Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

With Ramadan now underway, a pattern has become clear.

Muslims in Asia are celebrating the Holy Month in much the usual way, praying, fasting, and feasting together.

We ask why Asian leaders find it so hard to enact and enforce lockdown policies.

And counting a population is practically impossible without a proper census.

In North Macedonia, one was abandoned and one is being delayed,

so it's unclear whether the Balkan country has a million and a half people

or a third more than that.

First up, though. Many universities in Britain and America were already set for a difficult year.

Now, COVID-19 has hit finances hard.

Yesterday, the British government dismissed a two-billion-pound bailout

request from universities for research funding, offering instead to help just with tuition.

Across the Atlantic, the American Council on Education believes revenues in higher education

will decline by $23 billion over the next academic year.

For the one-third of American universities operating with deficits, that will make a precarious financial position dire.

With students sent packing and classes shifted online indefinitely, it's becoming clear that

not all institutions will make it through the pandemic.

McMurray College has a very long and colorful history.

Beverly Rogers is president of McMurray College in Illinois.

It was begun as a college where women could learn more about politics in the state and those types of things.

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