Adventures in Canadian Post-Secondary Education: September 2009

Wednesday, 30 September, 2009

Proposed changes to UToronto Transitional Year Program draw fire

The University of Toronto has come under fire by students, community activists, and even former minister of education Zanana Akande over proposed changes to its Transitional Year Program, a specialized academic program that helps students without the usual educational credentials make the leap to university.

The 38-year-old program has been particularly successful at recruiting high school dropouts, especially those from marginalized communities. But despite its success, U of T is considering merging TYP’s student and academic resources with those of its Academic Bridging Program—a separate effort geared toward part-time students and that, according to critics, lacks the support structure that TYP excelled at.

Each year, TYP takes in 60 first-year students, who take a one-year full-time course load before entering a regular bachelor’s degree program. The majority of these students go on to complete their undergrads, with some even going on to PhD programs.

Atlantic universities should brand together

Telegraph-Journal story:

The new president of the University of New Brunswick says Atlantic Canadian universities need to band together in the hunt for international students rather than going it alone.

Eddy Campbell said the international branding of the region to help combat shrinking enrolments will be a major topic of discussion as institution leaders meet in Sackville beginning today.

The Association of Atlantic Universities will discuss pressing issues facing higher-learning institutions at a general meeting over the next two days.

Tuesday, 29 September, 2009

Reaction to Quebec CEGEP tuition proposal

From the CBC News:

Opposition parties in Quebec's National Assembly are vowing to fight plans to increase user fees, as the government considers digging into taxpayers' pockets to put the province back in the black.

(snip)

A proposal to introduce modest tuition fees for Quebec's currently free junior colleges has received a chilly reception from students and teachers groups.

"The goal of the creation of CEGEPs was to ensure the financial accessibility of post-secondary studies — that is why for more than 40 years, CEGEPs have been free," said Edenilson Castro, spokesman for the students association at Quebec's National Aerotechnical School, in Longueuil.

Micheline Thibodeau, vice-president for one of Quebec's teachers unions, called establishing fees for CEGEPs an "aberration."

"It seems that the Liberal Party lacks ideas at the moment, and the only thing it can think of is increasing tariffs," she said.

Robert Jean, director of Champlain-St-Lawrence College in Quebec City, said the time has come for students to pay for their CEGEP education.

"We have to realize that in the CEGEP system, we're running out of money. And where do we get the money?" The government said it would take some time to study the party's recommendations.

Monday, 28 September, 2009

How to avoid PowerPoint poisoning

Sound advice for your next presentation:

Hat tip to Sir Robert Bond Papers

OECD urges Iceland to introduce tuition fees

From University World News:

The OECD has reinforced its advice to Iceland to consider seriously the introduction of tuition fees at public universities as the country struggles to emerge from economic meltdown.

The organisation has previously recommended that Iceland's public universities should be empowered to charge tuition fees. But the epic banking crisis that precipitated a deep recession prompted it to repeat the advice in a recovery plan published earlier this month.

Saturday, 26 September, 2009

Access to financial aid = Access to PSE

This is encouraging:

For years, studies have shown that young people from low-income households across North America are less likely to apply to college or university than peers from higher-income families. Now, a groundbreaking new study shows the solution may be as simple as helping students with the financial aid process.

The study - conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto, Harvard, Stanford and the National Bureau of Economic Research - tracked nearly 17,000 low-income Americans to determine whether cumbersome financial aid forms and lack of information were preventing them from accessing higher education.

The results show many more low-income students would make it to college if they had better information and help filling out financial aid and application forms.

"Research across North America, including a recently-released report in Ontario, has highlighted the fact that qualified low-income students do not apply to higher education in the same numbers as their qualified peers from wealthier backgrounds," says Philip Oreopoulos, an associate professor of economics at the University of Toronto.

"Our study shows that simply helping disadvantaged students complete complex financial aid and application forms can greatly improve their chances of accessing higher education. Just helping Grade 12 students fill out the financial aid form increased college enrollment rates by 30 percent."

