Every year around this time, I do a simple piece summarizing all the provincial budgets. I usually wait until all ten are done – so y’all get the full national picture – but unfortunately that’s not possible this year because neither PEI nor Alberta, both of whom quite recently acquired new administrations, are planning on getting budgets out the door before I break for the summer. So, I figured I may as well get the whole thing – or 8
When it comes to higher education, one of the most salient facts about Canada is that we are a federation in which both levels of governments play important roles. Yet, to put it mildly, we are not very good at co-ordinating those roles. Indeed, some might say we are uniquely bad at it. If we were serious about higher education, we wouldn’t be. The main problem has to do with Science and how it is funded. The bulk of our scientific
If you missed yesterday’s blog, we’re spending the week talking about how to improve higher education in Canada by acting less complacently. Now you’re up to speed. Onwards! Let’s start our discussion of higher education improvement at the top of the food chain: provincial governments (if, for some reason, you think the top of the food chain is the federal government, feel free to spend some time perusing the blog archives). Governments fund universities and colleges. Apart from Ontario, they
I got a lot of feedback on last week’s blog about provincial PSE spending comparisons. So much so that a few of you asked for a bunch of other comparisons. This blog does nothing but aim to please, so let’s get to it. One question I received a couple of times was “what happens if you throw student assistance expenditures into the mix”? This is a good question. In particular, Ontario – which as you will recall came dead last in
Answering the question of which provincial government spends the most on post-secondary education is trickier than it looks. Not only do provinces differ in size (Ontario is roughly 95 times the size of Prince Edward Island), but they differ in terms of post-secondary participation rates, they differ in terms of the types of institutions they fund, and of course they differ in wealth and fiscal capacity. So how can one sensibly compare these things? (For those of you with sharp
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.
