INSEAD: The countries getting the highest return on education

Kai L. Chan, Distinguished Fellow, INSEAD Innovation & Policy Initiative | December 26, 2018 [caption id="attachment_3750" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The key to fostering a more educated populace is not financial – it’s cultural.[/caption] The key to fostering a more educated populace is not financial – it’s cultural.In measuring performance in education or healthcare, societies often mistakenly focus on inputs rather than outcomes. That is, it is common to erroneously measure success by counting the resources devoted to it. But expenditures do not equal success. Indeed, societies would like to spend – for an equivalent outcome – as little as possible. The United States is the global leader in dollars spent per student in tertiary education, yet its students rank 42nd globally on the GMAT, a standardised test used primarily for admission to post-graduate schooling. There is a similar disconnect between inputs and outputs for the PISA, a test administered by the OECD to a broad sample of 15-year-old students. Luxembourg spends the most in absolute terms per student in the primary and secondary stages of education, yet ranks 32nd on the PISA. If expenditures were calibrated against the size of the economy, the global leader in education would be Botswana. Figure 1 below shows the relationship…

L’anglais, trop fort

L’anglais, trop fort ANTOINE ROBITAILLE Mardi, 6 novembre 2018 05:00MISE à JOUR Mardi, 6 novembre 2018 05:00 Je suis tombé hier par hasard sur un texte intitulé « Is the English language too powerful ? ». (La langue anglaise est-elle trop puissante ?) L’auteur, Kai Chan, est « distinguished fellow » à l’INSEAD (l’Institut européen d’administration des affaires). Il a grandi à Toronto, mais conseille entre autres le gouvernement des Émirats arabes unis. Chan met des chiffres sur ce qu’on sait intuitivement, soit que la langue anglaise n’a peut-être jamais été aussi forte : c’est la « langue des sciences, des affaires et de la recherche », écrit-il. Le chercheur a dressé un « Power Language Index » (PLI), sorte de palmarès, afin de déterminer quelle est la langue « la plus utile dans la vie d’une personne, dans une perspective mondiale ». Sans surprise, dans le PLI, l’anglais a le score le plus élevé, 0,889. Le mandarin ? 0,411. « Ainsi, écrit Chan, non seulement l’anglais est la langue la plus puissante, elle l’est deux fois plus que sa plus proche rivale. » Montréal Dans sa note publiée par le World Economic Forum, le chercheur se penche sur le cas de Montréal. Il souligne ceci :…

WEF: Is the English language too powerful?

Even in countries with a powerful home language, the weight of English can be strong. Is this good for the world? Not only is English the most powerful language, it is more than twice as powerful as its closest rival, Mandarin Image: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin 02 Nov 2018 Kai Chan Distinguished Fellow, INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative In 2016 I published the “Power Language Index”, a research note on the efficacy of languages. It was a systematic data-driven analysis using 20 indicators to compare the clout of the world’s languages. It tried to answer the question: which language best serves a person to engage in life from a global perspective? The index was designed as a cardinal measure, meaning that the output -- a number that ranges from zero (least powerful) to one (most powerful) -- not only ranks the languages, but also indicates the magnitude with which they are more or less influential vis-à-vis another. Not surprisingly, the index showed that English, with a score of 0.889, is most powerful. It is the world’s lingua franca. In second place is Mandarin at 0.411. So not only is English the most powerful language, it is more than twice as powerful as its…

Toronto Star: Cycling one way to help needy

Letter to the Toronto Star (Wednesday, October 10, 2018) 10 people. 10 solutions for poverty, Oct. 8 Joe Mihevc’s idea to incorporate cycling solutions is fantastic in that it simultaneously tackles poverty, fitness and the environment. However, some people — especially those living in poverty — may not know how to ride a bike. I grew up in poverty and learned to ride as an adult. Unfortunately, if this skill is not taught at home it is unlikely to be picked up elsewhere, and learning after early childhood comes with a lot of stigma and embarrassment. This skill should thus be taught in early elementary school for those not fortunate enough to have already learned at home. It would help overcome the mobility issue that limits the options of the poor, a point that was almost universally mentioned by the 10 people in the article. Kai L. Chan, Montreal © Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. 1996 - 2018 Letter as it appeared online.

