Category: Funding and Finances

Lagging

I was perusing a Chronicle of Higher Education article on American state expenditures on post-secondary education when I saw a completely jaw-dropping graph. Figure 1: Jaw-Dropping Visual from The Chronicle on State Funding I mean…wow. Right? This figure actually lines up with something I had noticed a few months ago about state-level spending in the 1960s and 1970s. Though there is lots of talk about “wars on higher education” in the United States; in fact, there isn’t a very tight

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The Dawn of a New Era

The events of the last couple of weeks have kept everyone in the higher education sector in a whirlwind. But step back a minute. It’s worth thinking about the big picture. Some of you may remember this graph which I drew about a year ago, looking at the history of higher education funding in Canada. It shows total university and college income by source back to 1955-56. Looking at the trends across these six decades, I think it tells a

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Malaysian Higher Education

If I asked most people to name an up-and-coming higher education system – one not from a wealthy country but perhaps from the middle-income zone – people would probably naturally speak about China. And they’d probably be right: China’s higher education system has achieved remarkable things in the half-century since it was re-constructed after the Cultural Revolution. But could you name a second? Let me give you my answer: it’s Malaysia. It’s not well-known outside the region, but in fact

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Update on University Finances

Last week, I wrote about college finances. Today I thought I would spend some time updating some of the more interesting graphs I’ve done over the past few years with respect to university finances.  I do quite a lot on university finances in HESA’s annual State of Post-Secondary Education, but over the years I have also done some slightly more bespoke takes that don’t make it into SPEC. And so, herewith, my 2024 update on those numbers. In Figure 1,

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The Failed Fees Free Policy in New Zealand

New Zealand has always been a place unafraid to experiment in higher education. That’s partially because change is often easier to make in small countries (it’s easier to get everyone in a room), but also because the country itself has found innovation key to success. One of the biggest recent changes was the introduction of free first year for university students, something that was introduced by Jacinda Ardern, something we discussed with a previous guest, Dave Guerin, about a year

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