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Category: Data

Historical Higher Education Data-Palooza Part 3

So it seems a lot of you were pretty interested in last week’s data fest and in particular this graph (of which I am inordinately proud, ‘cos damn it took some work). Figure 1: Total Government Transfers to Institutions by Source and Type, Canada, 1955-56 to 2020-21, in millions of $2022. The big story here is that institutional income in post-secondary education has grown much faster from 1999 onwards than it did at any time in the preceding 30 years. 

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April 17, 2023 1 Comment

Historical Higher Ed Data-Palooza Part 2

Today’s discussion might be a little less exciting than yesterday because although I now have all this cool data on finances going back to 1920, holy hell are there some difficulties coming up with way to provide a unified data series through that period.  So, apologies, but you’re in for some long parenthetical statements on methodology. The main reason I was looking for historical data in the first place was that I was trying to resolve a long-standing puzzle around

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April 12, 2023 3 Comments

Historical Higher Ed Data-Palooza (Part 1)

I found some great data yesterday! It turns out that when Statscan murders a data series, it sometimes leaves traces of the old corpse on its website.  Not anywhere you can find it through normal keyword searches or anything, but if you can find yourself an old CANSIM table number (ask your stat nerd grandparents, kids) you might just be able to dig up some truly interesting data.  Yesterday I managed to find so much historical data on Canadian higher

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April 11, 2023 2 Comments

International Women’s Day 2023

Today is a statistical overview for International Women’s Day. Let’s start by looking at student numbers.  Figure 1 gives us the long view on female participation in universities (sorry college folks: Statscan data for your sector is a mess prior to the 1990s).  Women represented about 20% of university students from the 1920s to the mid-1950s, apart from the years during World War 2.  Starting around 1955, women’s share of total enrolments began a steady climb.  By 1989, women passed

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March 8, 2023 No Comments

Three Takes on the Latest Ontario Universities Applications Data

The Ontario High School Application numbers dropped last week, and I thought it would be worth a quick tour of the data.  Two things first: First: I know folks from outside Ontario get cheesed off about the way I keep banging on about Ontario numbers, but here’s the thing: the rest of y’all don’t publish your data.  I cannot write about hidden data: sorry. Second: speaking of hidden data, the Ontario Universities Application Centre, for extremely flimsy reasons, has stopped

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January 26, 2023 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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