For many US and European companies and investors focused developing technologies and training for the future workforce, staying at home seems like a sensible option.  After all, the US and Europe both have thriving, sophisticated education and labor markets within a supportive venture capital and private equity environment.  But in a world where rising working-age […]

Is education an instrument of China’s soft power?  If so, how can it be measured? After some review, there are four areas which I think warrant a deeper dive: Government-led efforts through Confucius Institutes University branch campuses set up offshore Internationally mobile tertiary students in universities around the world Chinese private investment into schools, education […]

What does the concept of a jobless future–a world awash with robots and AI–mean for emerging markets that have yet to reach economic maturity?  How will educational achievement in these countries help to shape this future of work? What new business models might emerge to get people employed? These questions are impossible to answer today, […]

Disconnected or idle youth as measured by NEET rates (defined as 18-24 year olds neither in employment nor education or training) can be a major determinant of economic stagnation, social unrest and investment risk.  Unsurprisingly, the worst performers (based on OECD data) are often those with low educational attainment and a high degree of gender […]

I was honored to keynote the US-Sino Online Higher Education Forum at Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）which took place on June 1, 2018.  My talk was focused on the next phase of collaboration between US and Chinese universities.  I have consistently thought that education remains a critical aspect of Sino-US relations and that the ability of […]

The latest GEI White Paper_2018 Rankings are available.  There were a number of changes this year with additional data related to PISA Science Scores and presence within the THE Global University Rankings, with a total number of measured data points rising to 21. Below is a brief excerpt. With its combination large populations, economic growth and […]

US labor productivity is growing at its lowest rate, over an extended period, since 1948.  In the face of this multifaceted decline, the Trump Administration’s “New Foundationfor American Greatness” has explicitly targeted GDP growth rates of 3% by 2021 based on a raft of trade, budgetary and investment measures.  It has also championed an attempt to “Buy American, […]

Investors and entrepreneurs are usually exuberant about the 1.65 billion strong global student market until they hear the bad news: the majority can’t afford anything beyond basic education. This, of course, doesn’t include the 122 million illiterate youth in the world today or the legions of non-formal and professional learners who may want to improve their skills but have little […]