Prof. Marginson from Oxford University visited Luxembourg this week and spoke with Lisa at length on a variety of topics around education and geopolitics.

Sasha Kehoe kicks off the show with the weekly reflection of global news stories. Prof. Marginson joins us with his own perspectives having lived in the U.K. for the last decade, but also having visited New Caledonia, French territory, which is relatively close to his homeland of Australia (closer than France anyhow).

Simon Marginson is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Oxford, Director of the ESRC/RE Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), Joint Editor-in-Chief of Higher Education, and a Professorial Associate of the Melbourne Centre for Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. Simon’s research is focused primarily on global and international higher education, higher education in East Asia, global science, and the contributions of higher education.

In this conversation we start with his own personal experience of potentially being drafted into the Vietnam war as a student in Australia. Simon spent his first degree deeply embedded in student politics and journalism. His route to becoming a Professor at Oxford was nonsequitous. Prof. Marginson's academic career was sparked by a highly acclaimed Ph.D. which he completed, part-time, over 8 years.

And nowadays, Prof. Marginson is as deeply motivated to connecting global dots to observe the changing face of higher education across the world as he ever was.

On how one gets to Oxford, the answer is sheer hard work. There are no short-cuts to brilliance. The students he looks for will be self-driven, extremely well-read and come with their own ideas.

We discuss a range of topics including the open-source intrinsic nature of science research, and how that has been reshaped and blocked by political decisions; the rise of south-east Asian universities in global rankings. Indeed what even are global university rankings and do they matter? Where does the superpower Russia sit in today's university picture?

For those of us based in Luxembourg, what is his view on European universities who don't seem to sit that high up on the university league tables - why is this?

How do universities serve the common good? Is the cost worth the effort?

As always, I would love to have your feedback on the good and bad of your university experience.

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Tune in to The Lisa Burke Show on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon and Tuesdays at 10am.