Friday, 25 September, 2009

Atlantic ministers launch regional literacy plan

From a Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education news release:

The Atlantic ministers of education and training announced today steps to support literacy in families, in public education, in adult literacy and in the workplace, with the launch of Literacy: Key to Learning and Path to Prosperity – An Action Plan for Atlantic Canada 2009-2014.

The Literacy Action Plan outlines specific actions that ministers intend to undertake to promote literacy in public schools. Ministers will pursue literacy initiatives to increase professional knowledge and skills in teaching literacy; assess, track and improve literacy learning outcomes for all students in the context of diverse backgrounds and abilities; enhance curriculum leadership; and improve literacy capabilities for learning in all areas of the curriculum.

This action plan embraces four major themes related to adult and workplace literacy that will contribute to the development of a highly skilled labour force and position Atlantic Canada to prosper within the knowledge economy. These encompass raising awareness of the socio-economic benefits of improving literacy and essential skills and to encourage employers and industry groups to value literacy and essential skills programs; eliminating barriers to learning opportunities and assure relevance and value to the learner; increasing professional standards, knowledge and skills in teaching/facilitating adult literacy and essential skills; and improving the quality and effectiveness of adult literacy and essential skills delivery.

Thursday, 24 September, 2009

State of adult learning and workplace training

The Canadian Council on Learning has released a new report on the state of adult learning and workplace training in Canada. The report examines the provision of adult education and training in relation to the economy and the labour market as well as employer support for workplace training and adult learning. Key observations include the following:

While there have been increases in recent years in workplace education and training, Canada still lags significantly behind many other OECD countries in both provision and in the uptake of learning opportunities.

According to most recent data, Canada has made little or no progress over the past 12 years in improving the proportion of Canadian adults who achieve the internationally recognized standard of Level 3 on the five-level international assessment of literacy.

There have been both policy and program efforts at various levels in government and the private sector, particularly with regard to Aboriginal people and immigrants; however, significant barriers to learning and education persist.

Despite the availability of information on adult education and learning, there are many unanswered questions and substantial gaps in our data. Often, existing data have not yet been analyzed in a way that sheds meaningful light on the challenges of adult learning, nor on potential solutions for furthering its development.

The full report, State of Adult Learning and Workplace Training, may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

The "structural disintegration" of PSE

Léo Charbonneau at Margin Notes has written a post about an article predicting "a structural disintegration in the academy akin to that in newspapers now". The author of the article suggests that colleges and universities "like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet."

Wednesday, 23 September, 2009

Saving for children's PSE versus retirement

From The National Post:

A poll released today by Edward Jones Canada finds 15% of parents with children under age 18 are favoring their children's education over their own retirement savings, with the result they are "putting aside little or nothing for their retirement."

Seven out of ten parents are choosing one over the other, or none at all. Only 22% are doing the ideal thing, which is to save equally for their own retirement and their children's post-secondary education.

There's even a significant group -- 26% -- that actually put their own retirement ahead of their kids. This group is "primarily saving for retirement and only saving a little for post-secondary school for their child or children."

And finally there is an unfortunate group, making up 26% of the poll, that are saving for neither goal.

Next financial crisis casualty: Public universities

From a post at the Private Sector Development Blog:

When the squeeze on their finances arrives, public universities will basically have two choices. They can either ration education by limiting the number of people gaining admission, or they can figure out ways to reduce the high (and often implicit) subsidies to middle and upper income students. (Actually, they have a third choice of providing lower quality education to the same number of students, but I see this as unlikely in most cases.) [Roger Goodman of Moody's] provides arguments for reducing subsidies:
Another possibility is for the model of funding for higher education to evolve toward a public-market-based funding mix. The capacity for most higher education institutions to raise tuition and other fees to generate revenue is substantial, given the large remaining implicit subsidy provided to middle- and upper-income students in most nations. The potential is especially large in systems where government policy has effectively eliminated or capped tuition levels. In some countries, we have already seen signs of rising independence of universities through reformed governance structures and introduction of nongovernmental revenue streams such as tuition deregulation or expanded capacity for nondomestic students. While nuances of how tuition fees are implemented and managed can have serious social-policy consequences, financial aid strategies exist to ensure that access for the weakest economic groups is protected from increased tuition.
Of course, this argument is not new. There has always been something perverse about a system of public higher education in many countries where everyone is taxed, but those who are capable of paying for their education have disproportionate access to free or near-free higher education.

