The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

The World of Higher Education Podcast Listen now →

Category: Research

A Suspect Report About Precarity

About a month ago, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives put out a report on precarious employment in Ontario universities and colleges. One good thing about this document at the outset: it has an imaginative research design.  There is so much we do not know, and in the absence of any detailed reporting by institutions themselves cannot know about employment in post-secondary institutions.  To get around this, the report’s authors, Erika Shaker and Robin Shaban, gather data from the Labour Force Survey,

Read More »
March 12, 2018 1 Comment

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

Read More »
February 27, 2018 1 Comment

Code Red on the Naylor Report

About two and a half years ago, I said universities and scientists were headed for a catastrophic break because university Presidents were more inclined to gratefully accept whatever new dollars came their way rather than fight for research priorities.  That break may actually happen next week, for evil things are reaching my ears about Tuesday’s federal budget. To be clear: I know nothing for sure about what’s in Tuesday’s budget.  The Liberals are deliberately choosing not to leak anything that

Read More »
February 22, 2018 No Comments

Public Service

I have a strong message today. It’s mostly for people in social science fields (especially Deans and Department heads), but I think Provosts, VPs Research and President will want to pay attention.  The message is this: the academic profession in Canada desperately needs to take its head out of its collective behind when it comes to public service. Universities have a schizophrenic attitude when it comes to public service.  Ask any university President about the value of their institution to

Read More »
January 11, 2018 3 Comments

Fun with Canadian Scientific Publications Data

You may recall that in last Friday’s blog I was looking at scientific output of world-class universities.  I could do that thanks to quite an excellent database available from Leiden University’s Centre for Science and Technology Studies, developers of the excellent multi-dimensional Leiden Rankings, which do a strong job of comparing university research output and impact. I have covered this output and impact a couple of times before back here and here.   This same data can be used to compare Canadian institutions – or at least the

Read More »
November 15, 2017 No 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.

Subscribe

Search Posts

Search Publications

Social Media

Linkedin Youtube Spotify

Recent Posts

More thoughts on...