Using the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas as a starting point, where over 1500 Chinese companies exhibited, I have written a piece describing how Shenzhen is becoming one of perhaps several Silicon Valleys in China. Shenzhen is home to 35% of Chinese companies at CES, and is one of the fast-growing cities in what China refers to as the Greater Bay Area, which includes Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macao and 8 other cities in Guangdong province. Together they are building an innovation ecosystem rivalling the US Silicon Valley’s.

Within Zhenzhen is a new institution, XbotPark and InnoX, that is creating a pipeline of China’s next generation of leaders in high-tech product development. InnoX and XbotPark were developed by Professor Li Zexiang, who is one of China’s top entrepreneurs.   The most famous of Li’s companies is DJI, which was started by Li Zexiang’s student at HKUST, Frank Wang. DJI is the world leader in consumer drones and now holds 75% of global market share with a valuation over $20 billion US. To learn more about InnoX and XBot Park, I interviewed Carol Yu, who is a founding Partner and the Associate Dean of Shenzhen InnoX Academy. Yu describes how InnoX and XBot Park work, and how it is beginning to transform STEM education in China and around the world

The piece is available on Forbes.com at this link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/02/25/a-new-school-for-chinese-innovatorsinnox-and-xbot-park/

In my most recent piece at Forbes.com – I examine the impact of new universities in Pakistan such as Aga Khan University, Lahore Institute of Management Sciences (LUMS), Forman Christian College, and Habib University. These new universities provide diversity to Pakistan’s higher education system and are providing new and innovative forms of higher education. Pakistan itself has a rapidly growing population and is home to the third largest population of college-aged students in the world, after China and India, so keeping the most talented students within Pakistan to start new companies and provide opportunities for its future is vital for both Pakistan and the world. The piece also features an interview with Wasif Risvi, founding president of Habib University, who describes in some detail how Habib can provide “epistemic reparation” for Pakistan through its unique liberal arts curriculum rooted in the concept of yoshin, which roughly translates as grace. Habib is helping students rediscover the beauty and power of Pakistan’s culture to help them shape Pakistan’s future. I also had the opportunity to visit Habib University as part of a review committee in November. I was deeply impressed by the campus community and its commitment to students and to liberal arts. The piece is available at Forbes.com at this link:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/02/18/new-forms-of-higher-education-for-building-pakistans-future/

My new piece on Western Governors University on forbes.com is now out, and it explores how competency-based education, or CBE, has provided a more flexible and adaptable way for students to complete courses and their degrees. Instead of a fixed time for a course, students can demonstrate mastery of a well-defined set of tasks to move on to the next part of their education. The way that WGU has been built around CBE gives it a competitive advantage and has helped it become the largest university in the US, with over 180,000 students. My piece explores how WGU has reconceptualized how a university works, with a student-centered approach with faculty, tech staff, and administration all locked in on maintaining the “momentum” of students in their learning. My piece includes an interview with WGU Provost Courtney Hills McBeth and describes CBE programs at SNHU, Purdue Global, Northern Arizona University, and East Texas A&M University. The piece is online at Forbes.com at the link below:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2025/01/21/a-deep-dive-into-wgu-and-competency-based-education/

I have been thinking about how Michael Porter’s model for the Five Forces of Competitive Strategy, long a centerpiece of business strategy, provides a useful lens for considering the seismic forces bearing down on higher education today.

These forces, which include competitive rivalry, the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitute products or services, apply to universities and colleges as they compete for dwindling supplies of students, face threats from new universities and substitutions in the form of micro-credentials, and face increasing bargaining power from students and parents as they reconsider the value of a college education. This piece is now on Forbes.com – and enumerates how these forces are reshaping our universities and colleges and how they will need to evolve and adapt to survive. Here is a link to the piece:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2024/12/23/the-five-forces-reshaping-higher-education/

I have written a new piece for Forbes.com about the rise of the “mega university,” including enormous online universities like SNHU and WGU and massively scaled universities like ASU and CFU. These giant universities are re-writing the value proposition for higher education in favor of convenience and efficiency – and while they may not reach the same quality of experience as the top traditional universities, they are becoming increasingly popular for their lower costs and greater efficiency. The article explores how these universities and others have grown and some details that help fuel their popularity and growth. It also briefly describes some of the results of ASU’s growth under the leadership of Michael Crow and its role as a “fifth-wave university.” The new post is on Forbes.com at the link below:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2024/12/02/the-mega-universities-disrupting-higher-education/

Mexico’s higher education system is growing to meet the needs of its people, and Mexico’s college-aged population has grown dramatically, with attendees more than doubled from 1.9 million in 2000 to approximately 4 million today. With 120 million inhabitants, Mexico operates over 231,000 schools that serve 21 million students in basic education. Its system of higher education institutions is spread out over 32 states to serve a population that speaks more than 60 languages. In a recent piece for Forbes.com, entitled “Mexico’s Growing Higher Education System,” I describe how Mexico is working to meet the needs of its people for education at all levels, including government initiatives that have created new universities, online programs like MexicoX, and multilingual education programs to meet the needs of students in states like Oaxaca and Chiapas. You can read more about this piece and the contributions that Mexico’s leading universities, such as UNAM and Monterrey Tec, are making to innovate and provide higher education for Mexico and the larger Latin American region. My new piece is available at Forbes.com at the link below:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2024/11/14/mexicos-growing-higher-education-system/

My new piece in Forbes.com explores how AI in India is being developed by the combination of India’s thriving startup and tech sectors and university partnerships. The AI ecosystem in India includes new universities such as the Jio Insitute, founded as a philanthropic effort by Reliance Industries, and the new Universal AI University. The piece also includes quotes from an interview with Shailesh Kumar, the Dean of Jio’s AI and Data Science program. It includes some impressive ways AI is already impacting India’s healthcare, agriculture, and education systems. These impacts will also have larger ramifications for the world as other countries in the Global South adopt similar AI systems for their development. That piece is available at this link:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpenprase/2024/10/13/the-future-of-ai-and-india/