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Category: Worldwide PSE

New Zealand’s Higher Education Crossroads

As I think I’ve mentioned before, New Zealand has one of the most fascinating higher education policy scenes anywhere in the world. Hardly a year goes by where they aren’t making huge changes to research policy, tuition fees, student aid, or international student rules. Must be exhausting to live there. In any event, all this policy hyperactivity means this podcast often returns to New Zealand to see exactly what’s going on. And with the election coming up next month, we

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October 15, 2026 No Comments

The Fifteen: October 9, 2026

Hi all. A big, big fortnight in higher education: unprecedented private financial commitments in Pittsburgh, unprecedented public investments in Jakarta, huge demonstrations in Paris, big ambitions in Hanoi, and significant policy changes out of Beijing. Hop on board for the quick tour! That’s all for now – see you back here in two weeks!

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October 9, 2026 No Comments

The AfD and German Higher Education

In many ways, Germany seems like a higher education paradise. Sure, the funding might not be as generous as elsewhere and career progression can be problematic—but basically, academic freedom is highly prized, as are continental connections across Europe, and policymaking within the system is highly consensual. You can’t have everything, but that’s quite a lot. But as Germans are discovering, consensual decision-making only works if everyone agrees to the ground rules. And in recent years, a new political force has

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October 8, 2026 No Comments

Comparative Spending Statistics

Just a short one today, based on some data from the OECD in its annual Education at a Glance Report which was released last week. I won’t do a full report, as many of the post-secondary indicators are banal and predictable (Canada does well at churning out post-secondary graduates, etc., etc.). But the report does contain one intriguing set of new tables: for the first time (AFAIK), the OECD has gathered data that, in theory at least, allow for international

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October 5, 2026 No Comments

Lords of Serendipity

As you might imagine, I am pretty fond of campus novels. A frequent weakness, however, is that the idealize the idea of a campus, or at least the of a particular type of campus, or at least of a particular types of program (English professors are hugely over-represented in campus novels and indeed among campus novel-ists). What you don’t often see is a campus novel that actually exhibits genuine skepticism about the enterprise itself. That’s not the case with Randy Boyagoda’s new

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October 1, 2026 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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