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Category: Government

Loans Work

If you spend any time looking at student aid research, you’ll be struck by how much empirical evidence there is on the effectiveness of grants (or, more broadly, “changes in net tuition”), and how little there is in terms of the effectiveness of loans.  Thus, one might be tempted to think that this means grants are effective and loans are not, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. There are a couple of reasons why it has been difficult

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February 6, 2019 No Comments

That Globe Feature on Data Gaps

The big longread event in this weekend’s papers was, without question, Shannon Gormley’s piece in Macleans on the Thai Cave Rescue (if you haven’t read it yet, stop everything and do so.  I’ll be here when you get back.  Amazing, right?  OK, let’s move on.) Anyways, the second most important longread was the big Globe and Mail feature on Canada’s data gaps, which was actually two pieces, one on data gaps generally and one specifically on Statistics Canada and why the agency is not very good.  There was much applause in the

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January 28, 2019 No Comments

The Future of Student Organizations

OK, so on Tuesday I outlined what we know and don’t know about the Ford government’s new policy of rendering non-tuition fees non-mandatory and suggested that while some of it was confused and confusing, the effect was going to be quite detrimental to independent student groups.  Even if we lend this move some lofty motives and say it is about a positive right not to be forced to associate, or the need to make student groups more responsive to their members (as

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January 24, 2019 2 Comments

Antipodean Student Organization Struggles

With the Ford government being the first to take aim at compulsory student unionism in Canada (he will not be the last; in Alberta, Jason Kenney’s UCP has a similar policy resolution on its books), it is worth taking a more detailed look at how the move to make fees optional has played out elsewhere.  Specifically, Down Under, where these policy ideas were first put into practice in the under the name “Voluntary Student Unionism” (VSU, in Australia) and “Voluntary

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January 23, 2019 No Comments

That Ontario Ancillary Fee Policy in Full

Last week, in the wake of the OSAP/Tuition announcements, I suggested that while most of the initial focus was on the changes to tuition fees and student aid, perhaps the more significant move was the announcement that many ancillary fees – specifically including student unions fees – were no longer to be mandatory and students had to be given the right to opt-out. But what does this mean, exactly?  It’s worth going through the details here because the statement is

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January 22, 2019 1 Comment
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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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