With the birth of the knowledge society, higher education is booming. There were 13 million university students in 1960. In 2015, their ranks had swollen to nearly 200 million. The number of students attending university is exploding around the globe, as a gigantic global student market is being forged… It’s a simple fact: for the past two decades, the new wealth producing champions have been business executives and members of the intellectual and scientific professions.
Universities are operating in the world’s most competitive knowledge economy. They are waging a ferocious battle to attract the brightest minds from around the globe. We delve into the key seats of decision-making, where money and politics intermingle, and show the deep cultural divide between a lucrative Anglo-Saxon model of funding and the universal independent European model. We also document the emergence of a new class of over-educated and over-indebted workers. Who really benefits from this heightened competition? Just how much debt should students take on? What is the real price for our societies? Is higher education set to be a big market?
Politicians, economists and the media are obsessed with economic growth. But why do we still cling to this concept? Clearly it is impossible to have infinite growth on a finite planet. In 'System Error' award-winning director Florian Opitz examines the fundamentals of capitalism.
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As concern grows about 'coronavirus capitalism', we investigate Social Impact Bonds - an investment product designed to raise private capital to pay for social services. Likely to play an even bigger role in the future, what impact will for-profit investment in social programs have on society's most vulnerable people?
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From the director of 'Goldman Sachs: The Bank that Rules the World' comes a major new investigation into corruption at one of the world's top financial institutions – HSBC.
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