Stephen Downes

"It's going to be a tough year ahead" for universities in Canada, writes Alex Usher, as he offers five rules for success. The rules amount to what I'll call 'the Columbia Strategy' - that is, cave to whatever it is government wants you to do. Now I'm not saying there isn't sense to some of the recommendations - universities should be seen as a means to an end, not an end in themselves, and there's no reason why outside institutions should care about universities' internal tenure process. But recommendations like "fire up your friend-raising and fund-raising," "act as an institution and not just as a sack full of cats," and "do less" are not sound strategies, notwithstanding Usher's continued misunderstanding of the term enshittifcation.