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Category: Funding and Finances

Arresting Decline

As I noted yesterday, the Canadian post-secondary sector seems to be in a deep public funding rut. We’re in the 12th year of flat budgets, and no political party – whether in government or opposition – seems inclined to reverse this.  What to do?   Well, in the strategic planning business, the first thing you look for are goals.  The second thing you look for are barriers to those goals.  So, let’s try that out by confronting why no government wants to

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October 22, 2020 3 Comments

Canadian University Expenditures, 2018-19

Ok, after nine years of this blog, you all know the drill.  Yesterday was about university income trends, so that means today covers expenditures.  Let’s start by looking at expenditures by type.  Universities are labour-intensive places, with 59% of total expenditures devoted to compensation of one sort or another (if we were to look just at operating expenditures, it would be higher).  About 10% goes into new buildings, building renovations, utilities and general upkeep.  Another ten percent is devoted “buying stuff” (materials,

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October 14, 2020 No Comments

Canadian University Income, 2018-19

This year’s regular data release from the Financial Information of Universities and Colleges was delayed by about three months this year due to the pandemic, but it was released late last week. (This data does not actually include community colleges – that’s a separate survey that doesn’t get published for another few months, so sorry in advance for the university-centric material) As usual, I have a two-parter today and tomorrow to discuss the results, one on income and one on expenditure. 

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October 13, 2020 No Comments

Student Loans and Income Tax Systems

Last week, I blogged about my disappointment with the Throne Speech.  However, I left out one really promising thing; namely, the idea that it would make possible free, automatic tax filing for simple returns to ensure citizens receive the benefits they need.  This is good, but in some ways insufficiently ambitions.  They should go further and fully modernize the system to make possible the collection of loans through the income tax system and thus make possible a more fully income-contingent loan

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October 5, 2020 3 Comments

Fall 2020 International Round-Up: Netherlands

Here’s a headline you don’t see every day: “Dutch aim to Stop Academics Working at Weekends”.  I hope Times Higher Education won’t mind me filching the opening paragraph, which is something: Academics should not be forced to squeeze their research into weekends and holidays, according to the Dutch education minister, who admitted that pressure on some researchers had become intolerable and that professional competition had gone “too far”. Well, now.  What to make of this? Let’s start with a refresher on Dutch higher

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September 24, 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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