Second home for first-gen students. The University of Cincinnati is using theme housing in an attempt to help low-income, first-generation students achieve success in university.
Making the case for free community college tuition. Alex Usher muses about the possibility of eliminating college fees (and increasing fees for university).
Merit aid shapes enrollment. A new study suggests that the adoption of merit aid by private universities in the U.S. has led to decreased enrollments of low-income and minority students.
Lobbying showdown over U.S. student loans. Student loan providers in the U.S. are putting big money behind their efforts to derail Obama's plans to reshape the financial aid landscape.
India losing interest in Australian universities? More and more it seems that attacks on Indians and allegations of racism in Australia will have a negative impact on the numbers of Indian students studying down under.
100 free courses. Online Colleges has prepared a list of 100 free cutting-edge courses that didn’t exist when you were in school.
Friday, 31 July, 2009
Gumdrops: A mix of post-secondary miscellany
Saying goodbye to student loan interest
Tomorrow, August 1, Newfoundland and Labrador will become the first province in Canada to eliminate interest on its student loans. And, because interest will be eliminated on all new, current, and outstanding student loans, the measure will benefit more than 49,000 students and graduates.
In 2007, the Williams government reduced the interest charged on provincial student loans from prime plus 2.5 per cent to prime. Earlier this year, with 12,000+ signatures in hand, provincial student leaders petitioned the minister of education to drop the interest to zero, and government subsequently saw fit to take their advice.
The provincial student federation held a packed news conference this morning to mark the day and perform a symbolic countdown to the elimination of interest charges with recently minted education minister Dr. Darin King.
Newfoundland and Labrador Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students Daniel Smith, who is perhaps the envy of all other student leaders in the country, rather triumphantly noted the following:
By continuing the tuition fee freeze, increasing core funding for our public college and university, expanding upon the up-front grant program and eliminating the interest rate charges on student financial assistance this government has clearly listened to students and their families for the need to lessen obstacles to education and reduce student debt.When I was a student leader in the mid-1990's we were called communist for suggesting that institutions stop increasing tuition fees. Times have clearly changed.
Wednesday, 29 July, 2009
STEM students outperform their peers
Chronicle of Higher Education news story:
Using data from three national studies completed from 1995 to 2006, the U.S. Department of Education released a report today that profiles the characteristics and higher-education outcomes of the roughly 15 percent of students who major in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics at postsecondary institutions.
. . .
Students in the STEM fields also did better than their non-STEM peers. Students who majored in STEM subjects generally were more likely than non-STEM students to obtain a bachelor's degree within six years of their initial college enrollment. About one-third of students who declared a STEM major during their first year switched to a non-STEM field over the six-year period.
The curious case of Hassan Diab
So much for the maxim 'innocent until proven guilty':
An Ottawa university has replaced a professor accused of involvement in a deadly Paris bombing nearly three decades ago. Hassan Diab was teaching a part-time summer course in sociology at Carleton University.
The university said it had hired Mr. Diab to teach through the middle of August because of an unforeseen leave taken by the course's original instructor. Mr. Diab has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in late 2008. He was released on bail March 31, 2008, under strict conditions that include wearing a GPS-monitored ankle bracelet.
Tuesday, 28 July, 2009
D2L on top in patent litigation case
This story is of particular relevance to educators in Newfoundland and Labrador:
D.C.-based Blackboard lost an appeals court ruling over its patent-infringement claims against Desire2Learn, a Canadian firm whose software is used by colleges to put lectures online.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit threw out a jury verdict won by Blackboard, saying its patent did not cover new inventions, and it upheld a judge's finding that other elements of the patent were invalid.
Blackboard also has an infringement case before the U.S. International Trade Commission that seeks to block imports of products made by Desire2Learn, its biggest competitor. That case is based on the same patent in the appeals court's ruling.
Monday, 27 July, 2009
Digital leap forward for French universities
From University World News:
France is launching a EUR16 million [$24.7M CAD] 'digitised university' programme to install wireless internet connections and develop podcasting for online courses throughout the university system.
The initiative is in response to a report last year that said French universities urgently needed to catch up with information and communication technologies if they were to satisfy the higher education demands of the new generation of 'digitally native' students.
Saturday, 25 July, 2009
$115.8M (CAD) cut for England's universities
From the BBC News:
Funding for teaching at England's universities is being cut by 1.36% next year to save £65m.
Every university is affected by the revised grant allocations from the funding council (Hefce).
But the biggest cuts are at those with the most students: £2.5m at the OU, £1.4m at Manchester, £1.2m at Leeds.
Unions reacted angrily but the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) said the sector had to tighten its belt like everyone else.
