The following remarks were delivered by HEQCO President and CEO Harvey Weingarten on October 18 at the C.D. Howe Institute. Talk to the C.D. Howe Institute Harvey P. Weingarten President, Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Toronto, Ontario October 18 2011 Check against delivery Canada has a good, likely very good, public postsecondary system. But, […]
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What is an innovative university?
I participated in a panel on “Innovative Universities” as part of a workshop on innovation held in September at the Perimeter Institute. Two questions posed to panel members were: (i) “What does an innovative university look like?” and (ii) “Does Canada have innovative universities?” I suggested that if one wants to know whether a university […]
A new HEQCO conference, Fear of Finance: Financial Literacy and Planning for Postsecondary Education (Nov. 3-4) will explore educational financial literacy — the knowledge of the costs, benefits and available aid associated with higher education. And it’s not a moment too soon. Ontario leads the nation in postsecondary participation, but despite rising enrolments overall, the […]
One of the most startling statistics I learned since joining HEQCO last year was that about 50 per cent of students eligible for financial aid don’t apply for it, even though some of the money they would get is grants that they do not have to repay. Who gives up the opportunity of free government […]
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Carolyn Acker: Closing the Achievement Gap
In 2001, as executive director of the Regent Park Community Health Centre, I founded the Pathways to Education program with Norman Rowen. At the time we didn’t think of ourselves as social entrepreneurs. We were working hard to break the cycle of poverty and implement the health centre’s vision of “community succession”– that the young […]
HEQCO has produced or commissioned more than 126 research studies on postsecondary access, quality and accountability. While we regularly share our research with hundreds of people involved in the sector, including government, academic leaders and media, we can’t really expect the beleaguered press to tell our story to the broader public as often as we’d […]
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Alexi White: FYI: OUSA on MYAAs
Hello from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). I’ve been invited to mix things up a bit with a guest blog from the student perspective. Since the government has announced that new Multi-Year Accountability Agreements (MYAAs) are in the works, I’d like to dip a toe into the discussion around how best to ensure our […]
Because of the fundamental importance of people to any organization, I begin with a key turning point last year when we said goodbye to our founding president, Jim Downey, and welcomed our new president, Harvey Weingarten. With Jim and Harvey, lightning has struck HEQCO twice: Jim got HEQCO going and recruited most of our talented […]
One of the most ubiquitous and powerful arguments made by advocates of greater investment in higher education is that a postsecondary education is instrumental to economic success, for both the individual and the public. The public and governments appear to have accepted that 70-80 per cent of future jobs will require some postsecondary credential and […]