The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Policy

The Canadian Autonomy Scorecard (Part 1)

Institutional autonomy is one of those things that is hard to pin down.  First of all, because it’s a multi-dimensional concept – institutions may have more freedom in some areas of action than in others – and, second of all, because it’s hard to come up with practical measurements of autonomy that might allow for standards and comparison. Long-time readers will know, of course, that the European University Association (IMHO, the world’s coolest university club) regularly produces a comparison of

Read More »
November 9, 2026 No Comments

BC Election Manifesto Analysis 2026

I shouldn’t have to write this blog. This Saturday’s provincial election is completely unnecessary. But we’re having it anyways because the galaxy-brains around Premier Dave Eby couldn’t figure out in time that a catastrophically divided opposition might just become less catastrophically divided if faced with the threat of an imminent election.  Anyways.  This is not a good election for post-secondary education. Maybe not quite the worst I’ve ever seen in my fifteen-odd years of doing this, but it’s close. I’ll

Read More »
October 21, 2026 No Comments

New Zealand’s Higher Education Crossroads

As I think I’ve mentioned before, New Zealand has one of the most fascinating higher education policy scenes anywhere in the world. Hardly a year goes by where they aren’t making huge changes to research policy, tuition fees, student aid, or international student rules. Must be exhausting to live there. In any event, all this policy hyperactivity means this podcast often returns to New Zealand to see exactly what’s going on. And with the election coming up next month, we

Read More »
October 15, 2026 No Comments

That Was the Quarter That Was, Summer 2026

Hi, all. Time for a quarterly recap of what’s been going on in higher education. You might think summer would be a quiet time for developments in higher education but a) “summer” is a geographically relative term and b) “back to school” is usually when things go bananas in the higher education world. This year was no exception. Let’s get to it. Therewas drama, as there always is, with respect to funding for higher education. In Argentina, Javier Milei continues

Read More »
September 30, 2026 No Comments

Associate EU Membership and Labour Mobility

Yesterday, I sketched out the likelihood of Canada joining the Erasmus program; now I wanted to address the issue of labour mobility. As a couple of news outlets breathlessly reported during the whole EU thing last week, a new agreement might allow Canadians to “live and work visa-free” in Europe (and vice-versa, although no one seemed to want to dwell on that). But how likely is this? So, we can’t know exactly until something is negotiated. But precedent is pretty

Read More »
September 22, 2026 No Comments
Load More

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.

Subscribe

Search Posts

Search Publications

Social Media

Linkedin Youtube Spotify

Recent Posts

More thoughts on...