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Category: Worldwide PSE

More Korean Lessons

Higher education is an inherently conservative industry – it’s extremely rare to come across something genuinely new and unique in the field. Which is precisely why Korea’s so interesting: it has a number of genuine system innovations, particularly in lifelong learning, from which a lot of countries could learn. Koreans have what some commentators call “education fever”; as in many Confucian countries, the sacrifices families make to ensure their children get an education are almost incomprehensible to North Americans. But

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October 19, 2012 No Comments

Korean Lessons

I’m in Seoul this week, studying some aspects of the Republic of Korea’s system of lifelong learning (picture me Gangnam-dancing if you must). But the country’s overall system of higher education is so flat-out amazing, I thought it would be worth a post or two. How amazing is it, you ask? Well, they kick our behinds in terms of access and success – 90% of their high school graduates attend university or “junior college” right after high school and the

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October 18, 2012 No Comments

Getting a Global Common Data Set Off the Ground

How could a global common data set (CDS) come into existence? Here are a few considerations: In addition to improving accuracy and comparability, common data sets come into existence for two reasons. The first is to save money by limiting the number of data requests flying in from every yahoo wanting to create his or her own ranking. The second, less obvious reason, is that the creation of an open-access data platform lowers the barriers to entry for new rankers.

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June 8, 2012 1 Comment

What Would a Global Common Data Set Look Like?

The discussion Kris Olds and I started a couple of days ago (see here and here) about a global common data set seems to have generated quite a bit of discussion, so I thought I would flesh out two sets of thoughts regarding what a Global CDS would need to look like – today: content; tomorrow: governance. Start with first principles on content: it needs to be common enough that most institutions around the world are able to produce it. That

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June 7, 2012 1 Comment

New Possibilities in African Higher Education

As I’m working in Ghana this month, I thought I’d share a few stories about higher education here in Africa. What’s occupying my thoughts these days is the educational production function (yes, really). The most amazing thing “western” education systems ever did was to get students to learn on their own, thus reducing both the number of professors required to teach a given number of students and, as a result, the cost of education. Teaching students to “learn how to

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May 14, 2012 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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