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Category: Teaching & Learning

Coronavirus (5) – Admissions

Today I want to talk a little bit about what’s going to happen to university admissions worldwide over the next couple of months, and why the chaos looks set to last well into the fall, even if everyone re-opens in the late summer.  I will group the “chaos causers” into three and talk about them in ascending order of chaos. The domestic undergraduate recruitment cycle ended early.  Domestic students often take the spring to figure out where they are going, and

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March 18, 2020 2 Comments

Coronavirus (4) – “Moving Online”

One of the most annoying things about the last couple of weeks – apart from the general collapse of civilization – has been everyone and their dog claiming they are “moving classes online”.  I really wish we had found another word for this, because if there is one thing universities and colleges are NOT doing, it is transitioning to online education. It must be especially galling if you’re, say, at Athabasca University and produce real, high-quality online content all the

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March 17, 2020 1 Comment

Coronavirus (3)

I wrote my first coronavirus post a week ago and it was about travel policies and next year’s international student intake.  We’ve come a long way in a week.  As I said on Thursday, this is probably an all-virus blog for the next bit because it’s not clear there is anything else worth writing about (though: if y’all would prefer this blog to focus on the usual miscellany because 24/7 COVID is too depressing, let me know.  I can adapt.) On Thursday, Laurentian

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March 16, 2020 1 Comment

Monitoring Trends in Academic Programming

Morning all.  We here at HESA Towers are launching a new publication series today, and we couldn’t be prouder.  Written by my colleague Jonathan McQuarrie, it’s called Monitoring Trends in Academic Programming, it’s fabulous, and it’s available here. The genesis of this project lies in the somewhat random calls we get from institutions every once in awhile to suggest ways of evaluating existing academic programs or to assist in designing new ones.  It’s a tricky job to do, because some of

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November 14, 2019 3 Comments

Standardization vs. Differentiation

One of the most annoying things about Canadian governments’ relationship with universities is the fact that almost none of them have a consistent theory of universities. In other words, few governments—provincial, federal, or territorial—have actual understanding of what it is they are funding and why they are funding it. Take, for instance, two of the more common criticisms governments make of universities: 1) “Universities should stop being copies of each other and start differentiating themselves and offering more niche courses”.

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November 13, 2019 No Comments

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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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