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The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now ā†’

Category: One Thought to Start Your Day

Transnational Strategy Now

The world of transnational education ā€“ that is, the provision of education in one country by universities based abroad ā€“ is getting very interesting these days. In particular, branch campuses have returned to the centre of the industryā€™s activities in a way they have not been for well over a decade. Canadaā€™s post-secondary system ā€“ which has always been a laggard in this area ā€“ risks getting left even further behind, unless institutions up their game substantially in the next

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January 28, 2026 No Comments

How Students Choose

Itā€™s application season, so I thought I would put some thought together on the factors that drive applications. I hope you enjoy it. How and when do young people choose to go to post-secondary education? This is one of those questions that made sense thirty years ago, but now itā€™s just not all that interesting. Most students in high school know they are staying in school after grade 12. Itā€™s not a decision, itā€™s just something they absorb from their

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January 27, 2026 No Comments

Campus Total Defence

This blog doubles as an invitation to a very cool event in Ottawa on March 23rd. See the end of blog for details. If there is anything Canada should take from President Trumpā€™s deeply disturbing rants about Greenland over the past couple of weeks, it is that our country is very definitely a target. The fascist government in power in the United States genuinely believes both that might makes right and that the entire hemisphere is rightfully theirs. The threat to national

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January 26, 2026 2 Comments

How Bad is Student/Youth Unemployment These Days?

Interesting question. Itā€™s a tricky answer. Letā€™s dive in. Letā€™s start by looking at the issue of unemployment ā€“ that is, the percentage of people who are in the labour market but do not have work (i.e. it excludes people who arenā€™t interested). Figure 1 shows unemployment rates for full-time students and non-students aged 20-24 for the past fifty years (I exclude part-time students because they are an odd and heterogenous grouping).  Figure 1: Unemployment Rates during School Months for

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January 21, 2026 2 Comments

Farewell Cakeism, Welcome Trade-offs, Effectiveness and Efficiencies

Arguably the worst thing that has happened to western society over the past few decades has been the rise of cakeism. Though he hardly invented the idea, the doctrine is linked to former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, through his repeated use of the phrase ā€œmy policy on cake is pro-having it and pro-eating itā€. Basically, itā€™s the ideology of pretending trade-offs never need to be made.   Iā€™ve recently mentioned one example of cakeism in action, namely the proposal published

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January 20, 2026 No Comments
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One Thought to Start Your Day

One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usherā€™s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on todayā€™s higher education industry.

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