Podcast on access and student financing

The Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice at the University of Southern California has kicked off its 2009 podcast series with Making Sense of the Headlines: Straight Talk about Today’s Aid Issues featuring Dr. Don Heller.

Heller, Director of Penn State's Center for the Study of Higher Education, discusses the effect of the recession on higher education access and student financing. He gives his take on trends in student financial aid including access for underrepresented groups, merit aid, income contingent loans, and differential tuition fees. Click here to listen (runs 25:59).

Tuesday, 22 September, 2009

Higher tuition fees "inevitable": UK business lobby

A new report from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a lobby group representing businesses in the UK, says that higher university tuition fees are "inevitable".

The CBI also recommends that the UK government remove the current interest rate subsidy on all student loans (i.e., transfer the full cost of borrowing to students).

The report further suggests that institutions place more focus on "value-added" program areas "that business values" such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The National Union of Students (NUS) has called the suggestions "offensive". NUS President Wes Streeting said "When the fat cats at the CBI recommend that we abandon targets for widening participation from poorer students, they are talking about restricting the opportunities of other people’s children rather than their own. This is gross hypocrisy."

Monday, 21 September, 2009

Low marks keeping males out of universities

As reported by The Windsor Star:

For more than a decade, universities have been puzzling over where the boys are as the ratio of female to male students keeps climbing.

About 56 per cent of Canadian undergraduates in 2006 were women, according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, a significant change from the early 1970s, when more than two-thirds of university graduates in their mid-20s were men.

In a paper to be released today, an economist who has analyzed the demographic data from a sweeping study of Canadian youth suggests some boys are staying away from campuses because their marks aren't high enough to meet admission standards -- and even hard work won't bring them to the level of their female counterparts.

Sunday, 20 September, 2009

Teaching non-traditional students

Algoma University assistant professor Julian Hermida writes on Inclusive Teaching Strategies to Promote Non-Traditional Student Success for Tomorrows-Professor:

Diverse worldviews

Non-traditional students are not underprepared. Their preparation responds to a different way of seeing themselves and understanding the world that derives from their own cultures and traditions. This different way of seeing the world has repercussions in most academic areas. They influence the way students think, express themselves, interact in the classroom, and think in the disciplines. For example, many non-traditional students tend to see things in a subjective, inward-looking fashion (Haigh, 2009). Other students from non-Western societies are holistic in their thoughts. They tend to emphasize and value how things are interconnected. They tend to give contextual and emotional information. Some even show a tendency to digress when writing (Fox, 1994).

Inclusive teaching

So, instead of pushing non-traditional students to adopt North American mainstream academic skills, disciplinary perspectives, and thought processes, we should open our classroom doors to teaching disciplinary content and academic skills from a wide array of diverse traditions so that every single -mainstream and minority- student will feel included. This will prepare both mainstream and minority students to succeed as interculturally knowledgeable citizens in a globalized world (Schuerholz-Lehr, 2007).

Anyone can join the Tomorrows-Professor Mailing List here.

Saturday, 19 September, 2009

Little credit for NS student tax credit

Commentary from The Chronicle Herald:

Governments in Manitoba and New Brunswick have invested $100 million in such tax credits. Yet, no changes in retention rates have been observed since the credits were implemented. Rather than learning from their mistakes, our government wants to spend $6.5 million on, as Alex Usher says, "providing windfall gains to people doing exactly what they were going to do anyways" while failing to retain graduates and failing to make education any more accessible.

Despite their campaign that promised "change," this type of policy is simply an amplified archetype of the previous government’s own failed tax tactic. Why not invest these millions of dollars into something more useful? Why not improve access by directing this funding towards student grants or tuition reductions that will save students money now?

