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Category: Politics

Debt-Free Policies

There’s a new policy fashion in student aid and it’s called “debt-free PSE” (or debt-free college, depending on which side of the border you reside).  But what does it mean? Some might think of debt-free PSE as being similar to tuition-free PSE, but in fact they are quite different in practice for two reasons.  The first difference is that under debt-free PSE, the level of tuition can be anything you please: the only thing that is constant is that all

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March 26, 2018 No Comments

Budget 2018

Good morning all. We at HESA Towers have our 2018 Budget Commentary ready for your review. So, last night was interesting, what with the Budget, the response to the Naylor report and the criminal scheduling of all this on the same evening as Toronto FC’s home-opener (yes, I am still bitter).  It was particularly interesting because the budget’s direction was difficult to guess in advance.  Sure, we knew the middle class was going to be mentioned, and some focus on

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February 28, 2018 3 Comments

The Budget Speech Bill Morneau Should Give

“…Mr. Speaker, we know that living standards depend on productivity, productivity depends on innovation, and innovation depends on skills, technology, and competition.  So we are going to ramp up on all of them.  This won’t be easy.  It won’t be quick.  We are not doing this with an eye to the next election; it’s a marathon not a sprint.  But we have to start somewhere. Skills Let’s start with skills.  While recognizing that having a skilled labour force is a

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February 27, 2018 1 Comment

Ten Bad Arguments about Free Tuition in Canada

So this weekend at the NDP convention, delegates voted in favour of a free tuition policy.  Based on a totally unscientific scan of twitter afterwards, here are the ten most common arguments in favour of this move, and why each of them is wrong. 1. The federal government can totally impose free tuition on the provinces No, it can’t.  The best it could do would be to pay the provinces to reduce tuition, which could be difficult given that they

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February 20, 2018 19 Comments

Two Ways to Improve Student Government

It’s that time of year again, where across the country students become interested in student government.  Between now and the end of March (depending on your location) wannabe student leaders will be traipsing around campuses, giving 30-second class talks, putting up posters, and making promises of one sort or another.  Like welcome week and spring break, it’s one of those campus rituals by which you can measure the passing of the seasons. One of the surprising things (to me anyway)

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January 19, 2018 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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