Fintech, Student Debt and a Free Lunch

In education, as in all economic life, there is no such a thing as a free lunch. Or is there? The international debate on higher education access and affordability creates a long wish list of what can or should be done, largely depending on a specific country’s development stage. In the wake of the Covid-19 […]

GES 20: Putting the X in Globalization?

There is a cold logic to globalization—especially when it appears to be dying. Can growth be maintained in the world’s leading economies without expanding internationally? Can education start-ups and new ventures rely solely on their local markets? How long will new markets and new consumers in emerging and frontier markets—the world’s engine for future growth—be […]

Investing in the Future of (Highly Skilled) Underemployment

Are the world’s best brains gainfully employed? Ask the barista with a PhD. Or the well-qualified international graduate with a Business Analytics Master’s Degree working in a series of unfulfilling part-time internships. Or the engineering graduate who is rejected by an applicant tracking system for a spelling error on her CV. I think we all […]

Do Emerging Markets Want Their Education Disrupted?

This article was published at Educelerate on March 7,2016. Have foreign education companies “cracked the code” for educating the rest of the world? Earlier this month the online education company Udemy reported that over 10 million students had taken “at least one of its courses” and that growth overseas was surging. While this milestone should be applauded, such a […]

Sinking: How Emerging Market Currencies May Roil the International Education Sector

Emerging market currencies are plummeting against the US dollar. What will be the impact on the international education market? If we are to judge by the amount of discussion within the industry on this topic, the answer would lie somewhere between not much and who cares. Which may be extremely short-sighted. Recall that the 1997 Asian financial […]

Who Will Escape Asia's Emerging Middle Income Trap?

Why do some countries escape the middle-income trap while others languish? Intuitively we know that a more educated population makes for a healthier and more stable economy over the long term. That is why Asian countries, and developing countries around the world, have scambled to build deep and competitive education systems after the initial burst […]