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Category: Institutions

The Changing Face of Vocational Training

Canada’s community colleges are often thought of as places to learn “vocational” skills. But what counts as a “vocational” skill these days doesn’t always line up with popular perceptions. One area in which this is particularly true is with respect to the trades. My associate Lori McElroy has been doing some interesting work in this respect which I think is worth sharing. When we think of colleges and trades, we often think of a lot of programs that are not

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March 5, 2012 1 Comment

The Drummond Report

If you’re from Ontario, you’ll have had yesterday penciled into your calendars, like a trip to the dentist, for weeks. If you’re from outside Ontario, you’re likely at least dimly aware that Premier McGuinty punted the matter of long-term fiscal stabilization to Don Drummond, an ex-Ottawa mandarin, so that his ministers could take to the hustings last fall saying everything was under control when in fact this place is broke, broke, broke. Anyway, Drummond released his report yesterday and it’s

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February 16, 2012 1 Comment

No Disruption Here, Folks

Dear God, save us from Margaret Wente. Someone handed her a copy of Clayton Christensen’s new book and the rest of us got this ludicrous piece of nonsense in our Saturday paper. This has to be the worst meme in higher education this year. I know I’ve gone off on this before, but just to re-iterate: There. Is. No. Great. Disruption. Coming. In. Higher. Education. Period. Yes, there are some very interesting educational experiments going on out there. But does

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February 8, 2012 4 Comments

The New Western Identity

There was a flurry of excitement last week about the University of Western Ontario’s new visual identity, and deservedly so: it is by some distance the most visually radical re-brand for a Canadian university in many years. Start with the good: getting rid of the tower was welcome and long overdue. The new graphics are a nice mix of old and new, retaining the palette, but significantly modernizing the overall look. They didn’t manage to unify the institutional and athletics

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February 2, 2012 1 Comment

UBC Gets It

Credit where credit is due: some absolutely brilliant stuff has been coming out of UBC in the last little while. Everybody in the country should pay attention. Exhibit A: The university’s decision to use broad-based admissions (BBA) – that is to say, an application process which takes into account not just grades, but also extra-curricular activities and the contents of personal essays – for its entire student intake. This is an enormously positive step. Just as the university experience is

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February 1, 2012 No Comments

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.

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