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Category: Academia

Three OECD Pieces Worth Reading

I spent Friday morning with a delegation of University Vice-Presidents at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s offices in Paris, discussing a variety of issues pertinent to Canadian higher education. As we ranged across a variety of topics, I realized I had fallen behind on my think-tank reading, because there were a few really important papers discussed that I had not read. I took some time over the weekend to read three of them and thought I would

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May 6, 2024 1 Comment

Research Outcome and Impact Data

Every couple of years I do a piece looking at how Canadian institutions compare in terms of research output and impact using data from the CWTS Leiden Rankings, which happen to be the most transparent system of bibliometric research rankings out there. It’s that time again. So, just to remind people what the CWTS Leiden ranking actually is: the good folks who do scientometrics at the University of Leiden annually put together a wide variety of bibliometrics measures for about

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April 30, 2024 1 Comment

Administration vs. Academia

If there is one thing that unites academics, it is cynicism about university administration. To outsiders, this seems weird, because senior university administrators are, with relatively few exceptions, actually academics themselves. Many, in fact, return to faculty ranks after finishing their term. So why are these two sides always seen as being so drastically opposed? Here’s my hypothesis. Members of the Senior Administration are the interface between academia and the non-academic world. Academics expect senior administrators to explain to the

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March 26, 2024 5 Comments

“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education” with Brian Rosenberg

 Hello, I’m Alex Usher, and this is the World of Higher Education podcast. One paradox of higher education that holds more or less true around the world is that while universities are charged with inventing the future, pushing boundaries, and aspiring contrarian and sometimes radical ideas, they’re also extremely conservative when it comes to their own affairs. Change does not come naturally to them anywhere in the world. Today my guest is Brian Rosenberg, a former president of Macalester University

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January 18, 2024 1 Comment

Presidential Salaries, Redux

Every once in a while I write a piece comparing the salaries of Canadian University Presidents with the salaries of University Presidents in other countries (see here, here and here). These are always some of my least-liked pieces because what I write does not fit with people’s prejudices. Get faculty—or students, or the general public for that matter—started on what ails Canadian universities, and eventually the subject of “crazy Presidential salaries” gets mentioned. Even without looking at the data in

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January 15, 2024 5 Comments
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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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