The Politics of Policy Making in Postsecondary Education in Canada and in the Province of Ontario: Implications for Governance

Tuition Policy Instruments in Canada Public Policy Choices for What Problems

“…In either collection, there has been relatively little attention focussing directly on policy instruments, nor is there an established body of work on the area of policy design. There are a number of studies that have examined aspects of the politics of higher education policy making, often featuring the role of the federal government or questions of governance (for example, Axelrod et al, 2011Axelrod et al, , 2012Axelrod et al, , 2013Jones, 1996Jones, , 1997Jones, , 2000Jones, , 2004Jones and Young, 2004;Padure and Jones, 2009;Shanahan and Jones, 2007;Smith, 2010;Young, 2002). Recently in a related area, Díaz (2016) explored specific accountability policy instruments used to steer institutions in the Ontario system, focussing on the negotiated character of the relationship between government and universities.…”

Thawing the tuition freeze: The politics of policy change in comparative perspective

“…Actors identified as influencing decision-making in the United States include interest groups, coordinating bodies, institutional boards, legislature and legislative committees, and the state governor (Layzel and Lyddon, 1990;Lowry, 2001;Pusser, 2000). Canadian scholars have examined the influence of federal policy on post-secondary education (Fisher et al, 2006;Fisher, Rubenson, Jones and Shanahan, 2009;Shanahan and Jones, 2007;Wellen, Axelrod, Desai-Trilokekar and Shanahan, 2012) as well as forces influencing policymaking in different Canadian provinces (Axelrod, Desai-Trilokekar, Shanahan and Wellen, 2011;Axelrod, Shanahan, Wellen and Desai-Trilokekar, 2012;Jones, 1997;Padure and Jones, 2009). This study contributes to a small body of work internationally on tuition policy and politics (Sponsler, 2009;Warne, 2008) and of the Canadian politics of higher education finance and policy formation (Boggs, 2009;Jones, 1998;Rounce, 2010;Smith, 2010;Trick, 2005), increasingly of essential interest to scholars as well as advocates, practitioners, and policy makers.…”