The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Worldwide PSE

The Fifteen: November 28, 2025

Welcome to The Fifteen, a global round-up of the stories animating higher education institutions and systems around the globe. Let’s get to it. 1. To Pyongyang, for a story about how a tightly-controlled, top-down, secretive admissions process leads to a system of rampant bribery, with parents paying party officials both for information and to get their children’s high schools added to the lists of potential admissions at the “right” universities. 2. Panjab University in Chandigarh is in a battle over its autonomy, and it

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November 28, 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

The New Decliners

Morning all. Next week, we will be launching The World of Higher Education – Year in Review 2025, which is our new global equivalent to The State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada. As a document, it’s less data-driven and somewhat more narrative-driven than what you might be used to from HESA, but we think that you’ll enjoy it. And, as a treat today, I wanted to show you some of the data, specifically on enrolment, which suggests that big changes

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November 26, 2025 No Comments

A Global Observatory for Higher Education Change: What We’re Learning

As you know, this show is dedicated to a global perspective on higher education; one that tries to encompass the entire globe. But covering the entire planet is difficult. There are a lot of countries out there, and there are very few trends which are truly universal. That means you need to track lots of developments and policies that are overlapping, complicated and contradictory — and that’s hard! I know — I’ve been writing our World Higher Education, Year in Review publication (out on

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November 20, 2025 No Comments

Letter from China

A quick reminder before we get to our regularly scheduled programming: Last week, I told you about the National Defence Research Roundtable HESA is hosting on December 15 in Ottawa. Some of you missed the expression of interest window, so we’re reopening the form until 12pm on Thursday. You can expect to hear from us about registration later this week.  I just spent the last week visiting China. It’s been a trip in more ways than one. My first couple

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November 19, 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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