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 […]
Category: Guest Bloggers
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 […]
Fifty years ago tomorrow, on March 21, 1963, Premier John Robarts announced the plan that shaped Ontario’s higher education system as we now know it. His statement was delivered as part of routine proceedings in the Legislature, book-ended by statements about LCBO outlets and the Ontario Food Council. He spoke for about an hour. One […]
I have been working on a large international project with a colleague from HEQCO for the past year or so and have been fascinated hearing about the work that goes on in the higher education space in Canada, and particularly Ontario. So when an opportunity to visit Toronto and participate in the Learning to Earning […]
At HEQCO’s November Learning to Earning Conference, UBC labour economist Craig Riddell presented the results of his research with David Green on literacy skills, recently published as “Ageing and Literacy Skills: Evidence from Canada, US and Norway.” The findings are alarming and support the concern that David Trick, Richard Van Loon and I expressed in […]
I have learned first-hand how important it is for those facing post-PhD transitions, or those mired in long-term unemployment, to lean on their friends and family. My own predicament has been eased by a gaggle of wonderful folks who have offered sympathetic ears, sound advice, laughter, and distractions. I would be a whimpering mess without […]
I had hoped that the first blog I wrote for HEQCO would serve as a public, irreversible break from academia. I was of the mindset back then that my dream of finding an academic position was a virtual impossibility, and I resolved to pursue non-academic employment exclusively and with all my energy. Well, after eight […]
One challenge I have encountered in my application process is determining precisely what positions to shoot for. Suffering from post-dissertation burnout and desiring a clean break from my academic career, I was adamant when I kicked off my job search that I did not want to work in a field related to my area of […]
Entering my sixth month of post-PhD unemployment, I can state pretty emphatically that employers aren’t buying the package that I am attempting to sell. This is the crux of the problem that I have been grappling with for months now: How can I reinvent myself in a way that will make an employer want to […]