Businesses have a pretty good way of knowing when to offer more or less of a good. It’s encapsulated in the equation MC = MR, and shown in the graphic below. Briefly, in the production of any good, unit-costs fall to start with as the benefits of economies of scale start to rise. Eventually, however, if production is expanded far enough you get diseconomies of scale, and the marginal cost begins to rise. Where the
I see that one of my favourite student groups, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Association (OUSA), has come out in favour of a tuition freeze. Fair enough; not many students endorse fee increases, after all. But the stated rationale for wanting one is a bit disappointing – mixing, as it does, poor historical analysis with poor generational politics. Here’s their thinking: In 1980, student contributions to university operating budgets in Ontario, which include tuition and fees, were only 18 per cent. In 2014, accounting
Short answer: not really, no. But judging by this Chronicle Herald article last week entitled “Eliminating Tuition Fees would Buoy Bluenose Economy“, bad ideas die hard. So let’s think this one through. As I wrote back here, there are basically four ways to lower tuition or reduce student debt. Government can raise taxes to pay for it, borrow to pay for it, re-allocate spending to pay for it, or reduce the cost of educational provision (i.e., cut spending on equipment and salaries). If you
Morning all. Regular service will pushed back one week to January 10th, but I couldn’t let the Globe op-ed “Southern Ontario Should be an Innovation Cluster, Not a Farm Team” by three Ontario university presidents (McMaster’s Patrick Deane, Toronto’s Meric Gertler, and Waterloo’s Feridun Hamdullahpur) go without comment. The article reads like someone set out to fill a buzzword bingo card. Words like “supercluster”, “resilient”, “enhancing interaction”, “external connectivity”, “cluster-building infrastructure”, and “entrepreneurship ecosystem” all duly make an appearance; hell, there’s even a
So the OECD’s Education at a Glance was published yesterday. It’s taken a couple of months longer than usual because of the need to convert into the new International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) system. No, don’t ask; it’s better not to know. I won’t say there’s a whole lot new in this issue that will be of interest to PSE-types. One point of note is that Statscan has – for no obvious or stated reason – substantially restated Canadian expenditure
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