OECD figures are not what they seem in higher education

By Geoff Sharrock. In any campaign, truth is an early casualty. Political leaders use simple facts and figures to prove one policy good, another bad. But reality is more complex. As John F. Kennedy said to students at Yale in 1962:

“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

Scholars have a duty to debunk such myths with independent analysis. But our own sector has skin in the policy game. More...