Is a PhD a waste of time?
This week we have a guest post by Rosanna Tamburri, a frequent contributor to University Affairs who attended a session at the Canadian Science Policy Conference last week. Is a PhD really a waste of...
View ArticleCanada’s PISA results: what you need to know
The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today the results of its fifth survey of the competencies of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science (with a...
View Article2013 in review: the MOOC backlash, skills ‘mismatch’ and more
This is the first time that I’ve tried my hand at an end-of-year look back at the events that affected universities in Canada and elsewhere in the past 12 months. It was an interesting exercise. Here’s...
View ArticleYour Top Ten stories from 2013
It’s another New Year. But, before we move on, I wanted to take one last look back at 2013. In my previous blog post just before the holidays, I pointed out a few things that caught my attention in the...
View ArticleRights, wrongs and a rush to judgment
The controversy over a York University student’s request for special accommodation for religious reasons created a bit of a media sh*tstorm this week (I’ve included a list of related links at the end...
View ArticleQuebec’s fractious charter debate
Public servants in Quebec would be banned from wearing these “ostentatious” symbols. It’s a safe bet that there were some awkward conversations in Quebec during the holidays over the province’s...
View ArticleA bit more nuance needed in our international education strategy
There’s a strong case to be made about the benefits to Canada of attracting more international students to our universities and colleges. And setting an aspirational goal of doubling the number of...
View ArticleEmotion should not rule over reason in politics
Do you follow emotion over reason – your heart over your head? Behavioural scientists recognize these as dual cognitive processes and the reality is that we use both in our everyday lives to cope with...
View ArticleCanada’s missed opportunity at AAAS
The following is a guest post by Helen Murphy, assistant director, communications, for the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Canada was both present and missing at this year’s annual...
View ArticleA second look at Canada’s adult literacy and numeracy skills
There were concerns in the media last October about Canada’s literacy and numeracy results in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC. An OECD initiative, PIAAC...
View ArticleLong-term and short-term, a degree is still a good bet
An interesting Statistics Canada study, released on Feb. 27, contained some very good news for Canada’s universities. The study, entitled Investment of a Lifetime? The Long-term Labour Market Premiums...
View ArticleThe rise of the student entrepreneur
In the January 2012 issue of University Affairs, we published a cover story on “campus incubators” that encourage students to create start-up companies and “hatch the entrepreneurial spirit.” While...
View ArticleUniversity PR: it was a simpler time
Track and field athletes, Simon Fraser University, 1998. We’re changing offices here at University Affairs – nothing major, just moving up a few floors in our current building in downtown Ottawa....
View ArticleTime away to learn and play
Sunset over the Adriatic. I’m back in the office after a recent three-month leave of absence. We’re often told that reflection facilitates deep learning, so in that spirit I wanted to use this space to...
View ArticleSessional instructors: what we know so far
Although the data on sessional faculty in Canada is frustratingly scant, the authors of a new report have made a valuable if tentative contribution to the debate by scouring what little information is...
View ArticleA few select facts for your back-to-school enjoyment
The beginning of August is too early for me to contemplate back-to-school activities – the summer goes by too quickly as it is – but it hasn’t been too early for the Association of Universities and...
View ArticleCanadian university leaders take the ice bucket challenge for ALS awareness,...
This is a guest post, collated by our Digital Journalist Natalie Samson in Storify. The ALS #IceBucketChallenge campaign has been making the social media rounds this summer. The campaign aims to raise...
View ArticleA glance at Canada’s postsecondary education standings
OECD’s Education at a Glance report for 2014. We’re number one! According to the 2014 Education at a Glance report by the OECD, Canada has the highest percentage, among member countries, of adults aged...
View ArticleWe once got along
It is easy to think that relations between the Canadian government and aboriginal peoples have always been bad, that the two sides have never gotten along. But, “the fact of the matter is that’s not...
View ArticleA new partnership between universities and colleges
There has always been a bit of friendly competition between Canada’s universities and colleges. I recently read, for example, this quote from Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities...
View ArticleAdvice to a daughter about staying safe on campus
This is a guest post by our regular contributor Rosanna Tamburri, co-author of our feature story, “Ending sexual violence on campus.” When University Affairs editor Peggy Berkowitz contacted me to...
View ArticleA plan to double the number of Canadians winning international awards
The Nobel Prize awards season has just ended and Canada was shut out – although a McGill University graduate, U.S.-born researcher John O’Keefe, was named a co-winner in the physiology and medicine...
View ArticleUniversities open their doors
Carleton University played host last Friday to the launch of this year’s Open Doors, Open Knowledge series of events, which runs through much of November. Organized by the Association of Universities...
View ArticleTurning students into socially conscious entrepreneurs
As I’ve pointed out before, entrepreneurship is all the rage at Canada’s universities. Barely a week goes by without a new announcement. This week, for example, York University announced the start of...
View ArticleCanada’s international education strategy: progressing, but still a muddle
The Canadian Bureau for International Education released its annual report last Friday on the state of international education in Canada, entitled A World of Learning: Canada’s Performance and...
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