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Category: Funding and Finances

Laurentian Blues (7) – The Process

Last week, the Laurentian University Senate met in a bizarre closed-door session to approve a package of cuts, the details of which are still mostly unknown.  On the basis of this, quite a number of people received termination notices at Laurentian University yesterday.  I have not seen any definitive numbers on losses (the university, typical of its entire approach through this crisis, is being crap at communicating actual information), but I have seen estimates of anywhere between 80 and 110

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April 13, 2021 11 Comments

Laurentian Blues (6) – The Model

Most of what we know about the Laurentian affair suggests that it is sui generis, but some people insist on turning it into an exemplar of broader trend: not so much a “who’s next” as a “there but for the grace of God go all of us” (or, as a recent podcast had it: is Laurentian the “canary in the nickel mine”?).  Basically, this argument suggests that Laurentian is not really at fault, but rather a victim of “the Ontario

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March 8, 2021 4 Comments

Laurentian Blues (5) – Money & Governance

Good morning all.  Last week, in the course of writing a series on Laurentian University, I ran a feature comparing accumulated annual deficits at various Canadian universities.  I stand by what I wrote in it.  However, it has been drawn to my intention that people may have been overly influenced by the blog title (“who’s next?”) and not enough by the text itself, which was more cautious in drawing conclusions – if this is the case, I regret that.  Also, some

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February 16, 2021 6 Comments

Laurentian Blues (4) – Who is Next?

Note: since the publication of this post, Concordia University and St. Thomas University have provided responses disagreeing with the assessment of this post. Click the university names above to read their respective positions. So, the mixed metaphor I keep hearing is that Laurentian is the canary in the coal mine, and there must be other dominoes ready to fall.  And people seem to assume I know who is next.  In fact, my priors are that there are probably not any

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February 9, 2021 1 Comment

What People Are Complaining About When They Complain About Performance-Based Funding

If you are a faithful reader of this blog, you’ll know I am not a big fan of the Performance-Based Funding (PBF) systems being developed by the governments of Alberta and Ontario (though the latter is a bit less hopeless than the former).  But unlike many who oppose these initiatives, I don’t think PBF is a bad idea in principle: I’ve written quite extensively about why they’re a good idea, at least when designed correctly.  Today I want to talk about

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January 19, 2021 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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