I like to collect examples of college alternatives. I know this is unusual, given that most people like to collect coins, or matchbox labels, but I do think college alternatives are fascinating things.
College alternatives are educational programmes, typically a year or even two years long, which provide real-life learning through a mix of vocational classes and hands-on learning via internships, leading to a career pathway, almost always in tech. …
EdTech funding is hitting record levels, never seen before. A recent report by Ambient Research put edtech funding for H1’15 at $2.5b (in contrast to $2.4b funding for the whole of 2014).
In India we haven’t seen the kind of frenzy around edtech funding we have seen in China. 8 Chinese companies saw funding of $50m+ in the first half of 2015. These 8 companies raised more money than all …
An open letter to John Fallon, Chief Executive of Pearson Plc
Dear John
For the nth time, congratulations on the sale of FT to Nikkei for £825m ($1,288m).
Everybody says £844m, but you and I know that with FT Group’s £19m in the bank, the funds you have got from Japan are a tad lower at £825m. Still that is a bucketload of money. And with The Economist Group’s 50% …
I am presently in the Bay Area on a longish work assignment. Lots of interesting conversations, and many opportunities to gather insights abound. I do hope to share some of learnings and observations from my meetings in my next few posts.
During a recent dinner meeting with a leading Valley / Tech luminary, an interesting comment arose. This was during the end of the evening, while we were sampling some …
It is been nearly four years since that infamous Stanford MOOC, Introducing AI, that saw over 160,000 students signing up, was offered. Since then we have seen a tremendous amount of buzz around MOOCs and digital courses. Initially the buzz was all positive – NYT even called 2012 the year of the MOOC – and then it seemed MOOCs could do nothing right, as the world discovered their low …
The impact of technology and the internet on higher education, specifically on how they have enabled an unbundling of the constituent parts of the university, has been chronicled to death. This unbundling, and the consequent disruption it has entailed through the rise of MOOCs, sharing services such as Chegg, and employment marketplaces such as Campus Job has been detailed extensively.
In my previous post, I took a look at …
Is there a structured way to look at opportunities in Higher Ed? Say, if a startup wants to enter Higher Ed, how could it systematically identify all possible opportunities and thereby map out all potential business models in this space?
Historically, there were 3 clear spaces or opportunity areas in Higher Ed space. First, there was the University. Initially there was just the non-profit research-led university, which morphed into …
The St Stephen’s standoff between Principal Valson Thampu and student Devansh Mehta gets messier. The student has now been suspended and stripped of a prize that he won. In turn, he has sued the Principal. Meanwhile, NSUI, the congress-backed students union, has now got in to the picture protesting outside the college, and burning effigies of the Principal. Link.
Meanwhile articles lamenting the decline of the Stephanian spirit have …
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about how graduates of less-known institutions find it hard to break through into Wall Street. This isn’t a new problem for lesser-known institutions. In fact this is one of the reasons why students compete hard to get into selective institutions such as Princeton or Williams, where there is a history of recruitment by big firms.
In the past, I have written about how selectivity …
Every monday, I publish a newsletter covering all things I find interesting in Higher Ed. Issue #18 is out. See http://eepurl.com/bi0bfj.…