Sunday Posts

 Are we in a new world, or witnessing the end of the old one? As I write this, the US and Israeli forces have attacked Iran. Iran has retaliated by sending missile barrages towards Baharin, Qatar, UAE and Israel. Trump is calling for a regime change in Iran and wants to install the son of deposed Shah. Not quite the way of the world I knew, where there was at least the figleaf of international law used by countries wanting to attack one another. I feel pity for Keir Starmer. As far as I am aware, his government is trying to fix Britain's institutions after the stupidity of Brexit and fifteen years of Tory assault on public economy and straightlaced corruption. But Sir Keir has no courage to do something or say something openly. He appears like Trump's poodle, and Trump is a difficult master even to be a poodle too. Therefore, notwithstanding whatever his government is doing, he looks like a joke. He is hollowness personified, and at moments like this, he could as well be a holo...

My New Year's resolution is not to wait any longer, but to get on with what I have always wanted to do: set up a new higher-education institution. I have been waiting forever. Not that I haven't tried, but I have ended up taking the wrong route a few times. Each time I learnt, I have learnt about the merits and considerable challenges of for-profit higher education, and how to balance the different interests to do something innovative. I have learnt about international markets and the rapidly changing expectations of the students. I have taught and know firsthand what social media has done to students' attention and commitment. Having tried project-based learning, I have seen its possibilities and also why it does not work at scale. But, in the learning mode, I was forever waiting - doing various projects adjacent to what I r...

The opening of international university campuses in India has a distinct gold rush feel to it. There are 17 universities whose applications are already through and the projects are at several stages of implementation. Several are in the pipeline. The British universities were quick to move in, given their historical affinity. The Australians followed suit, taking advantage of the geopolitical bonhomie between the two nations. The Canadian universities, despite Canada being a top destination of Indian students in the last decade, were hampered by the rift between the two nations around an alleged state-sponsored assassination of a Canadian citizen. But they feel left behind, and will soon turn up in force at the India AI Summit in February, looking for deals. And, finally, the US universities, ever so inward-looking (international students at US universities make up only 6% of the population, compared to about a quarter in UK or Australia), are slower, but some, like the Illinois Instit...