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Category: Politics

The New Normal: Students First, Institutions Last

There’s a new dynamic at work in Canadian higher education.  And it should scare the bejesus out of everyone who cares about the sector. Consider the following: In Alberta, where the Conservative Government last week cut operating budgets by nearly 7%, and institutions have been told to forget about offsetting through tuition fees, the student aid budget rose by almost a quarter. In Ontario, the Liberal Government won re-election last year on a platform of no more money to institutions

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March 14, 2013 2 Comments

The Return of Income-Contingency

The idea of income-contingent repayment (ICR) of student loans has been with us for a few decades now.  In 1945, Milton Friedman advocated something like an ICR loan as a way of reducing the risk associated with educational investment.  In 1971, nobel-prize winner, James Tobin, developed an ICR for use at Yale University.  The first national-level ICR was in Australia, which introduced its Higher Education Contribution Scheme in 1988; the idea quickly spread to New Zealand, the UK, and Sweden.

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March 8, 2013 No Comments

The Justin Trudeau Effect

As you know, we at HESA have a national panel of students with whom we frequently commune to check the pulse of the student body.   Usually, we use this to look at students’ educational experiences.  Occasionally, though, we also use it to look at broader social and political issues.  And today, we’d like to show you what Canadian students really think of Justin Trudeau. Why Trudeau? Well, part of the man’s narrative is that he connects with the young.  His

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February 22, 2013 1 Comment

Some Consequences of Declining Public Funding

Home truth: while total funding for higher education has increased rather substantially over the past couple of decades, an increasing proportion of this funding has come from private sources.  If anything, that trend is going to continue for the next decade, at least.  Unfortunately, our decision-making structures and mentalities are stuck in the era when institutions could count on governments to bail them out. I noticed this initially during the St. FX strike.  One of the main lines of discourse

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February 20, 2013 2 Comments

That Conservative White Paper

On Tuesday, the Ontario Conservatives released a “white paper” on Higher Education.  It’s an extraordinary document, by far the most detailed vision for PSE ever released by a Canadian political party.  Everyone in higher education should read it, even if they aren’t likely to enjoy it much. Much of the paper revolves around the notion of reducing the cost of delivery of higher education.  For that reason, it liberally raids the ideas of Ian Clark et. al on teaching faculty, as

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February 14, 2013 1 Comment

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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