By Alex Usher. Japan is one of the world’s most hierarchical societies.  You could have a pretty good argument about whether or not this is an artefact of the Tokugawa bakufu of the 17^th century or if it goes back to the Kamakura regime of the 12^th – 14^th centuries, but either way, it’s been that way a long-time.  It’s in the language, the culture, the politics – pretty much everywhere.  And so, too, in the higher education system. More...

By Alex Usher. We all know that Japan is a technological leader, right? An “innovation nation”?  And we all know innovation comes from universities, right?  So Japanese universities must be kind of god-like in their innovation abilities, right?  Right. More...

By Alex Usher. Japan is a fascinating country for any number of reasons, but one of them is that it has played technological catch-up with the west not once but twice, and in both cases very successfully.  As such, reflecting on the role universities have played sheds considerable light on what we think of as “universal truths” about the benefits of higher education. More...

By Alex Usher. I am in a very good mood today, what with tomorrow being the start of a 2-week holiday in Tokyo which includes plenty of sumo (my daughter, the family expert, is predicting Hakuho 白鵬 to win the yūshō in a canter and Tochinoshin 栃ノ心 to win the 10 matches needed for promotion to ōzeki). More...

By Alex Usher. Following on from yesterday’s blog about Human Capital Theory, I thought it would be worth talking a little more broadly about financial barriers to higher education and what we mean by that term.  Because there are at least three different phenomena at work, and much too much policy confuses the three. More...