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One Thought to Start Your Day
One Thought To Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.
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The Fifteen: June 12, 2026
Morning, all. The higher education news never stops. In addition to the usual stories of American universities being subjected to increasingly absurd right-wing assaults, there’s some interesting stuff happening in places that don’t often make the Fifteen, including the Czech Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iceland, and Panama.
The Half-Time Show: Six Months of Global Higher Education
Hello, and welcome to the World of Higher Education podcast. I’m Tiffany MacLennan, and I’m your host for today’s episode. At the end of last year, HESA released the first ever World of Higher Education — Year in Review report, taking stock of the biggest stories and trends shaping higher
Blue Skies Ahead
Morning everyone. Today is the last blog for a few weeks (though there will be a podcast tomorrow and a Fifteen on Friday). Normal service will resume on September 8th. For my June send-off, I often paint a pretty solemn “state of PSE” picture. Not gonna lie: 2025-26 has been
That Was the Quarter That Was, Spring 2026
Q2 isn’t quite over, but since tomorrow is the last blog of the academic year, today is the day to review what’s been happening globally over the last couple of months in a self-imposed 1200-word limit. Buckle up. The story of the quarter – for all of the last six
Summer Book Report 2026
Hi everyone. Summer’s almost here, so this is the final week before the blog goes on hiatus. And that means, of course, that it’s time for the summer higher education book report! Before getting started on the higher education stuff, y’all seem to like my fiction/non-fiction picks, too. As far
Focus Friday: June 5
Hi all! Tiffany here. This week marks our final Focus Friday before we take a break for the summer. Rather than bringing in a guest, we’ll be hosting an end-of-year community chat. No presentations, no formal agenda, and no set topic, just an opportunity to connect with colleagues from across
“Not Even as a Doorman”: Politics and Universities in Colombia
Colombia is one of the world’s most interesting higher education systems. With a roughly equal mix of public and private provision, it has long had to contend with issues like quality assurance and student assistance. And as a developing country, it’s always needed to balance the desire to expand its
Re: University and the Change Imperative
It’s hard for universities to do things differently. Although they are evidently capable of being flexible and doing somersaults in an emergency (see: COVID), their collective desire for ongoing change is pretty small. It’s a very conservative industry, where isomorphism rules and the most important question to be asked of
Emerging Global Themes in Defence Research
As you all know, we’ve been keeping an eye on the changing policy environment both in Canada and internationally for university research related to defence, security, and sovereignty in this new post-postwar world. Today, we thought we would share a little bit about the changes we are seeing and how
What I Learned at NAFSA 2026
I spent part of last week in Orlando, Florida at the annual NASFA Conference, which is a treat I get to enjoy every two or three years. But unlike many people, I am not really there for the conference sessions and workshops (though I did participate in a very fun
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