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
Issues run in cycles. Remember the skills gap? It was a big deal back when the price of oil was over $80 a barrel. We haven’t heard so much about it since – and judging by the way oil futures markets are behaving, it may be awhile before we hear it again. But don’t be dismayed: as one cycle disappears, another pops up somewhere else. With the dollar having dipped slightly below 70 cents US on Tuesday, I think it’s almost certain that we’re
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
Governments always face a choice between access and excellence: does it make more sense to focus resources on a few institutions in order to make them more “world-class”, or does it make sense to build capacity more widely and increase access? During hard times, these choices become more acute. In the US, for instance, the 1970s were a time when persistent federal budget deficits as a result of the Vietnam War, combined with a period of slow growth, caused higher
Earlier this week, I gave a speech in Shanghai on whether countries are choosing to focus higher education spending on top institutions as a response to the scarcity of funds since the start of the global financial crisis. I thought some of you might be interested in this, so over the next two days I’ll be sharing some of the data from that presentation. The story I want to tell today is about how exceptional the Canadian story has been among the
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.
