Category: Institutions

Coronavirus (4) – “Moving Online”

One of the most annoying things about the last couple of weeks – apart from the general collapse of civilization – has been everyone and their dog claiming they are “moving classes online”.  I really wish we had found another word for this, because if there is one thing universities and colleges are NOT doing, it is transitioning to online education. It must be especially galling if you’re, say, at Athabasca University and produce real, high-quality online content all the

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Coronavirus (3)

I wrote my first coronavirus post a week ago and it was about travel policies and next year’s international student intake.  We’ve come a long way in a week.  As I said on Thursday, this is probably an all-virus blog for the next bit because it’s not clear there is anything else worth writing about (though: if y’all would prefer this blog to focus on the usual miscellany because 24/7 COVID is too depressing, let me know.  I can adapt.) On Thursday, Laurentian

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Coronavirus (2)

Things are happening so quickly that I am starting to think I need to temporarily turn this blog into a full-on everyday Coronavirus feed.  A lot has happened since Monday. Overseas: In Austria, the government has told all universities to halt lectures and move online as much as possible.  It is unclear from the stories I have read whether there this is an open-ended or time-limited decision.  Greece closed all of its universities on Tuesday for a period of two weeks. 

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Encore une fois

You may remember that late in 2018 the Ontario government decided to put the kibosh on funding l’Université de l’Ontario français (l’UOF).  Then last fall, the federal government – showing a key eye for supporting minority language rights in Ontario if not consistency in funding minority language rights across the country – popped up and offered to pay for half of the running costs over the next eight years.  Up front.  As in, all the running costs for the first 4-5 years,

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Better University-Business Partnerships

I have a new client and – accidentally, I guess – a new line of business.  It’s explaining to businesses how post-secondary institutions actually work and how to navigate their internal processes to arrive at better partnerships.  If you work at a university, that probably sounds strange to you, but trust me, it’s not half as strange as you all appear to the outside world.  Put yourself in the shoes of a large-ish (but not huge) Canadian company, which is

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