The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Author: Alex Usher

“Employability” as a Threat to Universities? Not so Fast.

Every few months, the head of the CGHE in the UK, Dr. Simon Marginson writes a really good think piece and publishes it in University World News. I am not exaggerating when I say these essays set the tone in global higher education discussions for several weeks (and when those weeks are up, he publishes another one—it’s genius). And it’s great that he does this: Simon’s genuinely brilliant and one of only a handful of people out there who genuinely

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April 2, 2024 2 Comments

What Does a Poilievre Government Science Policy Look Like?

I did a tour of Ottawa the week before last, chatting with folks about what the future looks like. Here are some of the things I kept hearing. Treat absolutely nothing in here as a prediction, this is all just gossip. Now that last one I found very interesting, and I think it’s worth going back to the Harper record on Science and Universities. A lot of you got quite angry with me a few years ago when I compared

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April 1, 2024 5 Comments

Australian Universities Accord – One Year Follow Up with Andrew Norton

Hi everyone. I’m Alex Usher and this is The World of Higher Education Podcast When we started this podcast about thirteen months ago, our very first episode was about Australia and what was known as the “Universities Accord”. The Accord wasn’t actually a deal as the name implies: it was essentially a kind of expert-led panel designed to consult widely and deliver a blueprint for Australian higher education for the next quarter-century. It was meant to cover everything: access and attainment,

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March 28, 2024 No Comments

A Queen’s Park (Almost) Nothingburger

Writing this blog because I suspect I am going to be inundated with press calls today and will not have time to answer them all. Journos! Take all the quotes you want from this blog—it’s fine with me. For those sick of hearing about Ontario—skip this one and we’ll see you tomorrow for the podcast with Andrew Norton. There was almost nothing new in yesterday’s budget. Virtually everything that is in the budget was already signaled about a month ago

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March 27, 2024 2 Comments

Administration vs. Academia

If there is one thing that unites academics, it is cynicism about university administration. To outsiders, this seems weird, because senior university administrators are, with relatively few exceptions, actually academics themselves. Many, in fact, return to faculty ranks after finishing their term. So why are these two sides always seen as being so drastically opposed? Here’s my hypothesis. Members of the Senior Administration are the interface between academia and the non-academic world. Academics expect senior administrators to explain to the

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March 26, 2024 5 Comments

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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