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Category: Policy

When Science Outruns Business

I have a few projects where I keep seeing the same problem again and again.  And it’s a real poser because it’s a problem that the literature on knowledge and economic development mostly passes over.  It goes like this: Universities play an important role in local economies for two reasons.  The first is that they provide a stream of talented graduates which, in theory, acts as a honeytrap for capital.  The second is that the flow of information between institutions

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December 8, 2020 1 Comment

That Future Skills Council Paper

Last week, the Future Skills Council released a document called “Canada – A Learning Nation: A Skilled, Agile Workforce Ready to Shape the Future”.  I thought we should delve into it early in the week before we all get too tired.  So here goes: For starters, we should be clear about who is releasing this.  This is the Future Skills Council (a group of worthies from across the country who advise the Minister of Employment and Social Development on…things…) and not the Future Skills Centre (the

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November 30, 2020 1 Comment

Why is the NDP so Bad on Student Aid?

Here’s a thing which has puzzled me for pretty much the entirety of my adult life: why is it that the New Democratic Party – in theory the party most likely to defend the marginalized – can’t come up with decent student aid policies?  Why is it that at every turn, they choose to embrace the policies that are the least equitable and effective? (Major caveat: I exempt the BC New Democrats from this analysis, because they mostly have their

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November 12, 2020 2 Comments

Post-Covid Fiscal Rebalancing

One of the weirder things about the present crisis is that we seem to be re-writing all the rules of federalism without even noticing it.  This will significantly affect the future of higher education. The most important changes have been with respect to the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB).  Though there have been ebbs and flows over the history of confederation, income support for the under-65s, absent a strong link to the labour force (i.e.

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April 28, 2020 No Comments

How to Make Policy

Take a ride with me.  First stop, London, England. UK university funding is handled by an intermediate institution known as the Office for Students (OfS).  The Government decides on the amount of money it wants to spend on higher education, and then the Office for Students decides how to distribute it.  Recently, the government decided to reduce operating funding slightly while giving a boost to capital spending.  How should the OfS respond? Intriguingly, it holds a public consultation.  It lays out

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February 12, 2020 2 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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