The University and College Union (UCU) said the £65m would equate to the loss of a further 1,500 full time lecturing and support staff, days after it had complained at nearly 6,000 cuts affecting 100,000 students.
Friday, 24 July, 2009
New paper on student engagement in PSE
The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario has released a new paper titled Measures of Student Engagement in Post-secondary Education: Theoretical Basis and Applicability to Ontario’s Colleges.
The paper provides a summary of the theoretical background of student engagement in post-secondary education. It also includes a very useful overview of a number of engagement-related survey instruments that are currently in use.
A copy of the paper in .pdf format can be requested here.
British Columbia cuts post-secondary funding
As reported by The Vancouver Sun:
Hundreds of post-secondary students looking for financial help this fall have been turned away by the province following a $16-million cut to the student-aid budget, The Vancouver Sun has learned.
Nursing, health care and home-support-worker programs are among those affected by the cuts, which were approved in June.
There was no public announcement. Students were notified by letter or phone call.
The Premier's Excellence Award, which distributes $15,000 scholarships to top high school students, was eliminated.
Students who can't afford to repay their student debt, or who are disabled and can't work, will no longer be eligible to have their loans forgiven.
It's all part of the government's bid to reduce costs by at least $1.9 billion over three years, $589 million of it this fiscal year.
Thursday, 23 July, 2009
Hard, hard times at Harvard University
From Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard, an article which appears in the current issue of Vanity Fair:
Only a year ago, Harvard had a $36.9 billion endowment, the largest in academia. Now that endowment has imploded, and the university faces the worst financial crisis in its 373-year history. Could the same lethal mix of uncurbed expansion, colossal debt, arrogance, and mismanagement that ravaged Wall Street bring down America’s most famous university? And how much of the turmoil is the fault of former Harvard president Larry Summers, now a top economic adviser to President Obama? As students demonstrate, administrators impose Draconian cuts, and construction is halted on an over-ambitious $1.2 billion science complex, the author follows the finger-pointing.
Time for a two-tiered Canadian university system?
In the recent issue of Maclean's magazine Paul Wells wrote about the challenges facing Canada’s five largest universities -- University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Toronto, McGill University, and Université de Montréal. Wells summed up these challenges as follows:
First, they are hobbled by one-size-fits-all rules and mandates even as they have begun to try to compete, not against other Canadian universities, but against the best in the world.The forthcoming issue of Maclean’s will feature commentary from the presidents of the "big five" universities regarding the challenges they face and the opportunities they forsee.
Second, they have begun to realize that it matters little how well universities perform their role as incubators of new ideas if those ideas never take root in a broader, innovative society.
Increase in Ontario community college applicants
The current edition of the Ontario College Voice notes that there has been a 10 per cent increase in applications to the province's college programs. While final enrollment counts will be available after the deadline for applications later this fall, as of July 20 the Ontario College Application Service (OCAS) had received 155,642 applications - an increase of close to 14,000 over this time last year. The more competitive programs include nursing, paramedics, dental hygiene and early childhood education.
Wednesday, 22 July, 2009
New Brunswick students concerned about debt cap
From CBC New Brunswick:
New Brunswick university student leaders are worried that province's new debt-cap program comes with a requirement to complete programs within specific time frames, which many students could find too difficult to meet.
Duncan Gallant, the president of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, applauded the Timely Completion Benefit program when it was announced but he said on Monday that some students need more flexibility.
The new program announced in the March budget limits the debt post-secondary students can accumulate as long as they graduate within the timeline established by their program — after four years if they are in a four-year program, for example.
Eligible students will have their federal and provincial student loan debt capped at $26,000. Any debt accumulated above that would be forgiven.
Tuesday, 21 July, 2009
Fairer access to professional occupations
A new report on social mobility and access to professional occupations in the United Kingdom has pointed out that most of the high-status jobs in the UK, such as those in medicine, law, and journalism, are increasingly polarized in favour of individuals from more affluent backgrounds.
The report notes that over half of all the professional jobs in the UK are taken by individuals who attended private schools even though they account for only 7% of the country's students. The report, titled Fair Access to the Professions, also notes that, compared to young people whose parents have routine occupations, almost three times as many of those with parents in professional jobs go to university.
The report makes wide-ranging recommendations including suggested measures to close the educational attainment gap. It calls for more detailed statistics on student transitions to post-secondary education and the workforce including the collection of data on the socio-economic backgrounds of students by university program and long-term labour market outcomes for students. It also recommends that universities take the social context of pupils’ achievement into account in admissions processes.
The full report may be downloaded here in .pdf format.
