Sunday Posts

The 'Home Market' opportunity is the buzzword in the For-Profit Higher Ed in the UK, not just for the colleges themselves but for the Private Equity houses that chase them. There is a sense of fatalism here: The 'Home Market' is at the fore because there may be no other market available. The big overseas market which sustained private Higher Education in Britain for the last three decades is all but shut out, given the cavalier attitude of the UK Border Agency. They have done everything they can to indicate that British Higher Ed is closed for business and overseas students are not welcome here. This leaves UK Higher Education in general, but For Profit Higher Ed in particular, without an option but to focus solely on the 'Home Market'. Except, that no one really figured out how the Home Market looks like. There is a fairly simplistic assumption underlying the Home Market proposition, which may turn out to be false. The underlying idea behind this talk is t...

In my quest to get a technology-led global education network off the ground, I have now made several iterations of the business plan, made several presentations and attended scores of meetings, some with some success. Indeed, the ideas that I started with changed somewhat: However, that hurts no one as they have only become better, more road worthy, if anything. After several months of doing this, I feel more wedded to the process than I ever was. But I still I have one reservation which I have to deal with before we end signing up with anyone. It is that to build an institution of any value, one needs what the silicon valley types will call 'patient capital'. My interactions with venture capital industry have told me a very different story than what I initially signed up to. It is fair to say that the structure of the venture capital industry may have changed since the heady days of dotcom, indeed because of that; it has become more interested in traction and tried and te...