Great new blog on post-secondary education policy in Canada

Dale Kirby, Assistant Professor of Post-Secondary Education Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, has a new blog: Post-Secondary Education Blog. Dr. Kirby's illustrious career includes time spent on the National Executive of the Canadian Federation of Students. His blog doesn't cover student politics, however, but rather policy issues affecting post-secondary education, such as tuition fees, women in academia, post-secondary education economics, and other challenges that post-secondary institutions face. His blog only started three weeks ago, and it looks to be truly promising.

With regards to tuition fees, this blog has three entries: $2,000 Tuition Subsidy for 1st Year University Students in New Brunswick; University Tuition & Student Debt in the UK; and Tuition Fee Debate in Quebec. Dr. Kirby's entry on tuition fees in the UK also includes a brief discussion of Tuition Rationalization Theory, the position that "free or universally low tuition fees are inequitable because they spend more public funds, raised through taxation, to subsidize post-secondary studies for higher income groups who have much higher post-secondary participation rates compared to lower income earners." For a contrary perspective, one can view Michael Conlon's article, Tuition hikes don't add up, one of many articles that Dr. Conlon has written to oppose this theory. (Dr. Conlon, former Director of Research for the CFS, is now working for the Canadian Association of University Teachers.)