Our first Fifteen in the New Year! Although many institutions have been on winter break in recent weeks, numerous important stories from the world of higher education continue to unfold. This week on The Fifteen, we look at what’s happening around the globe. Enjoy!

1. A thought-provoking post from the LSE Blog discusses whether traditional academics bring the ideal skills-set to institutional leadership positions as the UK PSE faces a financial crisis. Let’s look outside academia for university leaders. (LSE Blog)
2. Staff at a UK university made a move to impeach the administration after they announced job cuts. Staff pass motion of no confidence in UEA executive. (BBC)
3. Report from a US Conservative think-tank finds that US college accreditation is not an effective means of quality control and recommends scrapping it in favour of more general consumer protections to allow more new entrants to deliver higher education programs. Report: States Should Drop Accreditation Requirements for New Colleges. (AEI)
4. Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan was a pretty big deal when it opened 15 years ago. The President’s resignation in 2023 was something of a shock: here’s some interesting background to that story: The battle for Nazarbayev University’s future: Shigeo Katsu on financial mismanagement and accountability. (Eureporter)
5. This is a quite fascinating look at a new venture which is attempting to create a network of universities across Eurasia and North Africa, in part by using course materials licensed form the ever-inventive Arizona State University. An experiment to watch. After bumpy start, ASU-backed university network picks up pace (Times Higher Education).
6. A private Afrikaans university, Akademia, has been growing significantly since its establishment in 2012, and is now setting up a new campus. South Africa’s private Afrikaans university showing incredible growth. (BusinessTech)
7. Finland is ramping up R&D spending, aiming to increase from 2.9% to 4% of GDP by 2030. The country hasn’t seen massive success in technology development since the days of Nokia: might this change soon? Will Finland’s big spending on R&D buy it the gift of growth? (Times Higher Education)
8. Greece has a huge problem with students who enrol but simply neglect to finish their degrees. Rectors call for exemptions to law ousting university loafers. (ekathimerini.com)
9. The Hungary-EU fight continues. The EU has been blocking funding from reaching institutions there due to concerns about the political influence of populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party. Hungarian universities stay blocked from EU grants despite appeal. (Times Higher Education)
10. Belarus finds that being an international pariah is no barrier to increasing educational exports: BSU almost doubled exports of educational services in 2024. (SB News)
11. Iran is very pleased at how its universities rank compared to those in countries it really shouldn’t be comparing itself against: Iran secures second place in D-8 universities ranking. (Tehran Times)
12. Germany is trying to encourage PhD researchers to start their own companies with backing from a UK fund and a former Google exec. German innovation agency to fund spin-out focused PhDs. (Times Higher Education)
13. Japan’s highly structured, seniority-based compensation system tends not to reward young people with very high levels of education. Result? A big drop in applicants to PhD programs. Now the government is experimenting with ways to make PhDs more financially appealing. Japan seeks to improve salary prospects for PhD graduates. (Times Higher Education)
14. The Biden Administration has passed what is likely it’s final tranche of student loan forgiveness, this time for people enrolled in what is known as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Biden-Harris Administration Approves Additional $4.28 Billion in Student Debt Relief for Nearly 55,000 Public Service Workers. (US Department of Education)
15. A working paper put out by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that American academics have (for several decades at least) been disproportionately drawn from better-off families, particularly in the humanities. Climbing the Ivory Tower: How socio-economic background shapes academia. (NBER)