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Category: Worldwide PSE

How Many Universities are too Many?

Yesterday, we discussed whether a university can have too many faculties (answer: yes, but just try reducing them and see how far you get).  Today, I thought I would ask a similar question about universities.  It’s a familiar problem in many parts of Canada.  In Nova Scotia, arguments about whether there are “too many” institutions have been going on for almost a century.  Fifteen years ago, significant parts of BC went a bit bananas when the provincial government decided to

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October 7, 2020 1 Comment

Fall 2020 International Round-Up: Netherlands

Here’s a headline you don’t see every day: “Dutch aim to Stop Academics Working at Weekends”.  I hope Times Higher Education won’t mind me filching the opening paragraph, which is something: Academics should not be forced to squeeze their research into weekends and holidays, according to the Dutch education minister, who admitted that pressure on some researchers had become intolerable and that professional competition had gone “too far”. Well, now.  What to make of this? Let’s start with a refresher on Dutch higher

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September 24, 2020 2 Comments

Fall 2020 international Round-Up: Australia

Australia, along with New Zealand, was among the first countries where higher education grappled with the virus.  In Canada, where term starts at the beginning of January, international students all made it into the country before the virus really hit; in Australia, where it starts in March, they didn’t.  This led to an immediate hit in the region of A$3-5 billion (which is a lot, considering that fee income in 2018 from international students was about $9.5 billion). Universities Australia

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September 23, 2020 2 Comments

Fall 2020 International Round Up: Qatar

Some of the world’s most fantastical higher education systems are in the countries that make up Gulf Co-operation Council, or GCC.  Among them, no system is more unique than Qatar’s.  And over the last few years, it has been on an ever-stranger course. Qatar is one of those tiny gulf emirates that entered the modern world under treaty protection of the British Empire.  Along with Bahrain, Qatar chose to remain independent rather than join the United Arab Emirates in 1971,

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September 22, 2020 No Comments

Fall 2020 International Round Up: England

This week, I’ll look at news from around the world of higher education.  I’ll skip the US because regular media coverage of the ongoing disaster seems adequate.  Instead, let’s start in the United Kingdom, and specifically in England. Term is just starting over there, so we have yet to see any US-style nightmares, but that’s definitely in the cards.  As far as I can tell, the re-start plan is closer to the US than to Canada’s: less than 100% in-person

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September 21, 2020 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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