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Author: Alex Usher

Labour Relations, February 2022

I’m not sure how one measures the state of labour relations in a given field, but since we are on the fifth major university strike of the year (Manitoba and Concordia University Edmonton have settled; Acadia, Lethbridge and Ontario Tech are ongoing), I am pretty sure no one will object if I say that 2021-22 is the worst year Canadian academia has ever had.  A perfectly reasonable question is: why is it all kicking off now? If you look at

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February 17, 2022 6 Comments

The Opposition to Micro-credentials

Following yesterday’s piece on developments in micro-credentials, I want to address what I see as the back-lash against them.  I see theoretical and the practical objections emerging. The theoretical charge against micro-credentials is led by OISE’s Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moodie, who recently penned Gig qualifications for the gig economy: micro-credentials and the ‘hungry mile’ in the journal Higher Education.  As the catchy title suggests, it does not mince words.  According to them, micro-credentials: “contribute to the privatisation of education

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February 16, 2022 1 Comment

The Evolution of Micro-credentials and Short Courses

It has been about a year since I last took a look at micro-credentials and I want discuss how I see things evolving in this space. The most important thing to note is that there remains a massive disconnect between those people who think micro-credentials are building blocks towards credentials – that is, that they should be courses or groups of courses which are both independently coherent and can build towards larger “macro-credentials” like a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree, and

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February 15, 2022 6 Comments

Higher Education Funding in Oil-Dependent Jurisdictions

I was fooling around this weekend with some data on public higher education funding for HESA’s forthcoming publication World Higher Education: Institutions, Students, Finances.  For the most part, the report’s data shows that funding around the world continues to increase, but not always enough to offset student number growth or inflation.  It’s not flashy growth, but it is fairly consistent. There are three significant exceptions: Indonesia, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, all of them OPEC members.  In these countries have recently

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February 14, 2022 1 Comment

Cui bono?

Who owns universities?  It seems like a simple question but it’s actually deviously complex. Some universities have actual owners: globally, about two-thirds of higher-education institutions are technically private, through there is some dispute how to count institutions which are not state-owned but accept state money as operating grants (in Canada, this would include McGill).  Most analyses make a distinction between for-profit and not-for-profit institutions, and that is a useful distinction in some respects: for-profits are never particularly reputable, whereas in

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February 10, 2022 1 Comment

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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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