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Category: Universities

A Zinger from HEQCO

To One Yonge Street, and the offices of the redoubtable Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO), who yesterday released a small publication with the unassuming name, The Productivity of the Ontario Public Postsecondary.  The title may be a little on the soporific side, but the contents are anything but. There are some real gems in here.  Did you know that 39% of all granting council funding went to Quebec?  OK, the grants on average are somewhat smaller than they are

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December 7, 2012 2 Comments

The Other Shoe Drops

So, the victorious Parti Québécois, who believe so much in education, who spent all spring and summer hand-wringing and moaning about how that mean, mean Jean Charest was just so… so mean because he wouldn’t invest in Quebec’s youth, and whose election was a massive and historic victory because they cancelled those terrible, evil, neo-liberal tuition fee hikes, has just cut subsidies to all universities’ and colleges’ by five percent. Oh, and the cuts aren’t coming next year, they’re coming this year. 

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December 6, 2012 1 Comment

Access to Opportunity

There’s been a fair bit of talk over the past few months about the practice of articling in Ontario.  Specifically, the problem is that there are too many law school graduates for too few articling positions.  The situation has deteriorated to the point where the Law Society of Upper Canada has released a major report outlining an “alternative work experience,” in order to deal with the surplus of students who don’t get “real” articling positions.   For what it’s worth, I tend to

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December 5, 2012 No Comments

Mental Health on Campus

There’s a lot of talk about mental health on campus these days – Sunday’s Globe feature, a Toronto Star piece from last week, and the September cover story in Maclean’s, are but three recent examples.  Part of what seems to be driving the increased concern is that the kids affected by this crisis aren’t necessarily the ones on the margin, but are often amongst those considered to be “high-achievers.” Without casting doubt on the seriousness of the issue – and it is

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December 4, 2012 2 Comments

Mystifying University Taglines

I know it’s tough to differentiate yourself in an industry as conservative as higher education, but sometimes you have to wonder about some of the taglines, slogans, and ads that institutions come up with.  Herewith, a brief list of the most puzzling: #1 – University of Toronto – “Canada’s Answer to the World’s Questions”.  Seriously, did they just not bother to focus-test this on anyone who’s ever lived outside the GTA?  It plays into every possible negative stereotype about the city

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December 3, 2012 4 Comments

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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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