Students are calling on the government to change its approach, to lower tuition in order to keep youth from fleeing to Newfoundland for a more affordable education. We’re asking government to promise that no student is denied the right to a higher education for financial reasons alone.

CarletonU suspends women's soccer team

As reported by CBC News:

Carleton University has suspended its women's varsity soccer team, alleging a breach of conduct involving rookie initiation last Sunday.

Carelton has not disclosed details, but said violations of the codes of conduct of both the school and its athletics department took place.

The university's athletics director, Jennifer Brenning, said the school's athletic code of conduct clearly outlines rules against abuse of alcohol, and any behaviours that can be considered demeaning or embarrassing.

Friday, 18 September, 2009

Ontario faculty launch Quality Matters campaign

Snipped from an Ontario Confederation Of University Faculty Associations news release:

Concerned with the serious impact of under-funding on Ontario's universities, the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) today launched the Quality Matters campaign. This initiative aims to highlight the threatened state of educational quality at Ontario universities, and advocates for renewed government investment in our higher education system.

(snip)

The Quality Matters campaign is built around an innovative website - http://www.quality-matters.ca. Here, concerned citizens can learn more about the consequences of university underfunding. They can also send a letter of support directly to Premier Dalton McGuinty indicating their desire to see greater government investment in higher education. Quality Matters is also making use of social media tools to spread its message. Facebook, Twitter and a new blog will all be used to keep followers informed on the latest campaign news.

Thursday, 17 September, 2009

Our era of mass access to post-secondary education

The world is entering an era of "mass access" to higher education, with "immense" implications for societies and university systems.

The era's advent was heralded by Philip Altbach, director of the Centre for International Higher Education at Boston College in the US, in the wake of a report published last week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The analysis, Education at a Glance, says that the number of people with degrees or equivalent qualifications in member nations rose by 4.5 per cent every year since 1998, a phenomenon led by "massive" public investment in universities. In some nations, including Spain and Turkey, the figure was 7 per cent a year or more.

Across all OECD countries, one in three people aged between 25 and 34 now have a tertiary level qualification, the annual report says. In Canada, Japan and South Korea, the figure is one in two.

In an interview with Times Higher Education, Professor Altbach said that the world is moving towards a mass-access model, with many countries, including most in the OECD, achieving access of more than 30 per cent.

Continue reading this article at The Times Higher Education.

U.S. poised to cut out private student loan lenders

Via The Huffington Post:

The House is poised to vote to push private lenders out of the federal college loan business and massively expand the government's own lending program.

Lawmakers debated a student aid bill Wednesday that has widespread support, including from the White House. The measure is expected to win passage Thursday and go next to the Senate.

Proponents of putting the government in charge of all federal loans say it would save an estimated $87 billion, though this figure has been disputed.

Grants for students with disabilities reduced?

From The Georgia Straight:

Postsecondary students with disabilities are getting shortchanged with the new income-reporting procedure in applications for federal grants, according to NDP Vancouver East MP Libby Davies.

In a letter to the Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley, Davies noted that in the past these students were required to state only their projected income and expenses. However, they are now being asked to cite their gross income as reported in their previous year’s tax return, and that includes grants received from the federal government.

“To me, it’s absolute[ly] idiotic,” Davies told the Straight by phone. “It completely defeats the purpose of why they have grants in the first place: to help students with disabilities to go back to school.”

In her letter to Finley dated September 3, 2009, Davies pointed out that a student on a B.C. disability assistance of $11,000 per year would no longer qualify for the Canada study grant for high-need part-time students because their “previous grant ‘income’ pushes them above the $14,100 threshold”.

University's faith policy for profs probed

As reported by CBC New Brunswick:

A national organization of professors is investigating whether a Moncton university is denying academic freedom to its faculty.

Crandall University, formerly known as Atlantic Baptist University, requires a statement of faith as a condition of employment.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers has appointed two professors from other universities in New Brunswick to investigate.

"Most of the religious universities in this country do not require a faith or ideological test," said Jim Turk, the association's executive director.

"I mean there are a number of Catholic universities, like St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, [N.S.], St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, St. Mary's University College in Calgary, there are dozens of universities with a church affiliation, or a religious affiliation that respect academic freedom," he said.

