I was caught off guard by the announcement today that Ontario’s public universities are being granted pension solvency relief. I knew there were significant discussions occurring between the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities and the Ministry of Finance. I didn’t know that an announcement was imminent. The government news release is available here: Putting [...]

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Joey Coleman on May 9th, 2010

Washington Post is doing higher education coverage right

Continue reading about Town and Gown – the university's been here since…

Brown University is facing a lawsuit stemming from a rape allegation in 2006. The Associated Press reports is available online. Depending what occurs as the lawsuit moves forward, the case could result in changes to how universities deal with serious criminal accusations within their campuses. Many universities, including in Canada, have internal processes with lower [...]

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Joey Coleman on April 23rd, 2010

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has voted unanimously to lift its censure of the First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) in response to governance changes the University implemented in February. The changes were finally begun after both the provincial and federal governments cut funding to the institutions following years of financial mismanagement and [...]

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Joey Coleman on April 21st, 2010

Robyn Urback misses the mark again

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Joey Coleman on April 9th, 2010

Janet Steffenhagen, the education reporter for The Vancouver Sun, notes a report by the B.C. School Trustees’ Association calling for more leeway to charge Freedom-of-Information applicants for the full costs of their requests. My response to the report is simple: start making raw data available on the Internet and the cost of administering information will [...]

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Joey Coleman on April 7th, 2010

UCalgary GSA prez resigns, in an info vacuum it is asked “What are they trying to hide?”

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Joey Coleman on April 7th, 2010

Students at the University of Guelph will vote starting later today on their membership in the Canadian Federation of Students. The vote follows a court order which was required after the Canadian Federation of Students stonewalled students at Guelph in order to prevent the vote from occurring. A couple of things jump out at me about [...]

Continue reading about Thoughts on the CFS referendum at uGuelph

An interesting post on the New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch blog today noting that President Obama’s recent increase to the Pell Grant – a national bursary program in the United States – will only succeed if institutions do not divert funds away from needs-based financial assistance to enrich “merit” based scholarships. The trend in [...]

Continue reading about More financial "aid" given to well-off students than needy students in the United States

Joey Coleman on April 4th, 2010

My last post about the situation at McMaster University’s Degroote School of Business garnered a great deal of feedback from individuals in both factions and some individuals outside of the dispute. Some are disputing my characterization of the situation as a battle between the academic and industry streams of professors. Others say there is not a history [...]

Continue reading about More on the Dean Bates situation at McMaster