The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Author: Alex Usher

Fall 2021

I see some institutions are starting to make decisions about the Fall 2021 term.  Warning: my take is probably going to upset some people.  But for reasons I will describe below, I believe very strongly that Canadian PSE institutions will likely look ridiculous if they do anything other than a near-complete return to in-person teaching for the fall. I know, I know, I was one of the voices pushing ultra-caution last year.  And I know, people feel like it’s still

Read More »
February 17, 2021 4 Comments

Laurentian Blues (5) – Money & Governance

Good morning all.  Last week, in the course of writing a series on Laurentian University, I ran a feature comparing accumulated annual deficits at various Canadian universities.  I stand by what I wrote in it.  However, it has been drawn to my intention that people may have been overly influenced by the blog title (“who’s next?”) and not enough by the text itself, which was more cautious in drawing conclusions – if this is the case, I regret that.  Also, some

Read More »
February 16, 2021 6 Comments

Amateur Hour

This week, in between negotiating computer crashes, dealing with angry university finance people and the usual grind, I managed to read a new book on the history of university teaching in the United States called The Amateur Hour by Jonathan Zimmerman.  It is pretty innovative in its way: there are histories of higher education in abundance, but most of them end up being histories of institutions (or institutional types), or sociological histories of the student body, or whatever: focussing on what was

Read More »
February 11, 2021 No Comments

Newfoundland 2021 Election Manifestos

There is an election in Newfoundland on Saturday.  It’s not because the government’s term was up or it lost a confidence vote, or indeed that anyone at all actually wanted a vote.  No, it’s because Newfoundland, a province where party leadership literally changes with the season, has a rule whereby a new Premier, if brought to power by becoming leader of a party which already controls the legislature, must seek an independent mandate within 12 months.  And since Premier Andrew Furey did

Read More »
February 10, 2021 No Comments

Laurentian Blues (4) – Who is Next?

Note: since the publication of this post, Concordia University and St. Thomas University have provided responses disagreeing with the assessment of this post. Click the university names above to read their respective positions. So, the mixed metaphor I keep hearing is that Laurentian is the canary in the coal mine, and there must be other dominoes ready to fall.  And people seem to assume I know who is next.  In fact, my priors are that there are probably not any

Read More »
February 9, 2021 1 Comment

One Thought to Start Your Day

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.

Subscribe

Search Posts

Search Publications

Social Media

Linkedin Youtube Spotify

Recent Posts

More thoughts on...