A few days ago, someone asked me how institutions, in practice, are supposed to go about trying to anticipate market demand when coming up with new courses. Since this is something we at HESA Towers does for a number of clients, I thought the answer to this question would make for a pretty good blog. So here we go: The first thing one needs to be clear about is what market you want to satisfy. On the one hand, everyone
One of the less-anticipated outcomes of the COVID pandemic is the return of inflation at levels not seen in nearly thirty years. It is not yet clear if this inflation is something transitory, or something more long-term. The supply-chain snarls of mid-2021 have been followed by inflationary spikes due to rising oil prices and now – with the invasion of Ukraine – major spikes in food prices world-wide. In theory, each of these things is a one-off. But as wages
By Alex Usher and Jonathan Williams Last week, we presented you with an overview of tuition fee regimes around the world. Not unreasonably, a few of you asked “what about student aid? Doesn’t that matter?”. Of course it does! And we have you covered. So first of all, let’s talk about what we mean by student aid. Broadly speaking, it comes in three forms: loans, grants, and “indirect aid”. Loans are simple enough. Grants are trickier, because while they usually
By Alex Usher and Jonathan Williams There are lots of estimates of higher education students around the world, which vary based on whether they include students in more vocational programs (the global total is somewhere in the high 200 millions if you do, and low 200 millions if you don’t). But one thing you won’t see very often is an estimate of the number of higher education institutions. And the reason for that is that pretty simple: big international data
You may have seen the news from California regarding a lawsuit by a well-to-do Berkeley resident against the University of California which has forced the latter to reduce its 2022 enrolment by 2,600 students. Basically, the plaintiff – a well-to-do local who spends half his time in Nelson, New Zealand – said that too many students were destroying the neighbourhood and sued the university over its enrolment plans, using the California Environmental Quality Act. A lower court agreed with the
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.