Monday, 20 July, 2009
Say tuned on MemorialU's presidential search
It's been just over two and a half years since the resignation of Memorial University of Newfoundland's last president, Dr. Axel Meisen, took effect. Today, the chair of the search committee and chair of Memorial’s Board of Regents, said that the university is making progress in the search for a successor.
Slowdown hammers Alberta trades training
Calgary Herald story:
While businesses and government officials tout the need for more tradespeople--and as Calgary prepares to play host to a major international trade skills competition and forum in September--the number of apprenticeship spots at Alberta colleges is slated to decrease year-over-year for the first time in five years. Student demand hasn't waned in the recession. Instead, fewer employers are willing to spend money to hire and mentor trainees, especially rookie apprentices.
OECD Secretary-General on widening access
This piece is excerpted from OECD Secretary-Genera Angel Gurría's address to the recent UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education:
Developing fairer and more open access to higher education means diversifying funding sources for institutions. Some 86% of spending on education still originates from public sources and OECD countries spend on average 6% of GDP on education.
But in most, private spending has been increasing rapidly, especially on tertiary education. Given the shared public and private returns that education brings, costs and responsibilities also need to be shared.
We have recently published an extensive review of tertiary education policy in OECD countries. It shows that the best way to provide effectiveness and fairness is a well-designed model for charging students a contribution.
But we need to be careful here. To ensure the less well-off can go to university, the OECD recommends putting in place a comprehensive grant and means-tested loan system covering not only student fees but also living expenses. We need to ensure that education levels the playing field and creates opportunities for social mobility.
Friday, 17 July, 2009
Graduates don't equal growth?
Writing in a Change Magazine article, King’s College London professor Allison Wolf counters the suggestion that post-secondary education "automatically" makes one more skilled, productive, and prosperous. She says:
In summary, education helps people get ahead. In a recession, no one will take much persuading that college is one of the best purchases that they, as individuals, can make. But what college does is put you in there with a chance; a college degree suggests that you may be better positioned than other people competing for the same jobs who don’t have the degree. That is a very different thing from being a way for countries to deliver economic growth overall.
Enhancing learning with interactive e-feedback
From Inside Higher Ed:
It may seem paradoxical, but educational technology as a supplement to face-to-face learning could personalize the educational experience. That is, at least according to a presentation on student assessment and feedback here at the Blackboard annual conference Thursday. Two professors from the University of Westminster in London explained research finding that use of educational technology such as blogs and online questionnaires, combined with personal tutors, could enhance the feedback loop while also making face-to-face communication more efficient.
Foreign universities must adhere to India's inclusion policy
From The Chronicle on Higher Education:
Foreign universities seeking to set up campuses in India will have to follow the government’s quota policies that reserve almost 50 percent of all seats at higher-education institutions for members of economically disadvantaged castes and classes, Kapil Sibal, the country’s minister in charge of higher education, told parliament on Wednesday, The Times of India reported.
Thursday, 16 July, 2009
UK prime minister pledges more university spaces
From the BBC News:
The prime minister has said there will be extra university places for the next academic year, starting this autumn.
Gordon Brown made the promise to a committee of senior MPs - but without putting a figure on the expansion.
He said the universities minister would make an announcement "in a timely manner" after consulting the sector.
Applications are up about 10%, suggesting tens of thousands of people face disappointment, while previous expansion plans have been cut back.
Fifty thousand more people have applied for university places in the UK this year, than last year.
Can community colleges save the U.S. economy?
From Time magazine:
Many politicians and their well-heeled constituents may be under the impression that a community college — as described in a promo for NBC's upcoming comedy Community — is a "loser college for remedial teens, 20-something dropouts, middle-aged divorcées and old people keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity." But there's at least one Ivy Leaguer who is trying to help Americans get past the stereotypes and start thinking about community college not as a dumping ground but as one of the best tools the U.S. has to dig itself out of the current economic hole. His name: Barack Obama.
The President hasn't forgotten about the 30 or so community colleges he visited during the 2008 campaign. These institutions are our nation's trade schools, training 59% of our new nurses as well as cranking out wind-farm technicians and video-game designers — jobs that, despite ballooning unemployment overall, abound for adequately skilled workers. Community-college graduates earn up to 30% more than high school grads, a boon that helps state and local governments reap a 16% return on every dollar they invest in community colleges. But our failure to improve graduation rates at these schools is a big part of the achievement gap between the U.S. and other countries. As unfilled jobs continue to head overseas, Obama points to the "national-security implication" of the widening gap. Closing it, according to an April report from McKinsey & Co., would have added as much as $2.3 trillion, or 16%, to our 2008 GDP.
