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Another Lens on Bleak Graduate Income Data
So, yesterday we looked at Ontario university graduate employment data (link to: previous). Today I want to zero in a little bit on what’s happening by field of study. (I can hear two objections...
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More Bleak Data, But This Time on Colleges
Everyone seems to be enjoying data on graduate outcomes, so I thought I’d keep the party going by looking at similar data from Ontario colleges. But first, some of you have written to me suggesting I...
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Puzzles in the youth labour market
A couple of days ago, after looking at employment patterns among recent graduate using Ontario graduate survey data, I promised a look at broader youth labour market data. I now wish I hadn’t promised...
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An Amazing Statscan Skills Study
I’ve been hard on Statscan lately because of their mostly-inexcusable data collection practices. But every once in awhile the organization redeems itself. This week, that redemption takes the form of...
View ArticleStudent/Graduate Survey Data
This is my last thought on data for awhile, I promise. But I want to talk a little bit today about what we’re doing wrong with the increasing misuse of student and graduate surveys. Back about 15...
View ArticleWhy Education in IT Fields is Different
A couple of years ago, an American academic by the name of James Bessen wrote a fascinating book called Learning by Doing: The Real Connection Between Innovation, Wages and Wealth. (It’s brilliant....
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Jobs: Hot and Not-So-Hot
Remember when everyone was freaking out because there were too many sociology graduates and not enough welders? When otherwise serious people like Ken Coates complained about the labour market being...
View ArticleThe Nordstrom Philologist
People are always nattering on about skills for the new economy, but apart from some truly unhelpful ideas like “everyone should learn to code”, they are usually pretty vague on specifics about what...
View ArticleNew Quality Measurement Initiatives
One of the holy grails in higher education – if you’re on the government or management side of things, anyway – is to find some means of actually measuring institutional effectiveness. It’s all very...
View ArticleWhy Companies Value(d) Higher Education
I recently read the book A Perfect Mess: the Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education by David Larabee. It’s very good – in fact, the first two chapters are for my money the best short history...
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2016 Census Data on Education
Yesterday, Statistics Canada did the last of its big data dumps on the 2016 census and it covered education. As usual, the HESA Towers team swung into action to get you the highlights (no, really,...
View ArticleCanada’s Secret Weapon against Inequality
Inequality is perhaps the great political issue of the 21st century (so far anyway). And while Canada isn’t exactly a world-beater on this score, we do show up a heck of a lot better than some of our...
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A More Nuanced Look at Graduate Incomes
It’s all-Council-of-Ontario-Universities this week on the blog, but that’s because they’re the ones putting out the great data. Today, it’s the annual survey on graduate outcomes which looks at how...
View ArticleThe Case Against Education
Sorry for the delay this AM, all. Long flight over the Atlantic yesterday. There is a new book out from George Mason economics professor Bryan Caplan called The Case Against Education: Why the...
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Destinations of Doctoral Graduates
Canada usually alternates between good news and bad news when it comes to higher education data. Good news: we’re getting marginally better data on profs, for only $1 million per year. Bad news: we...
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(Another) New Report on Skills
Late last week the Business Higher Education Roundtable published the results of a survey of its members (big Canadian businesses) on the issue of skills. The results were…intriguing. Let’s start with...
View ArticleBad Data on Brain Drain
Periodically, in Canada, someone comes up with a statistic about higher education. Doesn’t matter if it makes the least bit of sense – as long as it serves somebody’s political narrative. This...
View ArticleIn Tech, We are All Maritimers
I got a bit of blowback for Friday’s blog criticizing that U of T/Brock piece on the alleged Brain Drain. Nobody tried to argue that my critique of the methodology was wrong, but some argued that a)...
View ArticleBetter Feedback
Universities (and to a lesser extent colleges) are sometimes accused of being change-resistant. Various stakeholders have lots of valuable feedback to give, so the critique goes, but institutions...
View ArticleCritical Friends
A few times a year I get asked to help with the drafting a university or college’s strategic plan. Usually nothing major: a little bit of environmental scanning, talking about industry trends, that...
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