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Tag: Data Collection

Problems in International Institutional Typology

As you all know, a reasonable chunk of my work involves making international comparisons.  This is far from simple in higher education because basic units of analysis differ enormously from one country to another.  Whether you are counting students (do doctoral students count, when in some countries they are classified as employees? How do you equivalize student numbers for part-time status, which exists only in some countries?), or staff (how do you equivalize by rank? Do teaching-only staff count? What

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March 26, 2020 1 Comment

Administrative Bloat, 2020, Part II

After publishing yesterday’s piece, in which I updated a 5-year-old data analysis on spending on academic vs. non-academic salaries, I got a burst of unwarranted optimism and decided to try to do the same thing with another five year-old analysis on the same topic using institutional data – or at least institutional data from the dozen or so institutions who bother to publish this stuff.  Sounds simple, right?  I mean, if they published data before, they must publish it now, right?  How tough

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February 19, 2020 No Comments

If Canada Were Serious About Higher Education (Part 1)

Canada is a vast and largely self-satisfied land.  And when it comes to higher education, we do pretty well.  Depending on the measure of access one chooses, we’re either above average or top of the pack.  We have the biggest and best-funded college system in the world, one which is highly regarded for its innovativeness.  On research, we punch at or above our weight.  Our faculty – the full-time ones, anyway – are the best-paid of any in the world

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April 8, 2019 3 Comments

Measuring Social Mobility in Higher Education

It is a universally acknowledged truth that while nearly every higher education policy maker in the world is required to discuss The Imperative of Accessibility, almost no one defines or measures it.  Because God forbid access policies, especially Canadian policies, be informed by evidence. It’s not like it’s impossible to do.  In the UK, the University and College Application Service simply analyses the postal codes of applicants and students and use that to track changes over time.  Are student entry rates

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November 28, 2018 1 Comment

Why our Science Minister is Going to be Disappointed in Statscan

Last week Statscan sent me a consultation form asking my opinions about their ideas on how to change UCASS (the University and College Academic Staff Survey, which like most Statscan products containing the word “college” does not actually include the institutions most of us call “colleges” i.e. community colleges).  I’ve already said something about this effort back here to the effect that focussing so much effort on data collection re: part-time staff is a waste of time, but the consultation guide makes

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September 15, 2017 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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