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Category: Canada

Getting A Head Start on the Next Tech Panic

One of the things that makes the “tech” industry in Canada is that it is basically not a tech industry at all.  If you look at the major publicly-traded companies in Canada which could reasonably be described as “tech”, what you see is mostly a collection of e-commerce platforms plus some enterprise software companies.  We have a few equipment makers (Sierra Wireless, Evertz, Photon) whose annual revenues combined are smaller than York University’s budget.  And there’s Ballard, which is in

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January 12, 2021 No Comments

Whales

One of the weirdest thing about Canadian tech policy (insofar as we have one) is the obsession with Canadian “champions”.   Whenever a promising company – say Verafin, or Element AI – gets sold to a foreign (mainly American) buyer, there is always much wailing and gnashing of teeth about Canada being “unable to compete”.    The idea seems to be that unless we have big behemoth players striding the globe, we are not a serious tech country.  It’s not entirely clear why competitiveness should

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January 6, 2021 3 Comments

Best Higher Ed Books of 2020

Around this time of year, I always do a “Higher Ed Books of the Year” (usual caveat: these are books I happened to read in a year, not books which appeared in a year, though obviously there is some overlap).  This year, I did a mid-year “Best Books” in June, so today’s post will focus on my reading over the last six months but end with a books of the year countdown including all twelve months.  (If you’re interested, I have my

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December 9, 2020 1 Comment

Ontario’s PBF System: Odds, Ends and Contradictions

Yesterday, we looked at some of the math behind Ontario’s new funding system, and how a system which is allegedly “60% performance-based funding” will at most result in about $15 million, or 0.4%, of funding re-allocated in some way.  But there are still more oddities to explore. One of my favourite foibles about this funding system is how it seems to have been constructed one element at a time, with no overall strategic intent.  For instance: the main goal of the enrolment-based

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December 3, 2020 2 Comments

Ontario’s PBF System: Much Ado About Nothing

Morning all.  Last week, the Government of Ontario published all the new Strategic Mandate Agreements (SMAs) that it signed with the province’s 40-odd universities and colleges.  Included in each of these documents were key information around the “Revolutionary” Performance-Based Funding system announced in April 2019.  This was important first because it confirmed the indicators in use (in the entire 20 months since the PBF was announced, the government never publicly stated what the indicators would be: appallingly, everything we have known about

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December 2, 2020 2 Comments

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One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.

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