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Category: Canada

Coronavirus (20) – So, that Student Support Package

If there is one thing that unites the higher education community right now, it is the fact that we are all so, so, tired.  One thing after another.  And yesterday, just as I was thinking about what nice non-coronavirus story I could tell you, the feds dropped a $9 billion program to support students through COVID.  So naturally, this here is your explainer. The comms on this are a bit of a mess, but basically, this initiative has four pillars,

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April 23, 2020 7 Comments

Coronavirus (13) – Virus Federalism

Though the national media has dealt gingerly with the subject, the fact is that this pandemic is playing out very differently across the country.  Ontario and Quebec are still in full-on holy crap mode: the situation is bad, no two ways about it.  Not Italy bad, but bad enough.  But away from Central Canada, it’s a very different story, as this graph from Tuesday’s Globe and Mail shows. Look at BC, where despite proximity to the early outbreak hub of Seattle, new daily cases

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April 8, 2020 No Comments

Coronavirus (4) – “Moving Online”

One of the most annoying things about the last couple of weeks – apart from the general collapse of civilization – has been everyone and their dog claiming they are “moving classes online”.  I really wish we had found another word for this, because if there is one thing universities and colleges are NOT doing, it is transitioning to online education. It must be especially galling if you’re, say, at Athabasca University and produce real, high-quality online content all the

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March 17, 2020 1 Comment

Coronavirus (3)

I wrote my first coronavirus post a week ago and it was about travel policies and next year’s international student intake.  We’ve come a long way in a week.  As I said on Thursday, this is probably an all-virus blog for the next bit because it’s not clear there is anything else worth writing about (though: if y’all would prefer this blog to focus on the usual miscellany because 24/7 COVID is too depressing, let me know.  I can adapt.) On Thursday, Laurentian

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March 16, 2020 1 Comment

A Tale of Two Budgets

The first two big provincial budgets of the year came from British Columbia and Alberta and they could not have been more different. To start out in Victoria, the folks in BC had a nice, tidy, almost do-nothing budget.  Grants to institutions rose by 1% – that is, slightly less than inflation – while spending on student aid rose by nearly 23%.  Some but not all of that money went to a new “BC Access Grant” which got trumpeted all over the

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March 11, 2020 2 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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