Politics & Public Policy

On 9 and 10 July 2018, Meng-Hsuan Chou (NTU Singapore) hosted three seminars on higher education issues at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Speaking on ‘What does comparative regionalism offer to higher education research?’, Pauline Ravinet (University of Lille) and Meng-Hsuan Chou introduced the concept of ‘higher education regionalism’, a heuristic framework to examine regional cooperation […]

More of Britain’s exports and imports go to and come from the EU Single Market than any other area in the world. It’s our most important, most lucrative, most vital international market for transacting business, upon which our country’s wealth depends. Nearly half of our exports go to the EU Single Market, and just over […]

At times this week it’s been hard to tell whether the flapping sound one can hear is that of England trying to avoid the build-up of excessive expectations, or of hard Brexiters fanning the flames of their ire.* Since Friday’s Chequers meeting, numerous individuals have been working themselves up into states of apoplexy about things […]

Every day Brexiters tell us Remainers that we are undermining democracy by campaigning to reverse Brexit. ‘Are you going to campaign until you get the result you want?’ they ask us, with disdain. ‘Yes,’ is our answer. ‘That’s how democracy works.’ Our aim is not to undermine democracy, but to use the democratic process to […]

The resignations of Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, and Brexit Secretary, David Davis, along with other government ministers, show that there is no real consensus on what Brexit means. There is a jagged oozing fissure right through the Conservative government and party, just as there is across the country, because Brexit is as enigmatic as ever. […]

Perhaps the most infuriating questions to ask a young child is “what you do what to be, when you grow up?” Well, I found it infuriating, at least. The question supposed that you knew what the options might – did I even know that ‘social media pundit’* was a thing back then? – and that […]

Ten days after the win for Leave in the EU referendum, Remainers were in a state of shock. And we still are. On 3 July 2016, I published an article called, ‘What next?’ I wrote then: ‘Nobody knows what will happen next, not even those who so strongly campaigned for Brexit. ‘We now know they […]

  It was 90 years ago, on 2 July 1928, that women in Britain finally achieved equal voting rights with men. But it took almost 100 years of losing vote after vote before women won the right to vote. Every day Brexiters tell Remainers, ‘You lost the referendum. That’s the end of the matter. Give […]

Doctors have voted overwhelmingly to ‘oppose Brexit as a whole’ following a vote at the AGM of the British Medical Association, the trade union and professional association for doctors and medical students in the UK. The medics said that leaving the EU is ‘bad for Britain’s health’ and endorsed a new public vote on the […]

The recent wave of government-sponsored referendums in Europe should be read in light of the upsurge of populist movements, argues Cecilia Sottilotta. Based on her recent article in JCER, she analyses the way in which the governments of Greece, Britain, Hungary and Italy strategically used referendums between 2015-2016, and debunks the political risk calculations.  Greece in […]