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Category: Policy

What Is UNESCO’s Role in Global Higher Education Today

In the wake of World War II, the nations of the world thought seriously about the relationship between education and peace. One of the outcomes of that thinking was the creation of the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations – UNESCO, for short – whose founding charter states: “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed”. And, since higher education was part of that mandate, that arguably

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January 8, 2026 No Comments

The World of Higher Education – Year in Review 2025

Morning all. Today, HESA is releasing The World of Higher Education – Year in Review 2025, the first in our to-be-annual series chronicling how the world’s higher education systems have fared over the past twelve months. You can download it here. Despite taking up something on the order of 1% of global GDP and educating 3-4% of the world’s population in any given year, higher education is, perhaps surprisingly, a field where most of the analytical work is resoundingly national

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December 3, 2025 No Comments

Funding, Free Riding, and the Future of Canadian Science

Ever since World War II science — that is, state funded science — and economic progress have been seen to go hand in hand. And for the most part, governments have been happy to let scientists themselves decide where much of the money goes. But things have been changing lately, and not just in the United States, where the Trump administration has awarded itself the right to involve itself in any science award for any reason. Several countries, notably Australia

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November 27, 2025 1 Comment

Defence/Security Research

I have some news today about a new HESA initiative to convene a National Defence Research Roundtable. More details at the end of the blog. But first, a bit of context on the defence and security research landscape. In recent months, the Government of Canada has committed the country to meeting the NATO Defence Spending Pledge. This pledge is for all members to spend 5% of their respective GDP on core defence requirements and broader defence- and security-related spending by

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November 12, 2025 1 Comment

Does England’s Newest Higher Education White Paper Actually Change Anything?

Last year, the Labour Party in the United Kingdom faced a dilemma. They needed to get elected, and to do that, they needed people to vote for them. Nothing wrong with that, except in higher education the UK faces a dilemma. Everyone knows the system’s in shambles. Everyone knows it will require painful choices to fix. But nobody wants to pay for it. It’s hard to cut that kind of Gordian knot without annoying people, and that interfered with the

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November 6, 2025 No 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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