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Category: Policy

The Childcare Debate and PSE

Childcare and post-secondary education share enough traits that they are worth examining together, as HESA has done previously here and here.  The most obvious similarity is that, in contrast to K-12 education, they are both forms of non-compulsory education.  Well, sort of: it’s never entirely clear to what extent people are pushing childcare as an education measure and to what extent they are pushing its value to freeing families – mainly women – to participate in the labour market which results in

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September 7, 2021 1 Comment

2021 PSE Platforms – The Conservative Party

Alright, fam.  You know the drill.  It’s a federal election, so between now and September 20th, I’ll be looking at various party manifestos to see what they portend for our sector, and then finishing up with some comparative analysis.  I am not entirely sure how many parties I will do: I never do the Bloc for obvious reasons, so that leaves three and *maybe* a fourth if the Greens get their act together to release any policies and stop behaving

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September 1, 2021 1 Comment

Missions and Moonshots

There is a crowd of policy entrepreneurs in Canada – mostly but not entirely Liberal, mostly but not entirely based in Ottawa – who have really cottoned on to the whole notion of innovation.  Like many of us who have despaired over successive governments’ lack of cluefulness on this issue, they are dissatisfied with the status quo.  Unfortunately, these people are currently marching with wholly unjustified confidence towards policies that are largely buzzword-driven. It’s not just this ludicrous notion of

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June 15, 2021 1 Comment

That NDP Student Debt Forgiveness Promise

Today, I want to look at Jagmeet Singh’s recent promise that an NDP government would forgive up to $20,000 in federal student debt.  It was a fascinating little announcement, which is part-super-savvy and part deeply-perplexing. The announcement itself, which you can read in the NDP press release here,  says that an NDP government would i) eliminate interest on student loans because interest = profit, ii) bring in a 5-year waiting period before student loans became repayable and iii) forgive the first $20,000

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April 7, 2021 2 Comments

What Could Still Derail Fall 2021

Some of you doubted me – a few of you quite vocally –  when I suggested campuses would be able to open in-person for Fall 2021.  Now, it should be clear that with more vaccines being approved, accelerated deliveries of already-approved vaccines and the decision to permit up to four months between jabs, that pretty much anyone in the country who wants one will receive the first dose of the vaccine by June and most will have a second before

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March 9, 2021 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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