Imagine you were given 54 hours to transform a basic idea into a startup company. You’re one of a sea of 100 individuals, most of whom you have never met before. They include software developers, educators, graphic designers, business developers, and even a handful of high school students. You have access to a few basic […]
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Fiona Deller – The buzz is building
The buzz is building for HEQCO’s November 7-8 conference, Rethinking Higher Ed: Beyond the Buzzwords. If you follow us closely, you will know we host a conference every year around this time. And each time we try to focus on the issues that are making the sector hum with debate, anticipation and sometimes angst. Turns […]
There has been a myriad of discussions in the media recently around the issue of skills training and development. Without a doubt, there are improvements that need to be made in the system to better link graduates with the available jobs. Among them are better career development information for secondary school students, changing the dominant […]
On Our Radar features HEQCO staff and guest bloggers offering their unique perspectives on trends, new ideas, and hot-button issues in higher education. The opinions are those of the authors. My fellow interns: if you haven’t noticed already, we’ve become media darlings as of late (who says twenty-something CEOs get all the fun?). Unpaid working […]
Recently, at the annual conference of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, Gwyn Morgan, retired CEO of energy giant EnCana, gave the opening keynote address, where he extolled the contributions colleges make to the economy and to the career success of many Canadians. He was right to do so. Canada has a strong and successful […]
Guest blogger: Eileen M. Herteis, Mount Allison University In April, 2013, four of Canada’s top mainly undergraduate universities: Acadia, Bishop’s, Mount Allison and St. Francis Xavier, announced the formation of the U4 League. A strategic alliance to promote high quality undergraduate education, this announcement was exciting, if somewhat intriguing, news on the four campuses as […]
The good people at HECQO have asked me to pen an epilogue to the missives I wrote last spring that chronicled my trials and tribulations as a recently graduated PhD in the job market. I will make a long story short: I have finally found a job, and am in my fourth month of working […]
I have been reading and hearing a lot about the “skills gap” in Canada, particularly the suggestion of significant shortages of people with the skill set to fulfill the jobs available in today’s labour markets. This discussion is often accompanied by commentary about the misalignment between what students learn in postsecondary programs and the requirements […]
After two years of work on a series of projects to investigate the feasibility and value of a learning outcomes perspective in higher education, we have learned some important lessons about this game-changing approach. First, the most promising aspect is the identification and measurement of general learning and cognitive skills such as critical thinking, problem […]