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Title: Pac-Man and Lazy Fatalism: Why Global Education’s Acquisition Frenzy Is Colliding With Economic Reality

United States, 18th Mar 2026 — The global education sector is entering a more competitive and economically complex phase as student demand tightens, affordability pressures increase, and capital continues to pursue aggressive expansion across international education markets.Education strategist Elaina Cohen warns that many institutional growth strategies still reflect assumptions from a previous era—one characterized by expanding student mobility, rising middle classes, and steadily growing enrollment pipelines.“Institutional brand alone is no longer sufficient,” Cohen said. “The global education market is becoming far more competitive, and strategies built for expansion cycles will not necessarily sustain institutions in the decade ahead.”Across many developed economies, the number of school-age students is beginning to level off or decline as birth rates fall below replacement levels in numerous countries. While demographic change is only one factor shaping the education market, it is tightening the overall pipeline of potential students.“We are all fishing in the same pool,” Cohen said. “And the pool is not expanding the way many institutions assumed it would.”Yet capital continues to move aggressively through the sector.Cohen argues that the pattern increasingly resembles a Pac-Man dynamic, with institutions rapidly acquiring schools across markets under the assumption that scale itself guarantees stability.“That mindset can become a form of lazy fatalism,” she said. “It assumes that if you acquire enough schools, demand will somehow materialize.”“But unlike the arcade game, the board does not refill.”Demand Is Redistributing Rather Than ExpandingWhile traditional education markets across Europe, East Asia, and parts of North America face slowing student growth, you...

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