Policy & Practice
COVID-19 has caused the academic community to be very reactionary, but research is fundamentally a long-term process.
Major crises provide windows of opportunity for change.
Despite a widespread media narrative claiming students would be flocking to Canada, universities did not see a “Trump bump.”
More funds for science in recent decades has meant more political pressure on research councils to showcase impact and demonstrate relevance.
The Liberals claim that “science is at the centre of everything the government does” – yet all we have seen and heard are symbolic gestures and feel-good rhetoric.
Clusters are often described as prioritizing interdisciplinary collaboration, but that comes with its own unique set of challenges.
The poor rate of innovation among Canadian firms relates to factors well beyond the scope of research partnerships.
In the long run, the status of the report as a relevant source for policy debate and advocacy hinges on which party wins the October federal election.
A new panel created in the 2019 Ontario budget will have the mundane task of clarifying the relationship between science and innovation.
The way HEQCO chose to communicate the results of its recent Skills Assessment Pilot Studies is a perfect example of cargo cult policy research.
With a federal election looming later this year, here are a few suggestions to bolster science, skills and innovation.
They might have been able to better back their initial position by problem solving with the budding francophone university in face of budget constraints.
The different interests and needs of each jurisdiction mean there is a range of funding schemes with disparate aims, formats and objectives.
There are fundamental questions that we should be considering about the role and format of science advice in this country.
Most with a working knowledge of higher education would agree we are nowhere near a free speech crisis in colleges and universities, let alone one justifying government intervention.
We need to move away from facile handwaving and towards a culture of evidence-based argumentation.
With a controversial pick leading the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, don’t hold your breath on big ideas or transformative change for the sector.
While couched in rhetoric of anticipating economic needs and helping individuals succeed in the labour market, the gospel surrounding “skills” is fundamentally mired in a very short-term perspective.
After five decades of telling ourselves the same story, can we start asking different questions about innovation?
The nature of universities as organizations helps explain why so much symbolic management takes place when they are faced with thorny subjects.