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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.
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Garbage In, Garbage Out: Nova Scotia Edition (Part 1)
You may have heard of the program costing exercise (as part of an Academic Program Review) that the government of Nova Scotia has foisted on the institutions in that province. Today, I am going to go through how the exercise is being conducted as well as a few ways in
The Fifteen: May 15, 2026
Morning everyone. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in global higher education, with a lot of countries dealing with very similar issues. I’m not just talking about the canvas hack here: we also have a lot of action on culling academic programs and dealing with issues in student dormitories.
How IDP Sees the Next Era of International Education
Student mobility is big business. Behind the process of getting students to apply to and then attend a university or college thousands of miles away from home is an industry that’s worth billions of dollars a year. And one of the OGs of that industry is a company called IDP,
Lectures, Essays, Genies, and Bottles
A couple of weeks ago, the Times Higher Education printed a kind of farewell interview with the University of Waterloo’s outgoing President Vivek Goel. Like many THE interviews of this nature, it’s a bit of an odd duck, spending half the time explaining to a global audience who this person is and why they and
The Country 100 Ranking
You may have seen a spate of headlines recently, such as this one in University Affairs, about how Canada is considered #5 globally in terms of higher education according to a new “Country 100” ranking done some outfit called Measures HE. Cue minor celebrations: woo woo! Someone thinks we are top ten! Etc. The troublemakers who make up
Everybody Hates John Tibbits
Note: I am writing this piece early on Friday morning, the day after this story broke. It is possible some details may have emerged over the weekend to render some aspects of this blog incorrect. Apologies if so. On Thursday, the government of Ontario dismissed the Board of Governors at
Focus Friday: May 8
Good morning everyone, Tiffany here. Just a reminder that Focus Friday is today at 12:30-1:30pm Eastern! Joining me today is Pat Lougheed from Plaid Analytics for what I think will be a really fun conversation on data myth busting in higher education. Across the sector, we spend a lot of time talking about being
Universities, Colonialism, and Indigenous Knowledge in Australia
Dhoombak Goobgoowana can be translated as “truth-telling” in the Woi Wurrung language of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people from the unceded area now known as Melbourne, Australia. It’s also the name of the recently published two-volume work on Indigenous Australia and the University of Melbourne. The books are an extraordinary
Canadian Research vs. German Research
Hi all. I’m in Germany this week along with the members of our University Vice-Presidents Network having a blast networking with German institutions and hearing from some of the sharpest commentators on the German higher education scene, including Frank Ziegele, author of one of my favourite books of 2025, Authentic
2026 Provincial Budgets
Last Wednesday, Newfoundland and Labrador became the tenth province to deliver its budget, and that means it’s time for my annual review of provincial budgets. Spoiler: while it’s the usual mixed bag across most provinces, Ontario is the epicentre of this year’s stories. And not in a bad way. Let’s
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