Finance 101: How to fix Canada's broken universities
A prominent Canadian philanthropist launches into a story about his days as an undergraduate at university way back when. He switched majors early on and, in advance of his final year, experienced a moment of acute realization that he was not having nearly enough fun. To beef up the good times, he registered for what he described as a slate of “Joe” courses, otherwise known as bird courses.
Lo and behold, he had the time of his life. But equally memorable was that two of those courses, the history of business and psychology, would prove key to a career that saw the good-time-loving undergraduate become a good-time-loving tycoon who amassed a substantial fortune, millions of which he has donated to universities over the years.
The point of his story, added the philanthropist who asked not to be named, is that as much as university should be about producing graduates with the survival skills required to make it in the 21st century, there is also something to be said about producing human beings with some knowledge of business history and psychology, as well as an ability to have fun.
He wouldn’t name names, but he knows one whippersnapper MBA who knows nothing of the Great Depression, the event that scarred the philanthropist’s parents’ generation.
“Can you imagine not knowing about the Great Depression?” he asked rhetorically.
University life often generates fond recollections for graduates, but universities have recently landed on the general public’s radar, put there by some frantic news out of Kingston, Ont., that Queen’s University is in imminent risk of going bust. It turns out, the university is not going anywhere any time soon, but many post-secondary institutions, Queen’s included, have been caught in higher
Read more on financialpost.com
