By . I’ve been trying to read more about the history of Canadian institutions. One very short pamphlet-like read is called Hatching the Cowbird’s Egg by David R. Murray, about the origin of the University of Guelph (the title vaguely make sense if you read the whole book; in context it’s a reference to the fact that Guelph is a weirdly bolted-together set of institutions). More...
By . For reasons that continue to baffle me, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario keeps putting out quite fascinating research papers with almost no fanfare. Seriously, reading their publications page is the literary equivalent of the sound of a tree falling in an empty forest. Fabulous, fabulous stuff that somehow appears in conditions of near-absolute secrecy. More...
By . Cast your mind back oh, about fifteen months, to the Dawn of a New Era on Ontario campuses. One in which Speech Would Be Free. The Ford Government was new and fresh and so was the ink on a proclamation requiring all Ontario institutions to adopt a policy on free speech, consistent with the University of Chicago Statement of Principles on Free Expression, by January 1, 2019. More...
By . Every once in awhile it’s useful to take a look at how things are developing in other parts of the world. Today, a quick trip to the three Scandinavian countries.
Norway is by some distance the most affluent of the Scandinavian countries, thanks to a few bazillion barrels of offshore oil. But as the price of oil tumbles, financial pressures are appearing. More...
By . I spent part of this weekend reading Rockonomics: A Backstage Tour of What the Music Industry Can Teach Us About Economics and Life, by the late Princeton Economist Alan Krueger (whose work on higher education I highlighted here when he died by suicide earlier this year). More...
On the one hand, we are expected to work full-time within a research group and make substantial contributions to publications, which ultimately aid the university’s Research Excellence Framework performance. On the other hand, we have no legal employment status, with no access to workplace pensions, mortgages or income recognised by landlords. More...What does a student look like in 2019? It is a question I would like to have asked Theresa May when she announced the Augar review of higher education. I would wager that along with other people I might casually ask on the streets of any town in the UK, she would have described someone aged between 18 and 22, planning ahead for a fifty-year working life, with a salary in mind and expecting to study full-time at a campus university for three or more years. More...In a new initiative this year, HEPI is publishing an Annual Review. This is an edited version of a private report prepared each year for our Trustees and has not been published before. More...Few people bother to read entire election manifestos. Indeed, even some candidates standing for election do not read their own party’s manifesto from cover to cover.Universities are complex and unique organisations, with an impact that stretches beyond teaching and research on contained campuses. They have become key anchors in their local communities and regional hubs of economic activity. They are major employers, magnets for national and international collaboration and an important pillar of civil society. More.../https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
