The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Worldwide PSE

Same But Different (Part 1)

One of the challenges I find in doing comparative higher education work is that because everyone in the field went to university, they think they know what a university is.  But the fact is universities around the world are different: they are run on different logics; they aspire to do different things and hence can have differing operational processes.  Making useful comparisons, or trying to infer motives for institutional actions in other countries, can be very difficult. One of the

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November 2, 2021 1 Comment

Higher Education Crucible: The Former Eastern Bloc

Today, I want to talk a little bit about a region of the world that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention/respect in higher education talk, but which has recently faced some quite unimaginable financial and demographic challenges.   The higher education systems of the former Soviet Union and its erstwhile Eastern European allies have been through a wild ride over the past fifteen years and there really has never been another period in higher education history with such a rapid

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October 14, 2021 1 Comment

Canada: Not Quite as Good as It Looks in OECD Comparisons

On Monday, Statscan put out a “Portrait of Youth and Education in Canada,” which includes the following graph accompanied by a note to the effect that Canada has one of the highest post-secondary attainment rates in the world because of our high community colleges/polytechnic participation rates. It was accompanied by the following graph: Figure 1: Highest Level of Educational Attainment, 25 to 34-year-olds, Canada and OECD average 2019, as per Statistics Canada Now, I know this line of argument. I

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October 7, 2021 1 Comment

Global Higher Education’s Post-COVID Future (4) – The Return of Politics

HESA recognizes the importance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the ongoing need to commit to actions that promote and enable real reconciliation. There are many organizations worthy of support including: Orange Shirt Society: https://www.orangeshirtday.org/Indian Residential School Survivors Society: https://www.irsss.ca/The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: https://www.the-circle.ca/ On Monday, I described some of the big changes of the past 18 months; Tuesday I discussed the first big future trend (“Funding Challenges Forever”), Wednesday the second (“New

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September 30, 2021 No Comments

Global Higher Education’s Post-COVID Future (3) – New Pedagogies, New Credentials

On Monday, I described some of the big changes of the past 18 months; yesterday I discussed the first big future trend (“Funding Challenges Forever”), and today I want to talk about the second, which I call “New Pedagogies and New Credentials”. The experience of learning online during COVID has divided both learners and instructors.  A clear majority have a healthy dislike for it, and a few loath it.  But a significant minority enjoyed the experiment.  For students who never

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September 29, 2021 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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