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Surviving the Billionaire Wars's avatar

"US universities face a severe crisis, and many will not survive."

Good. Unlike the students they've failed, they've earned it.

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R007's avatar

We can't expect a logical planned response in the West, owing to our university structures and their traditional autonomy. But its also because the nature of this event is not yet comprehensible.

The brunt of this sea-change will fall first on non-university institutions in ALL countries who became dependent on well-funded youth.

Yes, the consequences to the 'liberal' processes inside those wealthy Western universities and institutions will still be catastrophic, even when that's not where the largest numbers of 'international students' were going. That is what we are all being directed to think about.

But looked at more realistically, there was a global credit bubble in education as elsewhere, and it has popped. Its hard for universities to comprehend the enormity of this credit bubble - they were paid to not understand or explain it. Their huge expansion on the backs of these travelling students over three decades was all about credit. And even China has recognized limits to credit in sectors like high-speed rail and apartment blocks..

It's quite easy to destroy things.

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