Higher Education Policy

Winners and Losers in the Emerging Neo-Academic Cold War

September 17, 2026
John Aubrey Douglass

Never has the need for coordinated global science been greater, and never has the political appetite for supporting it seemed weaker.

Read this commentary by John Douglass about the need for international scientific and cultural cooperation.

https://johnaubreydouglass.substack.com/p/winners-and-losers-in-the-emerging?r=y…

By Jesse Rothstein: University of California Admissions and the SAT: FAQs

September 8, 2026
Jesse Rothstein

In 2020, the Regents of the University of California voted to stop considering SAT scores (or ACT scores) in undergraduate admissions. A group of UC faculty have recently signed open letters calling on the Regents to reverse this decision.


UC’s renewed debate on the SAT follows decisions from a number of Ivy League institutions to return to requiring standardized test scores, after going “test optional” during the pandemic. UC, however, is a public institution, with a different mission from that of the Ivy League private universities. As the “About UC” page on the ucop.edu...

http://escholarship.org/uc/item/6kx2q4zw

Stephen B. Adams

Entrepreneurship Scholar in Residence
Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University

Stephen B. Adams is Entrepreneurship Scholar in Residence at the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University. His research has explored entrepreneurship and innovation, business/government relations, and the role of universities in regional development. He is the author of Mr. Kaiser Goes to Washington: The Rise of a Government Entrepreneur. His articles about Silicon Valley have appeared in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Research Policy, The Business History Review, Minerva, Enterprise & Society, and The California Management Review. His current research...

A Researcher Adds What's Been Missing From the UC Testing Debate: Nuance

September 10, 2026
Eric Hoover, The Chronicle of Higher Education

In this interview, CSHE Director Jesse Rothstein provides an overview of the nuances of the admissions process and what's at stake within it.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-researcher-adds-whats-been-missing-from-the-…

Neo-Academic Cold War

August 10, 2026
John Aubrey Douglass

A new Cold War is emerging and in turn a Neo-Academic Cold War that reflects emerging geopolitical rivalries. The context of the Neo-Academic Cold War is different from the previous Cold War which featured bipolar competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for military superiority and spheres of influence that included distinct scientific and academic ecosystems. This has given way to a multipolar and complex world of rivalries and semi-autonomous silos of transnational science cooperation and science diplomacy. This paper explores the evolution of the Neo-Academic Cold War as...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41307-026-00465-z

Commentary: SAT Wars and the University of California

July 10, 2026
John Aubrey Douglass

Commentary on Substack:

Opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and a growing number of ...

https://substack.com/@johnaubreydouglass?utm_source=global-search

Jesse Rothstein

David Gardner Chair of Higher Education, Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, Professor of Public Policy & Economics, Carmel P. Friesen Chair of Public Policy

Jesse Rothstein is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Public Policy and the David Pierpont Gardner Chair in Higher Education and directs the Center for Studies in Higher Education. He previously served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and as Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President. From 2015-2020, he was director of...

How Trump’s HE policies are hamstringing economic growth

July 3, 2026
John Aubrey Douglass

In an analysis published in University World News, John Aubrey Douglass, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), addressed the impact of the new federal provisions limiting loans for graduate education in the United States.

Douglass explains how these changes “will likely come at a cost to the economy in terms of fewer professionals across a wide array of fields, as well as further erosion in socioeconomic mobility, for which access to graduate education is a key component.”

Read the...

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20260703124411294

Breakfast with George: A Mentorship Program for University Executives

Ready to advance your higher education leadership skills?

Join Breakfast with George for an intimate and personalized mentoring experience.

Breakfast with George is an exclusive opportunity to benefit from the experienced mentorship of George Blumenthal, Chancellor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz. As the Former Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley, George Blumenthal has nearly 50 years of experience in higher education, as a...

Igor Chirikov

Senior Researcher and SERU Consortium Director

Igor Chirikov is the Director of the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium and Senior Researcher at CSHE. SERU Consortium is an academic and policy research collaboration based at Center for Studies in Higher Education at the UC Berkeley working in partnership with Etio and member universities. The Consortium is a group of leading research-intensive universities that increase student success by generating and analyzing comparative data on the student experience.

As SERU Consortium Director Igor Chirikov has broad responsibilities for overall SERU Consortium...