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Category: Canada

That Future Skills Council Paper

Last week, the Future Skills Council released a document called “Canada – A Learning Nation: A Skilled, Agile Workforce Ready to Shape the Future”.  I thought we should delve into it early in the week before we all get too tired.  So here goes: For starters, we should be clear about who is releasing this.  This is the Future Skills Council (a group of worthies from across the country who advise the Minister of Employment and Social Development on…things…) and not the Future Skills Centre (the

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November 30, 2020 1 Comment

The University of Calgary’s New Strategic Plan

Back to Alberta.  I know, some of you may be sick of me talking about Alberta, but a) it’s the most interesting policy scene in Canada right now and b) this is how the rest of the country feels when I talk about Ontario, so fair’s fair.  Back, specifically, to the University of Calgary, which has – in response to significant government cutbacks and government complaints about the province’s universities being unresponsive to changing economic priorities, more or less decided

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November 24, 2020 2 Comments

Governing Boards, Singular and Plural

Last week’s blogs (here and here) about the Alberta Vision 2030 plan seem to have been quite popular.  The one topic I received the most mail about was the governance piece and the idea of putting multiple institutions under a single Board, which seemed to confuse a lot of people.  So I thought I would take this morning to run a little class on what the many American experiments in system governance have to teach us (and make no mistake, the model

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November 16, 2020 1 Comment

How’s the Alberta PSE Re-Think Going? (Part 2)

Yesterday, I discussed the mechanics of the Alberta 2030 report that McKinsey is producing.  Today, I want to talk about where the review seems to be heading.  One kind soul provided me with a briefing paper of a recent roundtable which highlights “Emerging Goals” that are coming out of the exercise.  Allow me to summarize: The document suggests four “big goals” (Improve Access & Strengthen the Student Experience, Develop Skills for Jobs, Strengthen Innovation and Commercialization, Improve Internationalization) and two “enablers”

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November 11, 2020 1 Comment

How’s the Alberta PSE Re-Think Going? (Part 1)

You may remember that in the Spring, that Government of Alberta signed a contract with McKinsey to conduct a big review of Post-Secondary Education in the province.  I want to check in on how that’s going.  Today, I’ll look at the process; tomorrow I’ll look at what conclusions the government (or McKinsey – it’s hard to tell) is coming to.  Ready?  Then I’ll begin. Based on the Request for Proposals the province released back at the start of this process in March

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November 10, 2020 No 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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