Ten with Ken (Video)

This week, Ken Steele chats with Maureen Adamson, president of Fleming College, about how higher ed leaders can sustain a culture of innovation on campus, particularly by investing in our people.   "The most important thing" Maureen says, is to "give the gift of time" to front-line faculty and staff to reflect and innovate.  "It can't be someone in a back room trying to think something up." We als...

This week, Ken Steele's conversation continues with Maureen Adamson, president of Fleming College in Peterborough Ontario. Maureen was formerly Ontario's Deputy Minister responsible for the Status of Women, so this week Ken asks her thoughts on gender equity and increasing diversity in higher education.   When it comes to equity of access and success of women in higher ed, "we've got a lot of work...

This week, Ten with Ken visits Fleming College, in Peterborough Ontario, where Ken Steele and president Maureen Adamson discuss the labour market needs of the fourth industrial revolution, and the need to prepare college students with interdisciplinary programs and the so-called "soft skills" in demand by employers. Some of the biggest challenges facing higher education institutions, aside from bu...

The distinction between 2-year colleges and 4-year universities is becoming increasingly blurred, with the rise of polytechnics, collaborative and dual enrolment programs, postgrad certificates at university and applied degrees at colleges.  (Sheridan College has not been coy about its ambitions to eventually become a university itself.)  This week, Ken Steele's conversation with Janet Morrison, p...

Colleges and universities are investing more and more resources into student retention and success initiatives, and student mental health has become an escalating crisis on many campuses.  This week, Ken Steele sits down with Janet Morrison, president and vice-chancellor of Sheridan College, to discuss some lessons she has learned over 25 years as a champion of student success, in the university a...

Sheridan College, in the suburbs of Toronto, is world renowned for its creative programs, such as top-ranked illustration and animation degrees – and it has built its entire institutional brand on the slogan "Get Creative."  This week, Ken Steele sits down with Janet Morrison, Sheridan's president and vice-chancellor, to discuss how higher ed can cultivate creativity, equipping students with cruci...

This week, Ken Steele continues his conversation with Larry Rosia, the president and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, about the fourth industrial revolution, workforce changes, rising interdisciplinarity, and the strengths of polytechnic education – particularly, their close connections to industry. "We like to say we have industry in our DNA," Larry says.   The fourth industrial revolution, as th...

This week, Ken Steele "takes off" to Saskatoon to speak with Larry Rosia, the president and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, about his institution's four pillars of internationalization. They sit down in SP's pilot training flight simulator for a conversation.   Internationalization has been a top priority for many institutions in Canada.  Reports from the World Economic Forum and the Conference B...

Ken's conversation with Mark Frison, president of Assiniboine Community College in Brandon Manitoba, continues this week as they explore ways that higher ed leaders can empower and inspire their people to take ownership and take initiative, to propel innovation on campus.  (If you missed the first part of this interview, about encouraging PSE participation on the prairies, see https://youtu.be/-vk...

Ken Steele visits Assiniboine Community College, in Brandon Manitoba, to talk with president Mark Frison about their beautiful new North Hill Campus, encouraging enrolment in a region with the lowest PSE participation rate in the country, serving Indigenous populations, aligning programs with provincial immigration policy, and growing international enrolment 1,500%!   ACC's North Hill Campus is ta...

From the high tech sector to higher education, one leadership challenge is similar: how do you nurture a culture of innovation in a hierarchical environment? It's probably tougher in the public sector, and especially in centuries-old academic institutions with bicameral, colleagial decision-making processes. But even entrepreneurial firms like Google or Adobe had to wrestle with similar challenges...

In the face of mounting budgetary pressure, colleges and universities are finding new collaborative approaches to achieve efficiency and economies of scale. Public institutions are sharing campuses and facilities, forming regional marketing groups, and even signing agreements to share course sections between different institutions using distance delivery.  Some smaller colleges, particularly in th...

Faced with tuition caps and declining government grants, public colleges and universities are becoming more entrepreneurial and seeking alternative revenue streams, often by selling off surplus campus lands to developers, or leasing campus space for retail or residential development. Simon Fraser University, built in a conservation area atop Burnaby Mountain just a 30-minute drive from downtown Va...