The higher education access crisis
Syndicated columnist EJ Dionne writes on access to higher education:
Today, the United States stands 10th in the percentage of 25- to-34-year-olds who have earned a postsecondary degree. We're behind Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and France.While comparable data are not available, a similar phenomenon exists North of the 49th parallel. Canadian youth from lower income families also have less opportunity to access post-secondary education. University participation rates in particular are highest amongst youth from high-income families and lowest amongst youth from low-income families. In fact, children of those from the highest family income quartile are about twice as likely to enroll in university.
The information I've just offered comes from an important article by Andrew Delbanco, a professor at Columbia University, published this spring in the New York Review of Books. Delbanco concludes that "a great many gifted and motivated young people are excluded from college for no other reason than their inability to pay, and we have failed seriously to confront the problem."
To bolster his point, Delbanco cites the remarkable finding of Donald E. Heller, the director of Penn State's Center for the Study of Higher Education, that "the college-going rates of the highest-socioeconomic-status students with the lowest achievement levels is the same level as the poorest students with the highest achievement levels." I added the italics to underscore the not-so-hidden injuries of class.
Nearly 1 in 5 university students report recent violent experiences
University of British Columbia media release:
While attending university, men are equally likely as women to have been victims of physical or emotional violence, and that violence is often linked to drinking, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia researcher Elizabeth Saewyc.
The study, first published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health last month and scheduled for print publication this fall, found 17 per cent of men and 16 per cent of women reported emotional or physical violence in the past six months. It’s the first multi-site study covering both the U.S. and Canada that focuses on recent violence while attending university.
Wednesday, 15 July, 2009
Students say $50M Olympic deal limits free speech
From CTV News:
The University of British Columbia's Alma Mater Society says a clause intended to protect Olympic sponsors on campus could end up being used unfairly against critics of the 2010 Games.
VANOC has imposed a clause on contracts for students renting housing at UBC against the improper use of sponsoring brands of the 2010 Olympic Games.
The university is home to one of the official venues for the 2010 Games, the $50-million Winter Sports Centre where ice hockey and figure skating will be held.
VANOC says the clause in question is necessary because sponsors paying hundreds of millions of dollars to help build the venues of the 2010 Games are promised that the integrity of their brands will be protected.
UBC's Alma Mater Society is calling the clause a threat to free speech and wants it removed from renting contracts.
Prepared minds, prepared places
In 2007, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation partnered with YMCA Canada to launch the Canadian Post-Secondary Access Partnership. The aim of this partnership is to build the capacity of community organizations to provide information and one-on-one counseling to students and their families regarding post-secondary education opportunities.
With this in mind, the YMCA's You Can Go sites across the county are focusing on providing information and mentoring to help people negotiate paths to post-secondary programs with special attention to underrepresented groups such as First Nations, first-generation students, and low-income families.
This coming October, the partners in this initiative are hosting an inaugural conference in Toronto in collaboration with the European Access Network and the National College Access Network. The conference, themed Prepared Minds, Prepared Places: Post-Secondary Access in the Global Village, will review the role of civil society in widening access to post-secondary education, and will involve community organizations, civic groups, corporations and business groups, post-secondary institutions, grade schools, and governments.
The partnership has issued a call for presentations and workshops which focus on the following themes:
- Insights from research and practice in working with first-generation students, youth and adults from Aboriginal communities, lower-income households, and under-represented ethnic groups;
- Strategies for mobilizing communities, cities and regions, education systems, higher education institutions, business, community organizations, and other stakeholders, to broaden post secondary access and build human capital;
- Early intervention, outreach, recruitment, career development and communication programs designed to attract and prepare youth, their parents, and adult learners for post-secondary studies;
- Strategies, programs and practices designed to create a sense of identity and belonging and a culture of success in schools, on post-secondary campuses and in the workplace; and
- Best practices in impact assessment, evaluation, and benchmarking of efforts to broaden post-secondary access and corporate diversity; approaches to aligning community, institutional and corporate objectives.
Obama pledges $12B for community colleges
From The Miami Herald:
President Barack Obama on Tuesday touted the nation's community colleges as a key ingredient in his efforts to resuscitate the flailing economy. He called for a $12 billion investment to prepare millions of people for well-paying, 21st century jobs.
Obama's funding commitment, if ultimately approved by Congress, would bring new academic programs, new buildings and a new sense of optimism to America's nearly 1,200 community colleges.
The White House says the $12 billion would be spread over 10 years, and would be paid for by ending wasteful subsidies to banks and private lenders of student loans.
''Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result,'' Obama said.
Tuesday, 14 July, 2009
Mexican-Czech visa change will impact students
This article from the Regina Leader-Post raises interesting concerns about how new visa requirements for people coming to Canada from Mexico and the Czech Republic will impact those who planned to enroll as post-secondary students here this fall:
The new visa requirements for people from Mexico coming to Canada has the University of Regina scrambling to find out how that will impact students coming to campus in the fall.
