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Janice Deakin and Julia Colyar — Introducing the new HEQCO Research Roadmap

Our appointments as CEO and Vice President just over a year ago turned out to be coincident with many things, some anticipated and others not! The need to develop a new strategic research framework to guide HEQCO’s activities for the next three years was top of mind for us; however the path to completion was […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten — Why is the “Q” word in our name?

Why did those who created this agency include the word quality in its name, even though it resulted in one of the clumsiest acronyms — HEQCO — on the face of the earth? I think it’s because they were smart and prescient. They understood that there are a million questions one could ask and research […]

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It’sNotAcademic – The podcast: Episode six with Hamish Coates

Welcome to the latest episode of It’sNotAcademic: the podcast – education conversations from HEQCO. Last month, HEQCO invited experts from across Canada and the world to take part in a two-day workshop examining a big question: “How do you assess qualiy in higher education?” One of the participants was Hamish Coates, professor of higher education […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten – “Plans are useless but planning is indispensable.”

These are the words of former US President Dwight Eisenhower about how one plans for battle. One reason “I like Ike” is that his words capture HEQCO’s philosophy of planning. He understood that plans are useless when they get too specific, try to predict the future with certainty, and prompt fights over every comma in […]

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HEQCO – A triumph of evidence-based decision-making

In last Thursday’s budget, the Ontario government announced significant changes to the way student financial aid will be packaged to encourage greater participation of students from low income families.  These changes come after years of research from HEQCO, and other organizations, about the inhibitory effects of a high tuition sticker price and loan aversion on […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten – Goals vs. strategies: A postsecondary primer

In any policy initiative, it is important to distinguish between goals and strategies.  Goals are things you are trying to achieve – the outcomes you are seeking.  Strategies are processes and actions that can be employed to achieve these desired outcomes. Strategies are not ends in themselves.  Rather, they are tools.  Strategies have no inherent […]

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Martin Hicks – Extra, extra, read all about it

We’re gonna quote right out of the newspaper.  That way, you won’t have to worry that we’re making it all up.  These are verbatim quotes about the Ontario university funding model review.  The headline reads: “Sustaining Quality in Changing Times” “Persistent deficits and a growing debt burden limit the ability of governments at every level to […]

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Martin Hicks – Stop (en)Rolling Over

In Ontario, higher education enrolment forecasting is important business.  This is not surprising.  Enrolment growth drives money to institutions, generates investment by government and delivers ever higher participation and attainment rates for Ontarians. What will postsecondary enrolment in Ontario be in 10 years and how should we plan for it?  To find out, we look […]

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HEQCO – University funding: Can a new model improve steering?

Money talks.  Ontario universities are dependent on revenue sources to deliver on their teaching and research missions.  Government is a major revenue source, and has an obligation to drive public policy outcomes and exercise appropriate stewardship through its investment.  And so the funding formula matters, for it is the mechanism through which an alignment of […]