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Category: Canada

Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, 2005-2026

Two weeks ago, the Government of Ontario tabled Bill 101, the Putting Student Achievement First Act, 2026. Appended to this Act, which mostly deals with K-12 education, is a completely unrelated schedule, which abolishes the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO). The backgrounder to the bill blandly says that  “(in order)…to reduce duplication and administrative burden, the government is proposing to absorb the accountability and performance mandate of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario into the ministry through this legislation.”

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April 27, 2026 No Comments

Not the Traveling Wilburys

Late last week, two Ontario colleges—St. Lawrence College ( in Kingston, with a substantial presence in Cornwall and Brockville) and Sir Sandford Fleming (in Peterborough)—announced their intent to “integrate as equal partners.” Many people (including me) at first thought that meant the two schools were merging. However, on closer reading of the announcement, I am not sure this is quite the case. Let me quote here from the quite extraordinary announcement: “We are committed to ensuring that students have the

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April 14, 2026 2 Comments

CAUT Bulletin, 1963

About a month ago, I was doing one of my absolute favourite things in the entire world, which was browsing the shelves of Amy’s Used Books in Amherst, Nova Scotia (IYKYK) for old books on higher education. I picked up a simply ludicrous amount of loot there – the entire back-list of the Bulletin of the International Association of Universities from the 1960s to the 1980s, a copy of José Ortega y Gasset’s The Mission of the University, bound background papers to the Hurtubise/Rowat

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April 8, 2026 3 Comments

Comparative Crises

If you pay attention to higher education news from around the anglosphere, you may be under the impression that we are “all in it together”: that is, all suffering, in particular, from the loss of international student funding because of a variety of government policies discouraging them. But is it true? Well, no. We are not all in it together. Canada – thanks to the galactic incompetence of the federal government in general, and former immigration Marc Miller in particular

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March 31, 2026 No Comments

The Awkward Phase

It’s been interesting for us sitting around the edges of the new relationship between the federal government and the post-secondary community around security issues and watching two sides size each other up. Today, some thoughts on the matter and suggestions to speed up the process. So, let’s start with the internal challenges the two sides have in forging a relationship. On the Government of Canada side, it’s very much the case that the various players in the game are not on

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March 17, 2026 No 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.

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