Education

M&A bird in hand not always better than nothing

14 February 2020

Education software company Instructure’s board recommended a $1.8 bln buyout shareholders are unlikely to support, after initially backing a lower one. The board now looks hasty and out of touch. It shows why some bid targets, like printer-maker HP, prefer to play hard-to-get.

Pearson’s excuses are running thin

16 January 2020

The publisher’s shares hit a 12-year low after it said 2019 operating profit would miss forecasts. CEO John Fallon and his finance chief, who are both leaving, switched focus from paper textbooks to digital ones. Their replacements will have to work out how to make that succeed.

Gojek founder can re-route Indonesia’s rough ride

12 November 2019

Growth slipped to a disappointing 5% and the outlook is glum, with 55% of students ending school barely literate. That’s a bigger challenge for new education minister Nadiem Makarim than Jakarta traffic. This long haul would benefit from entrepreneurial and pragmatic direction.

MAGA mindset proves toxic for U.S. soft power

24 October 2019

The latest index of countries’ persuasiveness ranks Trump’s America fifth, down from top three years ago and pipped for fourth by Sweden. Washington’s image is so poor it outweighs the halo around U.S. tech, education and the like. Military might and economic heft only go so far.

Tech riches bypass San Francisco African-Americans

22 October 2019

The city is bursting with billionaires and boasts a jobless rate of just 2.3%. Yet black residents’ median annual incomes are only a quarter of what whites take home. Many factors are to blame, but Silicon Valley could do much more to reduce the inequities.

College football learns to play by market rules

3 October 2019

Young U.S. athletes generate $1 bln in revenue for their governing body – yet their rewards are tightly capped. When demand is high and the supply of elite talent low, as in football, something has to give. A new California law is a nod to what other industries realized long ago.

Abolishing UK private schools would be export blow

27 September 2019

Britain’s Labour Party will clamp down on non-state education if it wins power. That would scare off overseas students who add 1.7 bln pounds a year to UK GDP. With exports of financial services and cars under threat from Brexit, it’s income the country can ill afford to lose.

Indian learning startup is envy of its class

11 July 2019

Byju’s fundraise values it at $5.7 bln, a 50% jump in seven months. A sturdy business model is why new backers include A-grade investors like Qatar. U.S. and British parents may spend proportionately less on education but that need not slow growth as the group expands overseas.

U.S. curb on China research runs technology risk

8 July 2019

The Trump administration is putting more Chinese universities on blacklists, making it risky for American entities to work with them. Concern about academic spying for Beijing is valid, but discouraging ties with a leader in fields like AI and biotech can hurt U.S. capabilities.

Canada’s student flat deal hedges its UK bets

3 July 2019

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has sold university housing player Liberty Living to Unite Group for 1.4 billion pounds. The seller’s small premium is offset by the buyer’s synergies. CPPIB gets to cash out, but a 20% stake creates upside if student inflows endure.

Schwarzman’s Oxford gift widens UK university gulf

19 June 2019

The Blackstone founder is giving 150 mln pounds to the 900-year-old institution for a humanities centre bearing his name. Oxford and other top universities already outspend less prestigious peers. Weaker players will have to borrow more to keep up, increasing their vulnerability.

Chinese vocational school IPO taps job anxiety

5 June 2019

China East Education has raised $625 mln in Hong Kong, valuing it at $3.1 bln. Beijing’s push to retrain millions of laid-off workers could boost its bottom line, but the market is fragmented, and earnings are volatile. This price implies very optimistic growth expectations.

Online tutor puts U.S. love of China IPOs to test

31 May 2019

Chinese companies have pitched themselves in New York as a bet on rising consumption, insulated from trade ructions. But poor performances of Luckin Coffee and others have tempered enthusiasm. That means even profitable ones like education upstart GSX may fail to make the grade.

Recess ends for China’s private-school startups

14 May 2019

Companies like $19 bln tutoring giant TAL have long benefited from foreign enthusiasm for Chinese education plays. Share performance, however, has been inconsistent. Demographic challenges, plus fresh policy headwinds in Beijing and Washington, put growth at risk.

Hadas: CEOs would benefit from more humanities

8 May 2019

Companies rely on science and engineering grads, especially in the Big Data era, but many tough problems are cultural and psychological. The best way to face them is with the liberal arts, which deal with grand dramas and complex conflicts. It's time to rethink C-suite education.

Cox: Emmanuel Macron is succumbing to shortcuts

24 April 2019

The French president’s plan to close ENA, the elite school that churns out civil servants and CEOs, smacks of symbolism. So does his pledge to fix Notre-Dame in five years. Reforming the economy, like rebuilding a great cathedral, demands tough choices, not political gimmicks.

Hadas: U.S. colleges can try harder to be fair

18 March 2019

Elite American higher education is supposed to be a meritocracy, but last week’s admissions-cheating revelations are a reminder of how much money matters. That could be changed, starting with choosing from qualified candidates by lottery and spinning off college sports teams.

College-bribe scandal is manna for progressives

13 March 2019

TPG’s Bill McGlashan and actor Felicity Huffman are among the big names charged in an alleged scam to get their kids into top U.S. universities. The admissions process is anyway tilted toward the rich. This case, and the entitlement on show, should put the whole system on trial.

University endowments are study in U.S. inequality

20 February 2019

With public funding for higher education waning, institutions depend on investments more than ever. Yet most have small endowments and lack access to areas like private equity. The likes of Harvard and Yale face new taxes and ebbing returns, but their riches can cushion the pain.

World will improve where it matters most in 2019

24 December 2018

By next December, more people will have electricity and clean water. Child deaths are likely to be rarer and education more common. In future years, the pace of gains could accelerate. The open question is whether progress will undermine prosperity by also bringing more conflict.