Author: Alex Usher

Yawn

So, did anything happen last night? Kidding.  Of course it didn’t.  We’re in for another minority parliament led by Liberals who will claim to have listened to Canadians, look to make Parliament work, etc. right up until the moment, 18-24 months from now, when they go back to the polls yet again looking for a majority.  So, what does this mean for policy in Canada and specifically our favourite areas of higher education, science and innovation?  Well, I don’t think

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Education at a Glance 2021

On Thursday, the OECD released its annual Education at a Glance report.  I always do a blog post about these, even though, let’s face it, very little changes annually.  But I have zero desire to talk about this godforsaken election anymore, so this seems like a welcome opportunity to change the subject a bit. Let’s start with Figure 1, tertiary attainment rates, where Canada always performs well.  This shows Canada as having one of the highest tertiary attainment rates in

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Interpreting the Manifesto Commitments

Morning all.  Today’s the day where I try to sum up and compare what the various parties are promising in different areas and what that likely means for the sector.  For greater detail on individual party platforms for PSE, you may wish to consult the previous analyses: Conservative, NDP, Liberal and Green. Let’s start with the issue of transfers to provinces.  In previous years, but particularly in the two decades following the major cutbacks embedded in the Liberal government’s 1995

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Student Debt Update 2021

Back in early July, the Canadian Undergraduate Survey Consortium (CUSC) released its triennial survey of graduating students.  As always, one of the most interesting things in there is the data on student debt, because it is one of the few good, up-to-date national snapshots that we have of the issue.  There are some limitations to the snapshot.  It doesn’t report out on a provincial basis, only a national one.  It doesn’t really include Quebec.  The sample in the survey is

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2021 PSE Election Manifestos – The Liberal Party

This is the fourth and final election manifesto analysis of this godforsaken election.  You can find previous analyses of the Conservative Party platform here, the New Democratic Party platform here and the absolute flaming garbage fire of a Green Party platform here.  I am not doing the Bloc because their platform is “Ottawa should go pound sand” (for which I have some sympathy, but it doesn’t make for a good blog post), and I don’t do the PPC because their

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