: Three universities in global top 500, two out / Karen MacGregorTwo African universities have slipped from the top 500 identified by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, leaving only three - the universities of Cape Town, the Witwatersrand and KwaZulu-Natal - in the elite global list for 2008. South Africa follows Ireland into 25th place in terms of percentage distribution of top universities by country, ahead of Europe's Greece, Hungary, Poland and Portugal as well as India.

CAMEROON: New Maroua university due to open President Paul Biya has fulfilled an 11-year promise and the University of Maroua, Cameroon's seventh, is about to open. The new institution will consist of faculties yet to be created, and two grandes écoles, the Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Institut Supérieur du Sahel.


SENEGAL: Students punished for protest against minister Fifteen students at the University of Ziguinchor have been punished for protesting against the Minister for Higher Education, Professor Moustapha Sourang, during his visit in July. The most severe penalty was immediate exclusion from the university for up to two years.


ZAMBIA: Students riot over lecturer strike Nine University of Zambia students have been arrested following rioting aimed at pressing the government to resolve a crippling strike by lecturers at the country's oldest institution. Similar protests two months ago resulted in police shooting and injuring two students.

ZIMBABWE: Lecturers warn of university closures / Clemence ManyukweAcademics in Zimbabwe have warned President Robert Mugabe that all state-controlled higher education institutions face closure as a result of poor working conditions, the brain drain and other problems arising from the country's political and economic crises. With inflation now at 42 million percent, lecturers said their salaries no longer covered transport costs and that they had not been working since June.


BOTSWANA: Lecturer on Zimbabwe sanctions list deported / Clemence ManyukweThe Botswana government has deported a media studies lecturer at the University of Botswana who is on the latest Zimbabwe sanctions list of the European Union. Ceasar Zvayi, former political editor of the Harare-based state-owned newspaper The Herald, had moved to Botswana to take up the lecturing job shortly after President Robert Mugabe's controversial re-election in a one-man poll on 27 June - prompting a public outcry in Botswana.