politics
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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 why higher education is in a state of advanced moral rot, you don’t need to look at falling test scores or corporate administrative salaries. You just have to look at what happens when a violent felony occurs inside the gated perimeter of an Ivy League institution. This week, the spotlight…
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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…
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If you happen to take a stroll through the quad of almost any British university right now, you might notice an odd chill in the air. It’s not just the damp English weather. It’s the distinct smell of an entire national tertiary education sector quietly burning its own furniture to keep the central heating on.…
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If you wanted to script the ultimate inspirational blockbuster for modern higher education, you could not have written a more cinematic pitch than the rise of Jason Arday. In 2023, the University of Cambridge announced with massive global fanfare that it had appointed Arday as its Professor of the Sociology of Education. At just 37…
