Across the world, international students are making last minute decisions about whether to enrol in university courses this September or defer until 2021. But study destination countries are responding differently to this challenge. Australian universities have indicated that they will allow international students to enter the country before all internal state borders have opened. Meanwhile, […] … learn more→

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency’s announcement last week that international students should go home if their US campuses are unable to provide on-campus instruction in the autumn always looked arbitrary. Hence, it is no surprise that the government has backed down in the face of a widespread outcry and legal threats from some […] … learn more→

At the end of a school year turned upside down by the Covid-19, one can only be struck by the importance of the progression of success in exams. The phenomenon affects both secondary and higher education. At the end of the first year of university, the success rates in the baccalaureate are “exceptional”. There is an increase of 10 to 12% compared […] … learn more→

As colleges and universities decide whether or not to reopen their campuses this fall, much of the discussion has focused on the ethics behind the decision and the associated health risks of in-person instruction. As a researcher who studies health insurance policy, I see two important gaps in this discussion: 1) Who should pay the cost of treating the inevitable COVID-19 cases […] … learn more→

Doctoral students show high levels of stress in comparison to other students, and ongoing uncertainty in terms of graduate career outcomes can make matters worse. Before the pandemic, one in five research students were expected to disengage from their PhD. Disengagement includes taking extended leave, suspending their studies or dropping out entirely. COVID-19 has made those statistics far worse. […] … learn more→

Applications to universities in the UK have increased during the COVID-19 lockdown. UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, has reported a 1.6% increase from last year, and over 40% of all UK 18-year-olds have now applied to university. This rise may come as a surprise. The university experience for those starting in autumn 2020 will be very […] … learn more→

Defending your doctoral thesis should never be an overly comfortable affair for candidates. After all, those seeking academia’s highest award should expect their research to be thoroughly tested by experts in their discipline. But too often, UK PhD vivas are recalled as frightening and upsetting encounters that many spend their careers trying to forget. I […] … learn more→

As leaders of an executive MBA at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business, we felt the burden of expectations as we discarded our established game plans in March and started again with a virtual delivery model. This is, after all, an EMBA in digital transformation, designed to develop leaders for an age of technological disruption. […] … learn more→

The coronavirus pandemic has brought many unexpected changes – including a sudden prime-time role for government scientific advisers. What has until recently been rather a niche area within both government policymaking and university activity has now found itself centre stage – with not a few pitfalls along the way. As well as exposing some of […] … learn more→

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, made a decision on July 6 regarding international students in the U.S. that will affect far more than just the roughly 870,000 international students themselves. Based on what I know about the power and influence of higher education in the U.S., this decision could increase the tuition American students pay, cost thousands of jobs […] … learn more→