The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Funding and Finances

The Shifting Cost-base of Ontario’s Higher Education System

Today, I want to talk about a massive shift in the higher education cost base that has gone largely unremarked but had huge implications for institutions across the country. Let’s start by looking at Ontario undergraduate application statistics for 2020, the preliminary version of which came out a couple of weeks ago.  Figure 1 shows very little change from last year in terms of the big four application areas.  STEM is down a tad, but nothing to write home about

Read More »
February 10, 2020 1 Comment

Counter-intuitive Faculty Salary Data

I haven’t taken a good look at faculty salary data in about three years, so it seems about time to catch up on what’s going on out there.  Let’s jump right in. Here’s the big headline: for the first time in about two decades, average faculty salaries are declining in real terms, albeit from quite high levels.  Among full professors and the faculty as a whole, the drop in inflation-adjusted salaries is about 3% since 2014-15; for associates and assistant

Read More »
February 4, 2020 2 Comments

Postcard from Alberta (2)

Yesterday, I discussed the peculiarities of Alberta’s financial reporting system for post-secondary education and how it reflects the province’s controlling approach towards post-secondary institutions (if you don’t believe me, ask anyone who’s been a senior admin at both an Albertan institution and one from another province, and see how often they get calls from Ministers and senior government officials).  Today, I want to talk about how that approach is likely to sabotage the governing United Conservative Party’s goals when it

Read More »
January 28, 2020 1 Comment

Postcard from Alberta (1)

I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in Alberta last week, and I would spend some time writing about the ways in which Alberta higher education is structured differently from the rest of the country.  For that, I have to get into the public finance weeds. Twenty years ago, Alberta arguably had the best public service in the country (it’s still pretty good, but it’s fallen a bit).  One of the innovations they hit on as they

Read More »
January 27, 2020 1 Comment

That New Alberta Performance Funding Scheme

On Monday, the Alberta Government released some details about the Performance-Based Funding (PBF) scheme it wants to implement for next year.  Herewith, the lowdown. The Good News: It’s a performance-based funding scheme, which leapfrogs Alberta about two stages ahead of where it currently is in terms of funding planning (it is currently one of the largest jurisdictions in the world with no funding formula at all).  And it avoided copying the more bone-headed indicators that Ontario chose to use (for details

Read More »
January 23, 2020 No Comments
Load More

One Thought to Start Your Day

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.

Subscribe

Search Posts

Search Publications

Social Media

Linkedin Youtube Spotify

Recent Posts

More thoughts on...