Episodes

Wednesday Mar 18, 2026
Is An Examined Education Better? - Nick Cowen
Wednesday Mar 18, 2026
Wednesday Mar 18, 2026
In this episode, Alex speaks with Nick Cowen about why an “examined education” is better than an unexamined one. Drawing on his paper, Nick argues that exams are valuable not just as external assessments but as opportunities for students to test themselves, build confidence, develop resilience, and discover what they actually know rather than what they merely think they know.
References
- “An Examined Education” — Nick Cowen https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6261178
- The Theory of Moral Sentiments — Adam Smith https://a.co/d/0iSQvp4l
- “Why I Am Not a Conservative” — F. A. Hayek https://press.uchicago.edu/books/excerpt/2011/hayek_constitution.html
- Graduate premium in the UK and debates over higher education quality https://theskillsagenda.substack.com/p/a-declining-graduate-premium
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