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Alex Usher
@AlexUsherHESA
, 5 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
The ten new metrics for Ontario Performance-based funding are out. Let the enormous bunfight over measuring "skills and competencies" begin. @marcspooner theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…
2/ By far the dumbest indicator on this list is the "community engagement" indicator. It is not a measure of performance. It is, literally, institution size divided by commnuity size. Transparently, a way to make sure Nipissing (in Fedeli's riding) gets something nice.
3/ It may well be worth giving extra money to institutions in small communities. But then do it straight through the operating grant, don;t dress it up as "performance".
4/ Although I do look forward to the think pieces about perverse incentives in performance indicators as a result: will U of T go all-in on Soylent Green production in order to score better on "community engagement"? We'll find out!
5/ Also, I note govt seems to be trying to create a new metric which is not "grad employment rates" but "grad employment rates in a related field", with definition of "related" TBD. Can see rationale for this if restricted to professional programs, but otherwise terrible idea.
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More from @AlexUsherHESA see all

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Alex Usher
@AlexUsherHESA
Just out of Ontario lockup. Big news is govt moving 60% of grant to performance based. Good news in principle but huge devil in details.
In theory PSE budget frozen (no cuts no increases) for the mandate but big question is what happens to the "at risk" portion of performance-based budget? If it goes back to treasury could be looking at hundreds of millions in cuts. No word on design though so can't say for sure
Will tweet more later but gotta get the little brown belt to karate.
Read 5 tweets
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Alex Usher
@AlexUsherHESA
1/ I have just read the BC Budget and the new policy on student loan interest and holy crap what a terrible, awful waste of money. Truly appalling. Buckle up and I will explain why.
2/ Generally speaking, eliminating student loan interest is a bad idea. It makes no difference to access, and better alternative uses of $are plentiful. The only thing going for it is that at least there is a need test so it;s not as regressive as a tuition freeze/cut.
3/ The BC budget is allocating $31M/year going forward to eliminate loan interest. But it is also spending $225 million on a one-time write down of debt on outstanding loans because this policy applies to every outstanding BC loan. Including ppl who graduated years ago.
Read 8 tweets
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Alex Usher
@AlexUsherHESA
1/ So I got invited to a dinner with a minister today. Just an intimate group of experts chatting with the minister over dinner at HQ. How fun! Most public servants try to keep me the hell away from ministers, so it was nice to get the invite.
2/ Of course, the Minister's HQ is in Ottawa while I - thank every star in heaven - am not. I pointed out the grographical challenge to the public servants. I will occasionally give away advice in return for a good meal but I've never yet paid my own airfare somewehre to do so.
3/ So I inquired if the invite came with a travel budget. The very polite answer was no, sadly not. Not unexpected, of course, but it did make me wonder why I got the invite in the first place.
Read 8 tweets

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