At the start of the twentieth century, few Americans ever imagined getting a college degree. Less than 5 percent of children made it through high school, and approximately 1 percent of high school graduates enrolled in college. Two-year institutions were still a novelty, and four-year colleges catered to the 1 percent.1 Those numbers have changed dramatically. We now live in a world where 94 percent of Americans believe some college is “very important” to their lives and future prospects.2 Scholars tend to point to midcentury legislation—i.e., the GI Bill and Higher Education Act—as well as “College for All” movements as key drivers for the change. But the US isn’t alone. Globally, college-going has undergone a fundamental transformation during the past century. And the future promises the further expansion and reimagining of postsecondary education, though no doubt with surprising twists along the way.

For this policy dialogue, we asked Roger Geiger and Philip Altbach to discuss the past, present, and future of higher education in the US and abroad. Roger Geiger is a distinguished professor emeritus of higher education at Penn State University. He has written extensively on higher education history, with particular attention to research universities. His recent works include The History of American Higher Education: Learning and Culture from the Founding to World War II and American Higher Education since World War II: A History. Philip Altbach is a professor emeritus at Boston College, where he was a research professor and distinguished fellow at the Center for International Higher Education. He has received the NAFSA: Association of International Educators Houlihan Award for Distinguished Service and the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s Howard R. Bowen Distinguished Career Award. Both bring decades of research experience, professional expertise, and personal insight to this discussion.

HEQ policy dialogues are, by design, intended to promote an informal, free exchange of ideas between scholars. At the end of the exchange, we offer a list of references for readers who wish to follow up on sources relevant to the discussion.

The partition of India caused an unprecedented exodus of Hindus and Muslims to the new nations designated for each group. Amid the tempestuous Great Calcutta Killings and the corresponding riots in Noakhali in 1946, many Bengali Hindus living in Noakhali left for Calcutta, leaving their properties behind in what was soon to be the new state of Pakistan. Though many of them longed for home, I argue that displaced Bengali Hindus’ hopes of returning died in the mid-1950s. The article begins by examining the condition of the village of Lamchar in Noakhali at the time of the riots, partition, and afterwards. I then consider Noakhali within the larger historical context of laws relating to properties settlement in East Pakistan and the introduction of passports from 1948 to 1956. Finally, I examine a rare family archive of letters exchanged between Jogendra Roy, a Hindu landowner who fled Noakhali, and Oli Mian, his Muslim neighbour who remained behind. Twenty-six letters sent from Jogendra to Oli document his desire to return home to Noakhali and his later disappointment when this hope was never realized. This dying hope coincided with the East Pakistan government’s decision to take possession of the lands left by those displaced through the East Bengal State Acquisitions and Tenancy Act of 1950. This article concentrates on the complex relationship between Hindus and Muslims, exploring issues of nostalgia, identity, property, and hope, revealing the slow acceptance among displaced Bengali Hindus of the (im)possibility of return.

Shareholders are not allowed to bring actions for damages due to a fall in share value or loss of dividend, which are “reflective” of their company’s loss. Later, this principle also found its application to “reflective” losses of employees and creditors. The Supreme Court, however, in Marex Financial v Sevilleja, unanimously held that the principle would apply only to shareholders and not to creditors. The article argues that, while the majority opinion in the Marex decision is reasonably balanced, the minority opinion went a step further by even doubting the very existence of the no reflective loss principle without properly appreciating what shareholding entails. If the minority’s position becomes the law, it will jeopardise companies’ existence as separate legal entities with the capacity to decide with respect to their assets. Further, if the protection of the principle is removed, companies’ counterparties will have to worry constantly about facing numerous direct shareholders’ actions, whether they settle the dispute with the company or not. As a result, if the minority view becomes the law, it can potentially make the company a less dependable commercial partner.

