Comments for HESA

Comment on New Possibilities in African Higher Education by New Possibilities in African Higher Education | HESA | Cross Border Higher Education | Scoop.it

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:07:28 +0000

[...] higheredstrategy.com – Today, 10:07 AM [...]

Comment on Those Statscan Cutbacks by Alex Usher

Alex Usher — Mon, 14 May 2012 07:06:39 +0000

Hi Jim. Thanks for reading our stuff.

The latter would obviously be preferable but in the context of general fiscal restraint I’m not sure any agency, no matter how excellent, could have avoided cutbacks in this budget. As a result, the issue is more about how you adjust to lower budgets than it is cuts v. no cuts.

The point of my post here was to say that from the stories available in the media at the time of writing (and I haven’t followed up on this since, so I don;t really know if it is true or not), the cuts seemed to be falling not so much on the excellent analytical staff as it was on the data collection side, where performance was perhaps not quite so excellent. Which suggests that Statscan management might in fact be thinking at least a little bit strategically, no?

Comment on Those Statscan Cutbacks by Jim Clark

Jim Clark — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:06:01 +0000

Given your specialty purports to include “strategy” (or at least it figures prominently in your name), what are your thoughts about the following two strategies: (1) cutting back an excellent organization and hoping that a better one results, versus (2) evolving a better organization and cutting back as savings permit?

Take care
Jim

Comment on Better Thinking about Access and Tuition by Pamela Walker

Pamela Walker — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:49:42 +0000

The last sentence is the most interesting. The idea that low tuition increases access for low income students and therefore is good seems to make sense. It defines the current debate in Quebec. Yet, your data suggests the relationship is not so obvious. Your last sentence asks the key question but it does not suggest the answer. I look forward to more information that does begin to answer that question in future posts.

Comment on A Moment of Clarity in Quebec by The Deal | HESA

The Deal | HESA — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:02:56 +0000

[...] very ugly battles to come. Having a debate about the kind of university system you want (which as we’ve previously said is worthwhile) is one thing; having accounts picked over by an external star chamber is [...]

Comment on How Jean Charest Could Learn to Stop Worrying and Love a Tuition Rollback by Tuition Increases | 100 REASONS

Tuition Increases | 100 REASONS — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:52:49 +0000

[...] is that opposing the tuition rates hurts the very people that it’s meant to protect. As Higher Ed Strategy points out, “between the tax credits and the grants, low-income students will be better-off [...]

Comment on What Students Pay For (II) by Ian Johnston

Ian Johnston — Sun, 06 May 2012 21:29:37 +0000

Why not set up a system where credits for a particular course are based upon demonstrated competence, with no worries about how the student acquired that competence and with no requirement that a student enrol in a university? We could, for example, have an institution with the power to grant credit (e.g., the Open University) from time to time invite member of the public to sit for examinations in a range of subjects. The students would pay a small fee to cover the costs of the examination, take the test, and, if they passed, would receive the appropriate credits. How the students prepared for the examination would be entirely up to them (the university would provide no assistance, since they would not be registered students). Some universities already grant credit in this way (i.e., by a test for competence) but there’s a catch: once the student has demonstrated her competence she has to pay the full fee for the course, just as if she had taken it, before she receives the credit.

Even if not all undergraduate courses could be adapted to fit this model, a great many could be (especially in the first two years). Such a system, incidentally, would not place any additional costs on the universities or the government. This arrangement would not be as attractive or effective for most students as attending university in the normal way, but it might significantly reduce costs. Until we divorce the ability to acquire academic credits from the need to enrol in a university, there will be no effective way to lower tuition rates, because university tuition rates are all based on a fee per credit.

Comment on Student Stereotypes in Four Graphs by Reflections: What are we modeling in higher ed and what are the goals — and states of the hearts — of students about to enter the workplace? What about our hearts?

Fri, 04 May 2012 20:16:23 +0000

[...] Student Stereotypes in Four Graphs — from higheredstrategy.com by Alex Usher [...]

Comment on Student Stereotypes in Four Graphs by Alex Usher

Alex Usher — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:51:05 +0000

@Marisa – It’s all the same sample: 2300 students in November 2010. Most of the groups are between 250 and 370 students: math/compsci is about 120.

@Kelli. The gap is about the same.

Comment on A Duty Ignored by News from the social sciences and humanities « Fedcan Blog

News from the social sciences and humanities « Fedcan Blog — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:18:35 +0000

[...] Usher wrote a blog post on the need for university faculty to be able to counsel their students on careers outside of the [...]