china
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In the early 2010s, elite Western university leadership entered a state of euphoric corporate hallucination. University presidents—most visibly John Sexton of New York University, flanked by executive teams from Duke, the University of Nottingham, and Liverpool—embarked on an aggressive global roadshow to announce the dawn of the “Global Network University.” The pitch was breathless, messianic,…
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Whenever diplomatic tensions flare up between Western capitals and Beijing—whether over naval skirmishes in the South China Sea, semiconductor export bans, a sovereign Taiwan, or human rights reports—a very specific ritual plays out across the executive suites of Western higher education. While defense analysts debate deterrence and foreign ministries issue stern communiqués, university provosts and…
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If you want to understand the absurd comedy of modern research publishing, you have to appreciate the great academic grift. Consider how the racket works in the “free, democratic” West. A scholar spends three years conducting research funded by public tax dollars. They write up the findings. They submit the manuscript to a prestigious journal…
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For decades, Western academics have enjoyed a comfortable sense of moral and intellectual superiority when looking across the Pacific. Whenever the conversation turns to higher education in the People’s Republic of China, Western scholars shake their heads with sympathetic pity. Everyone knows the setup: at every Chinese university, from Peking University down to the provincial…