G&M: What a ‘majority’ says

Letter to the Globe & Mail (October 3, 2018) The Coalition Avenir Québec won a majority – 74 of 125 seats – in Monday’s election, but the results are a far cry from voters rejecting old-line Liberals and the Parti Québécois. Indeed, the Liberals and PQ together amassed some 41 per cent of the popular vote, more than the about 37 per cent garnered by the CAQ, which won just two ridings in Montreal. If anything, the election demonstrated again the “tyranny of the plurality” in the first-past-the-post system, which not only wastes the votes of many people, but also makes possible inane outcomes. It is time to incorporate some element of PR in our electoral system. Kai L. Chan, Montreal Article as it appeared online. © Copyright 2018 The Globe and Mail Inc. All rights reserved.

Smart robots set to test management skills

Published in MEED 30 SEPTEMBER 2018 11:58 AM In the second part of our series on managing intelligent machines, Aiowala’s Kai Chan looks at the challenges faced in creating a thriving AI ecosystem in the Gulf. Link to article (requires subscription). Click here for full article. © MEED MEDIA FZ LLC Company number 18693 (Dubai Creative Clusters Authority) Registered address: C/O GlobalData Plc., John Carpenter House, 7 Carmelite Street, London, EC4Y 0BS, UK  

PAW: Living in Dubai

A letter to the Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW) IN RESPONSE TO: VOICES: ‘A DEEPLY INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE’ There are many misconceptions and a general lack of knowledge of the Middle East by those outside of the region. It was thus refreshing to read Paulette Singley *98's take on her experience at the American University of Sharjah. I spent over five years in Dubai, having recently relocated (back) to Canada. Though the UAE -- of which Sharjah and Dubai are among the seven emirates that make up the federation -- are remarkably different than the rest of the Middle East, living there definitely opened my eyes to gain a better appreciation of that part of the world. Although there are serious issues in the neighboring countries, the UAE, and in particular Dubai, is a modern and liberal society with a highly diverse population that also counts a thriving Princeton alumni community. In my time in Dubai, there was no shortage of boozy parties or women dressed in seductive clothing. Most ironically, and a testament to the diversity and dynamism of the UAE, is that I now play less ice hockey and at a lower level while living in the Mecca of hockey (Montreal)…

Staying ahead of smart robots

STAYING AHEAD OF SMART ROBOTS Published in MEED Business Review Sep 2018 With the advent of artificial intelligence, managers will need to learn how to oversee smart machines. Click here for full article. © MEED MEDIA FZ LLC  

Parlez-vous polyglotte?

Isabelle Paré, 24 août 2018 (Le Devoir) Ici, on se brûle la langue régulièrement. La partie de sumo à laquelle se livrent le français et l’anglais sur le ring cosmopolite de Montréal figure toujours, pour tout politicien sensé, en haut du palmarès des sujets à fuir comme la peste en campagne électorale. Là où la polémique du « Bonjour-Hi » est devenue une affaire d’État, le sujet fait invariablement exploser le baromètre de la sensibilité collective et fait l’effet du poil à gratter sur le délicat équilibre du vivre ensemble. Mieux vaut donc tourner sept fois l’organe de l’élocution avant de causer diversité linguistique. Or, il en est que la dualité linguistique n’égratigne pas, ou prou, voire ennuie comme un cheveu sur la langue par sa banalité. Toute une délégation d’ici et d’ailleurs converge cette semaine vers Montréal, une légion entière de poly-amoureux des langues qui auraient volontiers vendu leurs chemises pour être nés aux temps bibliques et se faire citoyens de la tour de Babel. Nouba polyglotte Montréal accueille ces jours-ci le LangFest, un rendez-vous qui réunit pour la première fois dans la métropole des polyglottes du monde entier, des athlètes de la diphtongue qui collectionnent les langues comme d’autres les…

LangFest: Interview with Dr Kai Chan

The below is an interview I did for the 2018 edition of LangFest (a polyglot conference) in Montreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM-2-xtowvs Bio: Dr Kai L. Chan is a Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD. Previously he was a special adviser to the UAE federal government on competitiveness and statistics, where he focused on that country's positioning on global performance indices. Prior to his stint in the UAE, Dr Chan served as an associate and the in-house economist for a consumer finance merchant banking firm in Manhattan. Before that, he worked in the Singapore office of a global management consulting firm. Chan’s expertise/research cover education, income distribution, migration, government & policy, and performance measurement. He is the creator of the Power Language Index, Gender Progress Index, and Intelligence Capital Index. Dr Chan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto and PhD from Princeton University. Kai grew up in Toronto, Canada, but currently resides in Montreal. He speaks English, French, Cantonese, Mandarin and German, and is currently learning Russian. Copyright 2018 - LangFest.org