Tag Archives: universities
Ontario Universities: Is Change Coming?
Well Happy New Year! The start of the New Year is as good a time as any for reflecting on the state of things – including universities. As 2015 dragged to a close, a number of items came out which of course did not generate too much of a stir given the run up to […]
Funding and the Future of Ontario Universities
Well, the Council of Ontario Universities or COU is looking for a new President and CEO. The role of COU is to serve as a voice for the province’s university sector and help improve the public policies that affect the sector. As the ad for the position states: “As a member-based organization, COU provides the […]
Universities as Federations
Alex Usher had an interesting post on how universities are basically conflicted between their central authorities and the interests of the assorted disciplines that make up a university. He stresses that the actual point of a university is that it serves to advance knowledge by getting disciplines to work together to tackle problems in a […]
Stewardship and Autonomy
Ontario last week announced the signing of Strategic Mandate Agreements with each of its 44 universities and colleges as part of a move to “drive system-wide objectives articulated by the Ministry’s Differentiation Policy Framework.” Essentially, in a restrained fiscal environment the provincial government prefers to target money for new programs only where they can be […]
Differentiating Ontario Universities
Yes, it is April 1st but this post is dead serious. A study was recently done for economics, chemistry and philosophy departments across ten Ontario universities in an effort to gain insight on teaching workloads and research productivity. The reason? Ontario universities are tight for money and the government is looking for productivity gains and […]
University Debt: The Perils of Being Small
You may recall my recent post on Ontario university financing in which I focused on the university debt levels of Brock, Wilfrid Laurier and Guelph given that they were undergoing program reviews designed to address “sustainability”. Well, I have done a bit of an update by getting information on long-term debt, total revenues and enrolment […]
A Digression on University Finance
Well, you may have caught Alex Usher’s HESA post this week on university finances. He presented data on university operating budgets from the CAUBO/Statistics Canada financial survey for the period 2007-08 to 2011-12 that shows that university budgets went up by 28 percent. This is quite intriguing because while universities maintain they have been having […]
Universities, Public Funding & Entrepreneurship: The Consequences of Risk
Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates asked some interesting questions in his morning blog post. The world of university funding in Canada is changing – there is more money overall for universities but governments have been paying a declining share of university operating budgets with the remainder coming from tuition and assorted sources of […]
Is Ontario Breaking the “Golden Rule”?
Ontario’s government is now engaged in public sector restraint and reform tackling its doctors and teachers in an effort to wrestle down its 15 billion dollar deficit. Soon it will be turning its attention to universities. Indeed, work is already underway on an ambitious plan to reform the university sector which according to reports on […]
What is a University President Worth?
Along with the Canada geese returning home and the melting snow revealing buds of green growth, another sign of spring in Ontario is the unveiling of the sunshine list – those individuals in the Ontario public sector and broader public sector earning $100,000 or more. Included as always on the 2012 list are university salaries […]
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Recent Comments