Ghana is home to me - it's where I grew up, from the age of four until I returned to England for university - but its contrasts always surprise me. Below, waves crash violently into jutting rocks, but those rocks also form a protective circle, creating a pool calm enough for a child to play in.
In the park's center is an eye-catching bronze statue of a larger-than-life Nkrumah, clad in royal kente cloth, with an outstretched hand pointing ahead and one foot in front of the other as if he were advancing forward. Erected on top of a pedestal at the spot where Nkrumah stood to declare Ghana's independence from Britain, it channels the slogan of Nkrumah's political party: 'Forward ever, backward never.'
More than 200 Sudanese postgraduates and undergraduates fear they will no longer be permitted to take up places at 46 universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London, with some claiming that their lives have been torn apart by the home secretary's blunt intervention.
Since September 30, 2025, the Italian government has undertaken a major operation to offer a future for Gaza's students. While evacuation to Italy was previously available to Palestinians only for medical treatment and family reunification, the Italian government has now taken the unprecedented step of opening the nation's universities under the Italian Universities for Palestinian Students project, allowing Gazan students to pursue their studies abroad away from the war.
National Student Pride, a non-profit organisation created in 2005, said its income had reduced by about two-thirds in the last two years, "largely due to widespread cuts to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) budgets" by sponsors. It said other sponsors had to be dropped after it introduced an "ethical sponsorship" policy last year, following some LGBTQ+ groups' protests against sponsors' links to Israel and the fossil fuel industry. In 2024, the event had 24 sponsors, this year there are only eight.