By Alex Usher. One of the huge – and insufficiently studied – differences between North America and European higher education is the way programs are structured, at least as far as Arts and Sciences go.  In most of Europe, entering a program in (say) history means you have to learn a set field of knowledge and skills.
By entering into a 90-credit program in a particular field, you have a fair idea of which courses you will be taking over the next three years because a large proportion of the courses are set.  North America used to be like that too – a century ago.  But then we started to diverge, mainly because of three events. More...

By Alex Usher. It’s all-Council-of-Ontario-Universities this week on the blog, but that’s because they’re the ones putting out the great data.  Today, it’s the annual survey on graduate outcomes which looks at how bachelor’s degree graduates are faring in the labour market.  Standard caveat: Ontario =/= Canada, but it produces nearly half the country’s bachelor degrees so it’s bound to be close to the national average and the trends you see here are unlikely to be much different that those you see anywhere else. More...

By Alex Usher. The report makes a distinction between tenure stream professors (42% of all instructors), full-time non-tenure stream (6%) and part-time instructors (52%). This mix varies quite a bit across faculties.  The proportions of FT to PT is highest in Engineering, and lowest in Law and Education.  The composition of PT faculty also varies substantially across fields of study. More...

By Alex Usher. Buckle up everyone. COU just did what universities have been telling everyone for years was impossible: publishing actual useful admin data on faculty workloads and sessionals from every university in Ontario bar the University of Toronto. More...

By Alex Usher. It’s that time of year again, where across the country students become interested in student government.  Between now and the end of March (depending on your location) wannabe student leaders will be traipsing around campuses, giving 30-second class talks, putting up posters, and making promises of one sort or another. More...

By Alex Usher. Inequality is perhaps the great political issue of the 21^st century (so far anyway).  And while Canada isn’t exactly a world-beater on this score, we do show up a heck of a lot better than some of our peers – say in the UK, France or certainly the US.  Despite lots of great work by people like Miles Corak, there’s no real agreement as to why this is: is it more robust social programs?  A more powerful union movement?  Our immigration policies. More...

By Alex Usher. Today’s blog is a quick tour of the House of Commons Finance Committee report – released last month – as it relates to science and post-secondary education.
For the uninitiated, the Government of Canada’s budget process goes something like this: starting in late spring – maybe two months after the pervious budget – the political side of the Finance Department starts canvassing around government for big ideas. More...

By Alex Usher. As you all know, I spend a lot of time analyzing university finances, mainly because the data is easy to get and is quite detailed (Canadian higher education statistics are disastrous in many ways, but one area where our stats are better than almost anywhere else in the world is our institutional financial reporting – the FIUC Survey is genuinely world-class). More...