Category: Government

Lagging

I was perusing a Chronicle of Higher Education article on American state expenditures on post-secondary education when I saw a completely jaw-dropping graph. Figure 1: Jaw-Dropping Visual from The Chronicle on State Funding I mean…wow. Right? This figure actually lines up with something I had noticed a few months ago about state-level spending in the 1960s and 1970s. Though there is lots of talk about “wars on higher education” in the United States; in fact, there isn’t a very tight

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Student Visas, Old Systems and New

If you want to know how messed up the visa processing system is about to get in the next couple of months…well, buckle up. Y’all may remember that when Minister Marc Miller announced caps on student visas, he indicated that each province would be responsible for allocating visas among its own institutions. All provinces will be required to provide students with a letter or certificate attached to their applications, indicating the institution that the student is to attend. This already

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The Dawn of a New Era

The events of the last couple of weeks have kept everyone in the higher education sector in a whirlwind. But step back a minute. It’s worth thinking about the big picture. Some of you may remember this graph which I drew about a year ago, looking at the history of higher education funding in Canada. It shows total university and college income by source back to 1955-56. Looking at the trends across these six decades, I think it tells a

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How bad is it going to get in Ontario? Really Bad.

Last Friday, the Ontario government issued a media release outlining what it was going to do with respect to international students in the wake of the Government of Canada’s Monday announcement on study permits and work visas. I reproduce it substantially intact below because it is so objectively terrible. To protect the integrity of postsecondary education and promote employment in critical sectors like health care and the skilled trades, the government’s measures will include the following: Colleges and Universities Career

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Global McGill

Welcome back, everyone.  Let’s jump in. You will recall that last fall the Legault government, reeling from a by-election loss to a suddenly resurgent Parti Québécois, decided to parade its nationalist bona fides by giving an unprovoked kicking to some major anglophone institutions: to wit, McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s.  This kicking – which was imposed on all universities but clearly had a disproportionate impact on the three anglo schools – consisted of two separate policies. Imposing a minimum $17,000/year tuition

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