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Category: Politics

Polling (Part 2)

Yesterday, we talked about polling and the framing of election issues in general.  Today, I want to talk specifically about post-secondary education polling.  Though post-secondary education does not register as a “major issue” in any of the pre-election polls, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) nonetheless commissioned its own polling on post-secondary education (through Abacus), presumably the better to convince politicians that Canadians really do care about the issue.  The results (here, split across two documents) are…interesting, though possibly

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September 6, 2019 1 Comment

Polling (Part 1)

It’s election time and so – surprise, surprise – there is a lot of polling out there telling people who is going to vote for whom.  Tomorrow, I will talk about polling specific to post-secondary education and science, but today, I want to talk more generally about how polling frames election issues and how poor some of the framing seems to be going into this election. In the pre-writ period, the most important question in polling is “what is the

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September 5, 2019 No Comments

The Liberal Record

Though the writs won’t be issued for another few days, we are already deep into the election run-up. Over the course of the next few weeks I will be giving you some analysis of the various party platforms with respect to higher education. However, before we get to platforms, it’s worth taking a look back at the record of the current government. To break down their performance, let’s start by examining whether the Liberals actually delivered on their promises from

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September 4, 2019 1 Comment

Getting Caught Up

Morning all. How was the summer? Mine was pretty good and included a whistle-stop tour of the top SEC schools (short version: Ole Miss in Oxford, MS is a treasure, U Alabama in Tuscaloosa is soulless and somewhat terrifying but if for some reason you find yourself there, eat at Dreamland BBQ). Here at HESA Towers our team of nine (!) is getting ready for a massive semester.  Tomorrow we release our second annual State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada (and yes,

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August 26, 2019 No Comments

The Affordability Thing

Very few things in higher education drive me quite as spare as the focus on “affordability” in higher education.  First of all, no one defines it properly.  When most people talk about affordability, they are using it as a synonym for price.  But this is nonsense because affordability is a ratio: price divided by ability to pay.  What is affordable for someone in Westmount or Tuxedo or North Van is quite different from what is affordable to someone from Verdun

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June 12, 2019 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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