"Right now we are trying to take steps to make sure that our students, who are expected for the fall, are getting the information they need as quickly as possible. But we are not aware of any negative impact yet, I don't know if there will be one,'' said Barb Pollock, the university's vice-president of external relations.
"If some students are not used to having to get visas to go somewhere then of course that is an issue for them. So the potential for effect is far more on the students having to do some process (to obtain visas) rather than us.''
Ontario Ombuds wants career college clampdown: Says ministry incompetence led to "disaster"
Ombudsman Ontario news release:
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin today urged the province’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to get tougher on unscrupulous private career colleges.More here and here from The Toronto Star.
His latest special report, Too Cool For School, outlines the “unmitigated disaster” of Bestech Academy, an unregistered, illegal operation which the Ministry tolerated for more than two years – while actually paying for several students to attend classes there, and subsequently even hiring its president to work in the Ministry.
Bestech “was allowed to line its pockets with public funds while flouting the law,” Mr. Marin notes, adding that the Ministry’s “inattention, indifference and dereliction,” helped enable the college to prey on innocent students. Bestech operated campuses in Stoney Creek and St. Catharines, offering courses in gas technician technology before closing abruptly in October 2008, leaving students and staff out of pocket.
Students squeezed
Elizabeth Church at The Globe and Mail picks up on the soaring student unemployment rate this summer and its potential fallout:
Students are coping with the worst summer-job market in more than a decade, leaving many scrambling to find often low-paying jobs. Youth employment rates have tanked since October, falling faster than any other age group. Recent numbers from Statistics Canada offer little hope for improvement. The unemployment rate for students between the ages of 20 and 24 hit 14 per cent in June and rose to 18 per cent for those aged 17 to 19, the highest level since 1998.
The drop in summer earnings, coupled with strained family finances, is expected to leave many students struggling to make ends meet when they return to campus in September. University and student leaders are predicting a rise in demand for student aid, with some schools making financial assistance a top priority for their fundraising efforts and others beefing up the services they offer to help students land jobs.
Post-election hike could triple Oxford's fees
From The Guardian:
Tuition fees at Oxford University are likely to more than treble as early as next year, academics at the 900-year-old institution have warned.
Lecturers have told the Guardian they expect students to be charged £10,000 a year "as soon as the government allows it" – which some believe will be shortly after a general election next year.
Full-time undergraduates starting at Oxford this year will pay £3,225 a year – the maximum universities are allowed to charge.
The university will struggle to compete with the US Ivy League institutions unless government funds increase or Oxford raises its fees, the academics warn. But chances of a growth in public subsidies are remote, they admit.
Monday, 13 July, 2009
Canada's university enrollment growth slows
According to new figures from Statistics Canada, the number of students enrolled at Canadian universities in 2007-08 was up by just 0.6 per cent over the previous year. This rate of growth is lower than in previous years. For example, between 2002-03 and 2007-08 the annual average increase in Canadian university enrollment was over 2.5 per cent.
Compared to the year previous, full-time enrollment was down in all four of the Atlantic provinces in 2007-08, with Prince Edward Island reporting the largest contraction (5.8 per cent). The largest increases full-time enrollment were seen in Manitoba (5.3 per cent) and British Columbia (2.7 per cent).
Global post-secondary student union proposed
University World News story:
Student groups from around the world met on the margins of the World Conference on Higher Education with the aim of establishing a global student organisation that could become a powerful lobbying force to advance the student perspective at international education meetings.It appears that student groups attending the World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) also endorsed the Global Student Statement on Higher Education developed by student groups at their January WCHE preparatory conference.
. . .
The student groups included the [European Students Union], the All African Students Union, the Asia Pacific Students and Youth Association, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Organisation of Latin American and Caribbean Students, along with students unions from Australia, New Zealand and the US, plus groupings of Catholic students, medical students and students of law.
The groups said that the human right to free association was "too often breached in the higher education sphere". They said the next global meeting of student unions was likely to be in Latin America, probably Mexico, to further build an internationally representative organisation.
[Oludare Ogunlana, Secretary General of the All-African students union,] said a previous global students' union, the International Students Union, had existed since the 1940s with headquarters in Prague but it had been inactive since its last congress in Libya in 2000 because of lack of funding.
Support builds for Obama's student loan plan
From The New York Times:
The president’s proposal, first outlined in his initial budget in February, would save the government roughly $87 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office — money that the White House says should be used to aid impoverished students.
