Branch campuses and soft power: On bad days who’s in charge?
Commentary published in University World News on 8 October 2026.
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News Commentary
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‘Syncopathy’ and AI: African HE must choose verification
This article first appeared on University World News Syncopation is not a missing beat. It is a beat the player declines to strike, deliberately, at the moment the listener is most certain it will arrive.
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Data extraction: The university that cannot see itself
This article first appeared on University World News A faculty officer writes to ask a simple question.
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What if universities were shops and students the customers?
This article first appeared on University World News If the classroom were a shop, we would issue receipts for confusion and offer refunds for delayed insight.
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On quality assurance and accreditation: The price of trust
This article first appeared on University World News Quality assurance is an unglamorous phrase for a glamorous promise.
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AI & The Privatization of Thought
The Structure of Enclosure The enclosure of the English commons in the eighteenth century followed a predictable pattern. Land that had been worked collectively—grazed, gleaned, gathered—was reclassif...
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On the shortage of qualified academic staff: The faculty cliff
This article first appeared on University World News Every university has a favourite illusion.
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AI & The New Faculty of Divinity
It was premature to declare the world disenchanted. Max Weber announced the death of magic a century ago, and for a time it seemed he was right. The gods retreated […] The Second-Order University....
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Digital tools are not the problem; it’s their governance
This article first appeared on University World News on 21 January 2026. If the university had a ‘Like’ button, it would be a small confession of defeat. A button is […] The Second-Order University....
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The University as Booster Rocket: How Higher Education Is Engineering Its Future
A different kind of silence is settling over contemporary universities. It is not the contemplative quiet of libraries, nor the productive hush of laboratories. It is the silence of a […] The Second-O...
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Twelve Observations on the End of the University
A Prologue A particular kind of silence descends upon a lecture hall after the last student has left. It is not empty—it hums with the residue of attention, the ghost […] The Second-Order University....
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The United States is Now a Subscription Service: On the $100,000 H-1B “Pro Tier”
The ruling by Judge Howell is not a legal anomaly; it is the inevitable logic of the system. We are witnessing the final collapse of the “Nation” (a moral community) […] The Second-Order University....
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The gap between theory and practice: A bridge to nowhere
This article first appeared on University World News We have built the theoretical half of a bridge. It is elegant in places, diligently maintained in others, and inspected with great […] The Second-O...
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About the digital divide: Bandwidth is a right to research
This article first appeared on University World News We used to imagine isolation through geography: a university at the end of a long road, a library without the book you […] The Second-Order Univers...
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On limited research grants: The economics of borrowed answers
This article first appeared on University World News There is a comforting fable about research in Africa. It begins with a noble problem and ends with a grant. On the […] The Second-Order University....
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How five blind spots have trapped higher education in a fog of its own making
There is a powerful sense of déjà vu that haunts the halls of higher education. We are, by any measure, in a state of perpetual, frantic activity. Our calendars are […] The Second-Order University....
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The Paradox of Precision: How Ranking Frameworks Re-engineer Reality Through Observation
Institutional ranking frameworks, like India’s NIRF, successfully drive measurable improvements (e.g., more research, higher faculty qualifications) by defining specific metrics. However, this very ac...
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Building with Borrowed Blueprints: The Paradox of African Higher Education’s Quest for Autonomy
How can African higher education genuinely ‘Africanize’ internationalization when foundational initiatives and long-term sustainability are still heavily influenced, if not funded, by external partner...
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On overcrowding and infrastructure: The ‘great unlearning’
This article first appeared on University World News Massification has a triumphant sound. It suggests inclusion, a democratic widening of gates that were, for too long, kept narrow. Photographs coope...
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The Re-Description of Higher Education: From Autopoietic Enclosure to Geopolitical Operability
A response to the University World News article: Southern African universities build more scholarly bridges The contemporary higher education system, historically observed as an entity primarily defin...
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The Regulator’s Paradox: How the Quest for Order Creates Systemic Disorder
A primary function of any governance structure is to observe the system it regulates and introduce distinctions that reduce complexity, thereby ensuring stable and predictable operations. When a regul...
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On outdated curricula: How to stop teaching yesterday
This article first appeared on University World News There is a ritual familiarity to curriculum reform in many African universities.
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As an institution, is the university capable of change?
This article first appeared on University World News In my role as a senior information analyst within an institutional planning department at a university, I occupy a curious position.
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Africa’s HE brain drain: The arithmetic of absence
This article first appeared on University World News There is a polite way to describe Africa's academic brain drain.
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Africa’s universities are selling the future to pay for today
This article first appeared on University World News The crisis facing Africa's universities is often told through a familiar and visceral narrative of material decay: overcrowded lecture halls, under-equipped laboratories, and…
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