Higher Education Quality Council of OntarioSystem Design
I looked around the family table at Thanksgiving dinner and was struck by this: of the eleven Ontarians represented, seven are students in our higher education system at this moment in time. Despite the small sample, what’s represented here is richer than gravy. This family is hungrily learning at both college and university, towards a […]
Critical questions need answers before design work begins on new funding model In the midst of the Ontario government’s review of its university funding model, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) has issued the second of its background reports to help inform the process. In Design Questions: Funding Models for Ontario, report author Martin Hicks […]
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 […]
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 […]
As Yogi Berra said, “Predictions are hard, especially when they are about the future.” But if there is any issue that should dominate the future of higher education, it’s quality – quality of the student experience, quality of our graduates, quality of our postsecondary institutions and quality of our higher education systems. Ultimately, quality is […]
Affiliated / federated universities valuable players in Ontario’s postsecondary system Ontario has 16 affiliated and federated universities that are historically church-governed but became associated with one of the province’s publicly supported universities as primarily secular institutions. A new study from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) says that these institutions provide a distinctive […]
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 […]
Input/output economic impact studies only tell part of the story Economic impact studies have become a staple of postsecondary institutional accountability but the basic ‘input-output’ approach, while relatively simple and inexpensive to undertake, is telling only part of the story – and not the part that’s of greatest interest to the public or government decision-makers, […]
Intermediary bodies useful to advancing postsecondary quality and sustainability An intermediary or “buffer” body between government and postsecondary institutions can help promote both higher quality and financial sustainability, according to a new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO). Defined by report author David Trick as a government agency “that occupies a […]