The federal government already makes some loans directly to students, but most federal student loans are handled by private firms even though there is virtually no private capital available for financing the loans. The industry argues that it provides competition and better marketing and servicing of loans.
The administration’s view, shared by a number of Democratic lawmakers, is that the private lenders should no longer be paid by taxpayers to operate a virtually risk-free business in which they essentially use taxpayer dollars to originate loans, with repayment guaranteed, and then resell those loans to the Treasury.
Sunday, 12 July, 2009
Growing list of universities won't accept credit cards for tuition payments
Canadian Press story:
Students who are accustomed to the swipe now, pay later approach to tuition payments may have to re-think their finances this fall as more Canadian universities eliminate the option of paying with credit cards.
Universities say they want to trim the transaction fees they pay to financial institutions and most schools are putting the money they save into their operating budgets, while others are directing the savings towards specific projects like bursaries for first-year students.
Friday, 10 July, 2009
Student unemployment at highest level since 1997
From Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey:
Compared with June 2008, employment was down 43,000 for students aged 20 to 24 in June 2009. This pushed their unemployment rate up 4.8 percentage points to 14.0%, the highest June unemployment rate for these students since 1997.For reaction from national student groups see here and here.
The labour market for 17 to 19 year-old students is also proving to be challenging, as employment was down 50,000 between June of 2008 and 2009. This brings their unemployment rate to 18.1%, the highest since June 1998.
Court strikes down ban on education adverts
From The Globe and Mail:
The Supreme Court of Canada has given the green light to political advertising on the sides of transit vehicles, in an important test of free expression.
In an 8-0 ruling this morning, the court said two B.C. mass transit agencies were wrong to refuse political ads the Canadian Federation of Students and a teachers union attempted to purchase in 2004.
The agencies - the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) and British Columbia Transit (BC Transit) - rejected the ads based on internal policies that focused on making riders feel comfortable with their surroundings.
. . .
In the summer and fall of 2004, CFS and the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF), attempted to purchase advertising space on the sides of buses operated by the transit authorities.
The CFS wanted to encourage more young people to vote in a provincial election scheduled for May 17, 2005 by posting advertisements about the election. The first advertisement, which was to run the length of the bus, would have depicted a silhouette of a crowd at a concert, with the words: “Register now. Learn the issues. Vote May 17, 2005. ROCK THE VOTE BC.com.”
The second advertisement would have run along the top of the bus, and read: “Tuition fees ROCK THE VOTE BC.com Minimum wage ROCK THE VOTE BC.com Environment ROCK THE VOTE BC.com.”
Downward pressure on academic standards
Times Higher Education story:
Up to half of the world’s university teachers may lack postgraduate degrees because of the pressures of “massification”.
A report presented to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (Unesco) 2009 World Conference on Higher Education in Paris this week warns that the “academic profession is under stress as never before”.
“The need to respond to the demands of massification has caused the average qualification for academics in many countries to decline,” says the report, Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution by Philip Altbach, director of the Centre for International Higher Education, Boston College.
. . .
It adds that the number of part-time academics is increasing in many countries. In Latin America, up to 80 per cent of the professoriate are employed part time.
The report also warns that “in terms of accountability and assessment, the professoriate has lost much of its autonomy. The pendulum of authority in higher education has swung from the academics to managers and bureaucrats, with significant impact on the university.”
Free tuition for staying home
From The Guardian:
The [UK] government is considering dropping tuition fees for students who stay at home to study in exchange for them waiving their right to grants and loans, it has emerged.
Ministers are considering the plan as one possible solution to the mounting conundrum over how to fund the growing university sector in a recession. The idea is contained in draft plans for a framework for the future of higher education, the BBC said.
It is thought the idea will appeal to students from the poorest backgrounds who might be put off applying to university for fear of getting into debt, and to the rising numbers who are supporting themselves through part-time work while studying.
Thursday, 9 July, 2009
Education transitions of Canadian youth
Statistics Canada has released a new report entitled Education and Labour Market Transitions in Young Adulthood. This report draws on data collected by the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) which began in 2000 with surveys of participants between 18 and 20 years of age.
Interviews with this group of young adults were subsequently conducted every two years (i.e., four more times). In 2008, when the last surveys were conducted, the participants were between the ages of 26 and 28. Here are some of the results that piqued my interest:
- By the time they were between 26 and 28 years old, 81% of the participants had taken part in some form of post-secondary education.
- In total, 42% of those interviewed had participated in university, 43% had participated in college, and 29% had participated in other types of post-secondary education.
- Of those who participated in post-secondary education, 68% had graduated by the time they were aged 26 to 28.