Ken Steele is back with his 4th annual Holiday Special, and this time he's counting down the top ten higher ed holiday videos from last December, based on a rubric including production quality, acting, music, creativity and emotional impact.   The Holiday Top 10:   #10 – Elon University "Holiday Video"   – A great sing-along video featuring 27 staff and student vocalists. https://youtu.be/0-pIVbnN...

Last week, Ken Steele sat down with Vianne Timmons, president of the University of Regina, to discuss why Indigenization matters to higher ed.  (ICYMI see it at https://youtu.be/iLe1mxiT4rM ). This week, we turn from "why" to "how", and look at dozens of ways that colleges and universities can better accommodate Indigenous students, integrate Indigenous ways of knowing and learning, and introduce...

In the wake of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Canada's Truth & Reconciliation Commission findings, higher ed is realizing just how much work lies ahead if it is to reconcile itself with Indigenous peoples, and indigenize the curriculum. Saskatchewan, where some projections say that 30% of the population will be Indigenous by the year 2045, is in many ways the epicentre...

This week, our conversation continues with Steve Robinson, interim President & Vice-Chancellor at Brandon University  in Manitoba. We tackle one of the toughest questions for today's higher ed leaders: how to encourage a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. Many academics, Steve explains, regard the drive to innovation with a great deal of suspicion, as part of modern trends to ne...

This week, Ken Steele talks with Steve Robinson, interim President & Vice-Chancellor at Brandon University  in Manitoba, about one of the most urgent changes facing higher ed in the next decade: indigenization. Every university in Canada, particularly those in Western Canada, is faced with the challenge of accommodating Indigenous peoples and cultures on their campuses, and since institutions and...

This week, Ken Steele concludes his conversation with Paula Burns, President & CEO of Lethbridge College.  In part 1, Paula described 3 notable innovations at Lethbridge College, in competency-based learning, stackable modular credentials, and the use of VR technology ( https://youtu.be/9-kxnnMA8nM ). In part 2, she outlined 5 ways that institutions can prepare for evolving students and the labour...

This week, Ken Steele continues his conversation with Paula Burns, President & CEO of Lethbridge College, about 5 key ways higher education should be preparing for the decade ahead. (Last week, Paula described 3 notable innovations in competency-based learning, stackable modular credentials, and the use of VR technology: https://youtu.be/9-kxnnMA8nM )   Be Flexible to Reskill Working Students Stud...

This week, Ken Steele talks with Paula Burns, President & CEO of Lethbridge College, about 3 notable innovations in programming, pedagogy and applied research at her institution: competency-based learning, stackable modular credentials, and the use of virtual reality technology. Don't let its location in small-town Alberta fool you – Lethbridge College is a born innovator, and the frontier mindset...

Simon Fraser University is committed to community engagement, so much so that its campus master plan and infrastructure is focused on building communities, in Vancouver, Surrey, and on Burnaby Mountain. SFU is literally setting its vision in stone! Last week 10K looked at how SFU's Engagement Strategy has been socialized across the institution, reinforcing efforts at community-based research, cult...

At BC's Simon Fraser University, "the Engaged University," the slogan is much more than mere marketing; it's the focus for the institution's planning framework. (Although yes, it also helps differentiate the university's brand.) SFU president Andrew Petter invited Ken Steele for a campus site visit late last year, and this is the first of many episodes that will be the result. Since the brand laun...

Ken Steele returns to the Brand Chemistry™ lab to round up 10 recent examples of colleges and universities that have focused their brands on a single word.   It can be a real challenge to get campus-wide consensus, but there's a growing trend to quite literally "own a word" in the higher ed marketplace. 1) UC System – "Public" The University of California system launched an online and OOH campaign...

College and university marketers have to work hard to gather research and build campus consensus around a new brand position. Although the goal is to develop a distinctive position, the reality is that many higher ed branding projects result in some awfully similar creative executions. Next week, we'll round up ten recent examples of "One-Word Wonders" – higher ed brands that try to "own a word" i...