The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Politics

The Half-Time Show: Six Months of Global Higher Education

Hello, and welcome to the World of Higher Education podcast. I’m Tiffany MacLennan, and I’m your host for today’s episode. At the end of last year, HESA released the first ever World of Higher Education — Year in Review report, taking stock of the biggest stories and trends shaping higher education around the globe. Now we’re six months into 2026, and we’re checking back in. Joining me today is Alex Usher for a midyear halftime show on global higher education.

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June 11, 2026 No Comments

“Not Even as a Doorman”: Politics and Universities in Colombia

Colombia is one of the world’s most interesting higher education systems. With a roughly equal mix of public and private provision, it has long had to contend with issues like quality assurance and student assistance. And as a developing country, it’s always needed to balance the desire to expand its higher education system with the many competing demands on public funds. Colombia’s also in the midst of a very contentious election. Last weekend, just after this podcast was recorded, the

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June 4, 2026 No Comments

Chair to Chancellor: Lessons in Leading Modern Universities

Every Christmas, this blog invites the University of Tennessee’s Robert Kelchen on the show to do his top 10 stories of the year in the United States. One story keeps coming up: who, in their right mind, would want to be a university president these days? What with the financial pressure, the relentless politics, both on campus and dealing with state and federal governments, it’s an absolutely thankless job. Well, today our guest is someone who maybe led the way

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April 30, 2026 No Comments

You Can’t Kill the U.S. Department of Education (But You Can Break It)

The news from the United States these days, as far as higher education is concerned, sometimes seems uniformly bleak, but US higher education operates in an unbelievably decentralized environment. Not only are there differences across states, across the public-private divide, and to some extent across accreditation zones, but even within the federal system, there’s not necessarily a uniformity of approach, given three branches of government, and even within the executive sphere, different approaches from the major funders of education, including

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April 16, 2026 No Comments

Boycotts and Antisemitism

A few weeks ago, the McGill Law Students’ Association (LSA) held a referendum to amend its constitution. Among the elements of the changed constitution were clauses which embedded the Association’s opposition to McGill’s having academic relations with institutions in Israel; i.e. it embedded a pro-boycott position. This made a certain segment of McGill’s donor class lose its mind, and it also prompted its President, Deep Saini, to send the alumni an email calling the motion “antisemitic” (in effect if not in intent) and

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April 13, 2026 1 Comment

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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