- Equal numbers in the 26 to 28 age group completed a college diploma and a bachelor degree (24%), 10% completed other post-secondary education, and 6% completed a graduate credential. (Why doesn't this add up to 68%?)
- Higher levels of education were attained by women, students from urban communities, non-Canadian born students, and visible minority students.
- Compared to those whose parents had less than a high school diploma, youth whose parents had completed post-secondary education were twice as likely to complete a bachelor's degree.
- Compared to those whose parents had completed post-secondary education, youth whose parents did not complete high school were five times less likely to complete a high school diploma themselves.
Program offers PSE and housing to homeless
From the NY Times:
For many college students, survival means keeping up on assigned reading, maintaining an acceptable grade-point average and squeezing in extracurricular activities.
But for those at Advantage Academy, a program offered by the city’s Department of Homeless Services and St. John’s University to provide homeless and formerly homeless people with the chance to earn an associate’s degree, survival looks like something altogether different.
. . .
The Advantage Academy program, which aims to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness through higher education, is not without its challenges. The most pressing is transitioning each member of the inaugural class out of the shelter system and into permanent housing.
Wednesday, 8 July, 2009
It pays to be an apprentice
Canwest News story:
A cash grant is now available for registered apprentices who have successfully completed their training and earned journeyperson certification in a designated Red Seal trade.
Local MP John Duncan announced Monday that an Apprenticeship Completion Grant (ACG) worth $2000 will help registered apprentices cover expenses such as the purchase of tools and other materials they need for on-the-job training and travel expenses for classroom training.
The taxable grant is also designed to encourage the apprentice's progression through the technical and on-the-job training requirements in the early years of their apprenticeship program, building momentum towards certification.
It pays to hire an apprentice
The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum has released a new report titled It Pays to Hire an Apprentice: Calculating the Return on Training Investment for Skilled Trades Employers in Canada. This report is based on survey responses from 784 employers in 16 different trades, and key findings include the following:
- Employers accrue a benefit, on average, of $1.47 for every $1 invested in apprenticeship training;
- The net benefit to employers varies by trade and ranges from $39,524 (Cook trade) to $245,264 (Heavy Duty Equipment Mechanic trade); and
- The net benefit of apprenticeship training increases each year over the course of the apprenticeship.
Tuesday, 7 July, 2009
Linking science grads with private sector internships
A new generation of university scientists is trying to create results for the private sector -- and they want to partner with businesses. And as part of a new program to stimulate commercial innovation, the government will pay half the costs businesses incur doing this.
The program, Accelerate Canada, comes from an unlikely source: MITACS, the Vancouver-based national "centre of excellence" for mathematics. Founded to encourage more math professionals to embrace innovation and tackle real industry problems, MITACS (short for Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems) soon saw an opportunity to plug scientist of all kinds into commercial research. Accelerate now harnesses the intellectual horsepower of thousands of graduate students -- MA and PhD candidates with proven smarts and fresh perspectives -- and connects them to real research projects at a price point that is hard to resist.
Founded in 2003 as a pilot project with 18 internships, Accelerate managed 610 placements last year with more than 400 companies. And its reach continues to grow as the program signs up more universities to take part in the program. This year it hopes to arrange 1,300 partnerships.
World Bank on "world class" universities hype
From KC infoZine:
Countries which aspire to build ‘world class universities’ to drive economic development and compete in global rankings of the best international universities may be ‘chasing a myth’ that could take years to materialize, cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and operate, and still fall short of the social and economic rewards commonly associated with these ‘elite’ institutions, according to a new World Bank report launched at a UNESCO higher-education summit in Paris.The full report, titled The Challenge of Establishing World Class Universities, may be downloaded here in .pdf format.
An academic version of Facebook
Graduate Junction, which has been referred to as an "academic version of Facebook", is a networking website for graduate students (i.e., master's, PhDs and Post-docs). The site was created by two graduate researchers at the Durham University and is designed to help young academics promote and share their ideas and research with others who have similar interests. The site features user profiles, a search function to find other users, research groups, conference listings, mini research blogs and open access academic homepages. Graduate Junction's network of researchers has grown to over 13,000 since the site was launched just over a year ago.
Monday, 6 July, 2009
Conservative politicians, YorkU accused of student election interference
York Federation of Students news release:
Emails secured through a recent Freedom of Information request revealed that Conservative MP Peter Kent, MPP Peter Shurman, and senior York University administrators were interfering in this year's general elections of the York Federation of Students (YFS). During the elections, Robert Tiffin, York University's Vice-President Students, warned the students' union not to disqualify candidates who were caught violating the elections rules because the University and members of Parliament "were watching the election closely." MP Peter Kent was later found to have assigned a key staff member to intervene in the election on behalf of a team of candidates. Both politicians appeared to ask if York would throw out the results, despite no evidence of wrongdoing or any authority to do so.More here from The Toronto Star.
