Productivity Implications of a Shift to Competency-Based Education: An environmental scan and review of the relevant literature

Competency-based higher education in Ontario? Proceed with caution Competency-based education (CBE) might be a pathway to improved postsecondary quality, accountability and cost containment, but a new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) recommends caution in its application to Ontario’s higher education system. The borders between CBE and traditional programs are dissolving, […]

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David Trick – A happy 50th birthday to Ontario’s MTCU

  Guest blogger: David Trick Amid all the anniversary celebrations in higher education in recent years, one more deserves to be noted: May 8 is the 50th birthday of Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Until 1964, the Premier was in effect the minister responsible for Ontario’s universities. Premier John Robarts had an Advisory […]

AHELO: The Ontario Experience

Standardized international learning outcomes assessment possible but needs refining The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) feasibility study was successful in building international relationships, furthering the discussion on learning outcomes and exploring the potential for a common worldwide student assessment. But as an instrument to produce reliable, […]

Piloting the CLA in Ontario

Research Summary: Large-scale Learning Outcomes Assessments Should Focus on Student Needs to Increase Participation The Council for Aid to Education’s (CAE) Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) and college-sector equivalent the Community College Learning Assessment (CCLA) are standardized tests to assess a postsecondary institution’s contribution to the development of students’ key competencies, including critical thinking, analytic problem […]

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Martin Hicks – The alchemist’s dream

Just tell me, please, where the jobs of the future will be.  Then those working in higher education can plan accordingly, adjust the credential and programming mix, and drive students into the right programs.  Actually students won’t need driving, because they will surely make superior choices and not continue to stumble into the humanities or […]

Teaching Loads and Research Outputs of Ontario University Faculty: Implications for Productivity and Differentiation

Research Summary: Productivity 101: Increase teaching load of university professors who aren’t active researchers If professors who are not active researchers taught more, the teaching capacity of full-time professors in Ontario’s universities could increase by 10%, equivalent to adding 1,500 additional faculty members across the province, according to a new report from the Higher Education […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten – Managing for Quality: A Change Manifesto for Canadian Universities

I had the opportunity recently to participate in a conference panel for members of the Boards of Governors of Ontario universities.  Our panel was charged to opine on the question of whether universities are meeting the needs of students and the public and, if there is room for improvement, what has to change. The conference […]

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Harvey P. Weingarten – Suggestions for Better Performance Management of Postsecondary Funding

Today, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) released a major evaluation of the outcomes of the investment Canadian federal and provincial governments have made in graduate education. This report, Intentions For and Outcomes Following a Decade of Government Investment in Graduate Education, continues a series of papers we have published on graduate education.  […]

Intentions For and Outcomes Following a Decade of Government Investment in Graduate Education

Research Summary: ​Assessing government investment in graduate education: address the data gaps  Over the past decade, the federal and some provincial governments have made considerable investments in graduate education. But while available data identify enrollment trends, there is a notable lack of data on other important aspects of graduate education such as employment outcomes, according […]