The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Podcast

Empire of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China with William C. Kirby

The history of the research university is a much-discussed thing. Fundamentally, these histories tend to focus on two countries: Germany, where it all began in 1810 thanks to the genius of Wilhelm von Humboldt, and the United States, which took fitful steps towards challenging Germany from the 1870s to the 1930s, at which point American universities, taking advantage of the exodus of scientific talent from Europe, moved decisively into a position of global intellectual leadership. And so things stayed for

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June 13, 2024 No Comments

Illiberal Universities

One of the most interesting stories in global higher education over the past couple of years has been the creeping government takeover of higher education in Hungary. The most famous example of this was the government expelling the George Soros-funded Central European University, which subsequently took up residence in Austria. Less well-known perhaps is the process of severing public universities from the state and creating Foundation universities. For the most part this meant giving institutions North American-style managerial and financial

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June 6, 2024 No Comments

2 Topics, 1 Episode: Germany Higher Education and U-Multirank

A bit of a change this week. Our scheduled episode with Dr. Andrea Peto and Dr. Jo-Anne Dillabough about illiberal universities has been moved to next week. This week, instead, we’re trying a little experiment: talking to my colleague, Dr. Gero Federkeil, who is head of international projects at the Centrum für Hochschulentwicklung, or Center for Higher Education, in Gütersloh, Germany, about two totally unrelated topics. The first has to do with the changing profile of university enrolments in Germany,

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May 30, 2024 No Comments

Korean Higher Education

When it comes to higher education systems, few countries can match South Korea for its sheer dynamism. From its explosive growth to meet “Education Fever” in the 1980s and 1990s, to its astonishing run-up in research output in the 90s and 2000s, to its policy innovations like the self-study degree and the Academic Credit Bank, it’s always been a system to watch. However, as Korea got rich, it also began to shrink. The birthrate fell precipitously to the point where

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May 23, 2024 1 Comment

European Universities Association

When you think about big, visionary ideas in higher education, an abnormal number of them over the past few decades have comes from Europe. The Erasmus Program. The Bologna Process. Diploma Supplements. An effort-based credit system. Tuning. Challenge-based research competitions. European University Alliances. European Degrees. And while these ideas have many sources, an abnormally high proportion of them comes from one place: the City of Brussels and the supra-national European Commission which resides there.  At a certain level, this is

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May 16, 2024 No Comments

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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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