"When faculty can only teach from a certain perspective or only can be there if they subscribe to certain religious or ideological beliefs, then students only can get a partial picture of the complexity of the world."

Ontario college sold fake diplomas

The [Toronto] Star launches an investigation into private career colleges that take students' money and deliver substandard – or no – education. Reporter Diana Zlomislic zeroes in on an unlicensed school for personal support workers

Facing funding freeze, Alta. institutions plan cuts

From the Edmonton Journal:

College and university administrators across Alberta are now looking at a budget freeze as the best-case scenario and eyeing deep cuts to programs and student supports, said Bill Moore-Kilgannon, executive director of the research and advocacy group.

"It's really about what is it going to mean this time next year," he said. "A zero-per-cent increase is, in the administrator's mind, a best-case scenario and that's really not a good scenario. The cuts could be much deeper than that. We should have that public debate in the leadup to those decisions."

Post-secondary institutions received their annual six-per-cent increase to operating grants this year, but the provincial business plan included in the 2009 budget forecasted a freeze for the next two budgets.

The U of A has asked each department to find at least two per cent in savings. The University of Calgary has announced it will cut 200 support-staff positions.

Wednesday, 16 September, 2009

Link between income and university applicants

From the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario:

Students in low income neighbourhoods are 13 per cent less likely to apply to university than those in high income neighbourhoods according to a report released today by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO).

The study found that the gap in application rates over the last decade has remained relatively constant and perhaps has increased slightly. The report attributes this to the deregulation of tuition rates in the 1990s and scholarships based primarily on entry grades.

(snip)

The study, University Participation and Income Differences: An Analysis of Applications by Ontario Secondary School Students, produced by McMaster University professors Martin D. Dooley, A. Abigail Payne and A. Leslie Robb and funded by HEQCO also found that living in a rural area reduces the likelihood of university application.

Being close to a university was found to lead to higher application rates along with attending a school with higher level performance on the grade 9 math EQAO test results. Application rates are also slightly higher for students attending Catholic schools along with areas with a large East Asian population.

The full report can be downloaded here in .pdf format.

UCalifornia may raise tuition 30%

From USA Today:

The University of California has proposed raising tuition by more than 30% next year as part of its plan to address rising costs and deep cuts in state funding.

UC officials Thursday released a plan Thursday that calls for a 15% increase in undergraduate fees starting in the winter and spring 2010 terms, followed by another 15% hike next fall.

If approved, in-state undergraduate fees would rise by 32% to $10,302, which doesn't include campus fees that average $930. The proposed increases would come on top of a 9.3% fee increase approved in May. Fees for graduate students and nonresident undergraduates would rise by similar amounts.

Abstracted: Ontario's university tuition framework

The current issue of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education features an article by my former Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities colleague, turned OxfordU doctoral student, Andrew Boggs. Here is the abstract for Boggs' article, titled Ontario's University Tuition Framework: A History and Current Policy Issues:

Policy-makers and institutional administrators have long struggled with the question of college and university student tuition fees. In many ways this struggle may be characterized as a negotiation between two distinct policy goals: providing revenue to adequately finance higher education and ensuring student accessibility to higher education. The Government of Ontario has wrestled with these competing questions, resulting in major changes to tuition policy over the last 10 years. This article discusses the history of tuition policy in Ontario, recent developments, and outstanding policy challenges relating to institutional behaviour toward the current policy, set to expire in 2009-10.

Reference: Boggs, A. M. (2009). Ontario's university tuition framework: A history and current policy issues. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 39(1), 73-87.

U.K. university funding review announced

From The Guardian:

[U.K.] Universities face a fundamental overhaul of funding after the universities secretary, Lord Mandelson, ordered a major review of the higher education financing system.

There will be a comprehensive review of the research and teaching funding bodies – including the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) – to cut the costs of overlapping programmes, Mandelson said in a speech at the London School of Economics yesterday.

The speech, setting out a new "era of public spending constraints", included announcements that could have far-ranging consequences for universities.

