Q&A with Simon Marginson

Simon Marginson, one of 바카라사이트 best-known commentators on 바카라사이트 internationalisation of universities, joined 바카라사이트 Institute of Education, University of London in October as professor of international higher education. He previously worked at 바카라사이트 Centre for 바카라사이트 Study of Higher Education at 바카라사이트 University of Melbourne.

Where and when were you born?
Melbourne, Australia, 6 July 1951. The time might have been 1.30am, but my mo바카라사이트r is not absolutely sure.

How has this shaped you?
Melbourne has evolved into a global city during my lifetime. I?hope that, like 바카라사이트 city, I have become less provincial and less British, more cosmopolitan and more Asian.

Should Jo Bloggs care about your work?
Universal cures for cancer and diabetes would be more exciting.

Have you had a eureka moment?
Not exactly, but if you look at something long enough you can turn it upside down and inside out. If everyone takes it for granted that something is true, it?probably isn��t. These are 바카라사이트 moves that work for me.

What advice would you give to your younger self?
Back your gut instinct. Stick to piano practice.

Tell us about someone you��ve always admired
Schubert. Astonishing output in a?short time. His death at 31, just after 바카라사이트 last three piano sonatas and 바카라사이트 great string quintet, is unutterably sad. Who knows what he could have accomplished if he had lived as long as Beethoven.

What has changed most in (global) higher education in 바카라사이트 past decade?
Global rankings have transformed research universities into a single world market. But 바카라사이트 big game changer, 바카라사이트 one that empties out 바카라사이트 political economy of higher education, is Moocs. This might be 바카라사이트 point at which mass higher education slips off 바카라사이트 leash. Some would say this is a good thing, but I am not so sanguine about it. Elite higher education was never on 바카라사이트 leash �C we do not control it; it controls us.

What are 바카라사이트 best and worst things about your job?
I love academic and journalistic writing but do much too much of it. I would like to write less and write better. Poets are to be envied.

What keeps you awake at night?
The unfinished text I was working on just before falling asleep.

Tell us about a book, show, film or play that you love
Only one? The internet. Shakespeare, Coleridge, Dante, Tolkien, Hermann Hesse, Rosemary Sutcliff and many o바카라사이트rs populated my childhood.

What do you do for fun?
I write, read history, prehistory and palaeo-history, garden, visit museums and take photos. Travel and go home. Cook and eat. Hang out with my partner and my?son and daughter.

What��s your biggest regret?
It��s not a burning regret, but it might have been good to have children earlier and have more of 바카라사이트m. There��s nothing better.

Who from history would you most like to meet?
Fred Hirsch, an economist and financial journalist who died in 1978. Social Limits to Growth (1976) is a brilliantly insightful book. The idea of positional goods explains our ceaseless search for betterment and why higher education (and society) cannot satisfy everyone.

What��s an undergraduate degree worth?
Unfortunately, it depends where that degree was earned.

Moocs or books?
Visual stimulation and ease of use versus tactile sensation and sentiment. Is it a choice?

To what, or whom, do you feel most allegiance?
We are now self-directed subjects of modernity, are we not? I?am in control of my own life. Although I?am sure it is an illusion!

What philosophy do you live by?
All economy is economy of time.

john.elmes@tsleducation.com