The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Blogs

Focus Friday: January 23, 2026

Hi everyone, Tiffany here. A quick reminder that Focus Friday is happening today, January 23, from 12:30-1:30pm Eastern. Coming off our last Focus Friday community chat, one theme came through loud and clear: many institutions are grappling with shifting provincial politics and what those dynamics mean for governance, funding, autonomy, and long-term planning. So, this week, we wanted to spend some time digging into that relationship more directly. To do that, I’ve invited a true expert, HESA’s President, Alex Usher,

Read More »
January 23, 2026 No Comments

Authentic Universities: Choosing What Not to Be

University missions are tricky things to enunciate. From the point of view of many faculty, people who have reached their position by dint of their excellence in a specific field, tend not to view their employer’s main mission as one of providing a platform for their discipline. Understandably, this is not how local publics view things – they tend to look for something more externally-focused. Yet when institutions try to enunciate something beyond disciplines, for many it tends to feel odd or inauthentic.

Read More »
January 22, 2026 No Comments

How Bad is Student/Youth Unemployment These Days?

Interesting question. It’s a tricky answer. Let’s dive in. Let’s start by looking at the issue of unemployment – that is, the percentage of people who are in the labour market but do not have work (i.e. it excludes people who aren’t interested). Figure 1 shows unemployment rates for full-time students and non-students aged 20-24 for the past fifty years (I exclude part-time students because they are an odd and heterogenous grouping).  Figure 1: Unemployment Rates during School Months for

Read More »
January 21, 2026 2 Comments

Farewell Cakeism, Welcome Trade-offs, Effectiveness and Efficiencies

Arguably the worst thing that has happened to western society over the past few decades has been the rise of cakeism. Though he hardly invented the idea, the doctrine is linked to former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, through his repeated use of the phrase “my policy on cake is pro-having it and pro-eating it”. Basically, it’s the ideology of pretending trade-offs never need to be made.   I’ve recently mentioned one example of cakeism in action, namely the proposal published

Read More »
January 20, 2026 No Comments

The Three Meanings of Tenure

It has become apparent to me recently that not everyone understands the term “tenure” in quite the same way. Basically, the misunderstanding comes down to this: is tenure a very limited term which is specifically related to protections related to academic freedom? Or does it refer to the entirety of job protections that professors have acquired over the years, many of which are not related to academic freedom? The quick answer is that strictly speaking, it’s the former, but colloquially,

Read More »
January 19, 2026 2 Comments

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...