Memorial's grad student enrolment up almost 14%

From today.mun.ca:

With a 13.8 per cent jump in enrolment, Memorial’s latest crop of graduate students is making Memorial their academic institution of choice.

Dr. Noreen Golfman, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, points to a number of reasons for the bump in graduate student registration. Memorial’s competitive tuition and the Canadian recession are factors, but the active efforts of the recruitment team at the School of Graduate Studies is what put enrolment over the top.

(snip)

As of the first week of September, there were a total of 2,758 full-time and part-time students enrolled in graduate studies. That’s compared to the 2,415 graduate students enrolled in 2008. In 2007, there were a total of 2,302 graduate students.

Tuesday, 15 September, 2009

Another take on Chemin's MESA report

Courtesy of The Education Optimists

While noting that the null findings may stem from that short period of observation, the researcher still goes on record with this conclusion: "These results therefore cast doubt on the efficacy of this reform in particular, and of needs-based grants in general, to improve graduation rates."The headline over at Inside Higher Ed reads "More Money Doesn't Equal More Graduates."

This is a distinctly premature and irresponsible conclusion. First, as one of my graduate assistants James Benson pointed out, "if the percentage of college-eligible students that enrolled in college increased by 5 percent, and the persistence and graduation rates remained entirely static, then the program produced a net gain in the proportion of young adults completing semesters and degrees."

Furthermore, there are many reasons why an effect might not be estimated properly in this study. As my colleagues Doug Harris, Phil Trostel, and I explained in a recent paper, a simple correlation between aid receipt and college success is likely to be negative because students from low-income families, in the absence of aid, are for a variety of reasons less likely to succeed. Unless researchers can convincingly account for all of those reasons – and we argue that very few do – the estimated effects of aid are likely to look smaller than they really are. This study is not very convincing and really doesn't move far beyond a correlation, for many reasons.

Measuring the effectiveness of MESA

The Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid (MESA) project released a paper yesterday titled Does student financial aid cause more participation in and graduation from post-secondary education? This paper can be downloaded here and my earlier blog post about the paper's findings is here.

One of the conclusions reached by the author, Université du Québec à Montréal economics professor Matthieu Chemin, is that four years after a change to Quebec student financial aid, which resulted in larger average grant amounts and more students becoming eligible for grants, there were "no impacts on Quebec graduation rates". Chemin, with no substantiating data, goes on to speculate that "students attracted to PSE by the availability of these grants were less likely to graduate".

To the author's credit, he does point out that it is entirely possible that students tracked for the purposes of this study graduated/will graduate later, in which case any effect of additional grant aid on graduation could be evident later. This observation is important because, before anyone goes off reporting that needs-based grant aid has no effect on student success in post-secondary education, folks should also read another paper released by the MESA project last year.

That study, Patterns of Persistence in Post-Secondary Education in Canada (see here), concluded that only 54 per cent of university students and 58 per cent of college students actually graduate from their original program within five years. That study also pointed out that a good number of the remaining students eventually continue on to graduate or switch to other programs or institutions and successfully complete their education there.

Tuition fees to top corporate tax in B.C. in 2011?

From The Canadian Press:

The chairman of the B.C. branch of the Canadian Federation of students says he's alarmed by new figures released by the provincial government regarding tuition fees.

Shamus Reid says the figures show that in 2011, the B.C. government will collect $1.11 billion in tuition-fee revenue, compared with $1.04 billion in corporate income taxes.

Monday, 14 September, 2009

NL to introduce on-line Adult Basic Education

Newfoundland and Labrador government release:

An innovative approach to literacy programming will be introduced in Newfoundland and Labrador this coming fall with the pilot of online delivery of Level I of the provincial Adult Basic Education (ABE) program. The ABE program, which contains three levels, is designed to give adults an opportunity to achieve high school equivalency.

(snip)

The pilot will initially be tested with the assistance of the Twillingate-New World Island Development Association and the Carbonear location of Women Interested in Successful Employment (WISE). These non-profit, community-based organizations are located in two areas of the province that currently do not have ABE Level I programming available. Delivery will be expanded to two more sites in September 2010.