Abstracted: On-line learning bests face-to-face
A recently released report from the U.S. Department of Education compared on-line learning with face-to-face instruction using a meta-analysis approach. The abstract:
A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that (a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c) used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect size. As a result of this screening, 51 independent effects were identified that could be subjected to meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes—measured as the difference between treatment and control means, divided by the pooled standard deviation—was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. Analysts noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media, per se. An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., medical training, higher education).Reference: U.S. Department of Education. (2009). Evaluation of evidence-based practices in online learning: A meta-analysis and review of online learning studies. Washington, D.C.: Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development.
Sunday, 5 July, 2009
Bankruptcy rules make forgiving student debt tricky
From The Toronto Star:
he government has made it difficult to dodge student loans through bankruptcy.
You had better have a good excuse for not paying, even after the five to seven years that the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act now allows for such debts to be wiped clear. You must show you tried in good faith to repay the loans and are now in such tight straits that you cannot pay.
Judges and bankruptcy registrars who decide whether you should be discharged from student debts can be hard taskmasters.
Friday, 3 July, 2009
UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education
Beginning on Sunday and continuing until next Wednesday, the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) will be held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
The conference, themed "The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development", will review changes that have taken place in higher education since the 1998 WCHE. The official conference programme is available on-line here.
Canadian Education Centre Network, R.I.P.
From Not-So-Foreign:
On July 1st, Canada Day, Canada's network of education centres closed its doors around the world - forever. The Canadian Education Centre Network (CECN) is broke and gone.
Founded as the CECN in 1995, but existing previously as part of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, for years the CECN received tens of millions of dollars in Canadian federal government money to promote Canadian education around the world. The two main funding agencies, Canada's international trade agency (DFAIT) and Canada's international aid agency (CIDA) - stopped giving monies a few years ago. The CECN could never make a go of it on its own, and earlier this year needed a half million dollar government bail out to keep it afloat. It lasted a few more months, and sunk.
Apart from its employees, some suppliers (who have been paid), and a handful of Canadian colleges and language schools (mostly private ones), few will miss the CECN. While it accrued many debts, it was not able to accrue many friends. Very few of Canada's leading education brands - its best known and branded universities - partook in CECN services. In fact, several of the key international recruiting directors at Canada's top universities spoke of the CECN with vitriol. As a result, most universities broke away to do their own recruiting, and even an American organization became the flagship for many of the key international outreach initiatives for many Canadian universities.
Thursday, 2 July, 2009
Dr. Eddy Campbell's departing note to Memorial University staff and faculty
Dear friends and colleagues:
I write to thank all of you for your support over the past five years. A special thanks to those who were able to attend the farewell picnic. It meant a great deal to Diane and me to have so many people there to wish us well as we leave for New Brunswick.
Memorial is a great university because of your dedication and commitment to our students and the institution. It has been an honour to serve you in the roles of vice-president (academic) and president. I have great confidence in the future of both Memorial and the province, and I wish all of you the very best.
Keep up the great work!
Regards,
H E A Eddy Campbell
Acting President, Memorial University
UK student grants frozen as tuition fees rise
From The Guardian:
The government is freezing all student grants and loans and cutting financial support for trainee teachers as a result of the recession, it announced today.
Union leaders said the moves were a "kick in the teeth" after it emerged that tuition fees will also rise by 2.04%, taking the annual charge to £3,290 – nearly £300 more than when fees were introduced in 2006. Grants are to be frozen at £2,906 for the poorest students and loans for living costs are also frozen, while loans to cover tuition fees will rise to cover the increasing fees. Teacher training grants of up to £6,000, which had been universally offered, are to be restricted to people from lower income homes.
Nunavut MEd grads mark milestone
From The Globe and Mail's Elizabeth Church:
History will be made in a crowded school gym in Iqaluit Wednesday when 21 women become the first students to earn a graduate degree in the country's youngest territory.
The Canada Day ceremony for the masters of education program – a collaboration offered in the territory and led by the University of Prince Edward Island – is more than a graduation. It marks a milestone for the people of Nunavut as they fashion a school system and produce leaders for their community. It also comes as many, notably Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, are championing higher education for the Far North, including the need for a university of its own.
Wednesday, 1 July, 2009
Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador
Today, July 1, Canada Day, is also an official day of mourning in Newfoundland and Labrador. Memorial Day is the day we commemorate the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who took part in the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel, France in 1916.
This is of particular significance for students, staff, and faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland since the university itself is a living memorial to those Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who lost their lives while serving in the First and Second World Wars.