Nonfat set yogurts are very popular in Japan because of their health properties, but have the disadvantage of being hard and having large curd particles compared to fat-containing yogurts. We investigated the effect of lactose hydrolysis on nonfat set yogurt to determine whether this technique can improve the sensory evaluation and the texture of a nonfat set yogurt. We prepared nonfat yogurt mixes with 0, 50, 75, and 100% lactose hydrolysis and fermented them. The sensory properties, physical properties, fermentation characteristics, extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) concentration and lactic acid bacteria count were then assessed. The results demonstrated that the lactose hydrolysis rate had no effect on the fermentation time. The 75% lactose hydrolysis increased the EPS concentration and inhibited post-acidification. The 100% lactose hydrolysis increased the number of Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (L. bulgaricus) and further increased the EPS concentration, and despite the increase in the number of L. bulgaricus, the 100% lactose hydrolysis suppressed post-acidification. The results of a sensory evaluation showed that the 100% lactose hydrolysis increased the yogurt's viscosity and overall acceptability and suppressed its acidity. The physical-properties evaluation revealed that when the lactose hydrolysis rate was ≥75%, the curd hardness decreased, and the curd particles became smaller. We inferred that these sensory and physical changes originated from an increase in the EPS concentration, and we thus speculate that a 100% lactose hydrolysis rate before fermentation would be a useful means of solving the hardness and large curd particles of nonfat set yogurt.

While multiple threats to the language, culture, and existence of the 700 members of the Village of Tewa loom (Kroskrity 1993, 2021), this diasporic Pueblo society deploys sociolinguistic resources to generate hope ‘as a moral call’ (Mattingly 2010). Their heritage language is rhematized (Gal & Irvine 2019) to their community identity but now that emblem, and their very existence, has been challenged by the encroachment of English and other crises (including climate change and the pandemic). For Tewa, repairing the situation requires a hopeful ‘reorientation of knowledge and action’ (Miyazaki 2004; Borba 2019) that recontextualizes traditional linguistic practices and language ideologies (Kroskrity 1998). Tewa linguistic and discursive expressions of ‘hope’ are more agentive and directed than their English language counterparts. These practices are examined as forms of what Tuck (2009:417) called generative hope ‘about a present that is enriched by the past and the future’. (Pragmatics, language ideologies, hope)*

This article discusses how the acclaimed twentieth-century author Rosemary Sutcliff drew upon the archaeological record to advance the didactic aspects of her narratives. Sutcliff was aware that she had a platform to instil certain values in her young readership, and these values were repeatedly exhibited by her protagonists, particularly bravery and fortitude in the face of adversity. In many cases, certain objects are passed down through the generations as a symbol of these values. Usually, these items were drawn either directly from the archaeological record or display close parallels with real-world objects. Subsequently, for the readers of Sutcliff's narratives, the real-world version of the artefact, or a similar item, become encoded with these values and serve to inspire them to emulate her heroes.

Regarding the article, ‘Efficacy and safety of a 4-week course of repeated subcutaneous ketamine injections for treatment-resistant depression (KADS study): randomised double-blind active-controlled trial’, we commend Loo et al1 for undertaking the Ketamine for Adult Depression Study (KADS). In the interest of ensuring that accurate and balanced information is presented to healthcare professionals on treatment-resistant depression, we raise several points herein to help clarify and provide additional perspective to the researchers’ interpretation of their findings in the Discussion.

New research in the microregion of Musti (El Krib) in N Tunisia in 2019–2023 has revealed unpublished 2nd–3rd-century AD funerary monuments featuring rich iconography, including a female figure beside the altar and two pigs. These items and other published epigraphic and anepigraphic monuments from the fertile microregion stand out from other tombstones in Roman Africa. Both the type of monument and its relief decoration distinguish these objects. A rare holistic approach, combining historical, epigraphic and iconographic analyses with the results of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological research, will enhance our understanding of the history and agriculture of the Musti microregion and this part of Proconsular Africa during the early Roman Empire.