(snip)

The pilot will include two to four weeks of in-class training to introduce participants to the eLearning technology and how to use the online curriculum. An ABE instructor will be available online and mentors will also be sought in the students’ home community to provide additional assistance.

The coming age of on-line Oxford don

From The New York Times:

Since the 16th century, the ideal of education has been the tutorial system pioneered at Oxford and Cambridge, nurturing young minds one to one, inquiring, prodding and encouraging. The tutorial method, research shows, is a proven winner.

But it is also highly elitist, hardly a system for educating the masses. So the drive for public education, in America and elsewhere, required a very different model — of one to many, with the teacher standing in front of a classroom, working from a textbook and lecturing. Education moved from a bespoke craft to a more industrial approach.

Today, though, 21st-century technology carries the potential to nudge mainstream education back toward the 16th-century vision of one-to-one tutoring.

The Internet, high-speed networks, powerful and lighter computers, and clever software for video, collaboration and simulations on the Web all help. Equally important is a maturing understanding of how to use wisely the new digital tools in education. The goal, proponents say, is to open the door to more engaged, interactive and personalized learning.

Need-based aid increases enrollment, persistence

Inside Higher Ed reports today on the results of a new examination of the impact of need-based financial aid. This particular study looked at the impact of an increase in grant aid on the post-secondary enrollment, persistence, and graduation of students from low-income families in Quebec. While the observed impact on graduation rates appears inconclusive, the study found the following:

The change in student aid policy in Quebec resulted in a 5-7 percentage point increase in the likelihood that students from low-income families would receive grant aid, Chemin's study found. That increase translated, he found, into a 4-6 percentage point increase in the likelihood of students' entering postsecondary education -- especially important in Quebec, whose enrollment rates lagged significantly those elsewhere in Canada.

Access alone isn't enough, of course, Chemin notes, but some aspects of postsecondary performance appeared to improve, too, because of the Quebec government's changes. "Exit rates" -- defined as a student's enrolling in but dropping out of a university -- dropped by 3 percentage points more than did those in British Columbia during the comparable period, and persistence rates increased by 6 percentage points, "again indicating that Quebec students stayed enrolled longer" in postsecondary education because of the financial aid reforms.

Sunday, 13 September, 2009

Ted Kennedy's legacy to U.S. higher education

From University World News:

The death of Edward Kennedy on 25 August 2009 represents the end of an era of senatorial lions who sponsored educational reform in the US.

In spite of being born into privilege and position, the nine Kennedy children were instilled with a sense of high moral and social duty. Those active in politics or social causes all came to share a commitment to equal rights.

During nearly five decades as the Democratic senator for Massachusetts, the youngest Kennedy became equated with liberal American educational policy like no other politician of his generation. Indeed, according to Terry W Hartle, a former long-term aide and current senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, "it is hard to imagine education policy without Senator Kennedy's distinctive voice".

Saturday, 12 September, 2009

Google to ID authors of emails to YorkU

From The National Post:

York University has won court orders requiring Google Inc. and Canada's two largest telecommunications companies to reveal the identities of the anonymous authors of contentious emails that accused the school's president of academic fraud.

The university took the extraordinary measures after an email was circulated alleging that president Mamdouh Shoukri "perpetrated an outrageous fraud" when publicly touting the appointment of a new dean.

In January, the school announced its hiring of Martin Singer as its inaugural dean of the new Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, said to be the largest faculty in the country. The announcement called Prof. Singer a "renowned scholar of Chinese history" and quoted the president as saying: "York University is fortunate to have attracted such a strong scholar and administrator."

A week later, an email in the name of a group called York Faculty Concerned About the Future of York University was sent using a Google Gmail account to members of the York community challenging the statements regarding Prof. Singer's scholarly output. "Lying about scholarly credentials is the gravest offence," the email said before calling for the president's resignation and a new search for a dean.

Friday, 11 September, 2009

Harvard's endowment drops sharply

From The Associated Press:

Harvard University says the total value of its endowment fell almost 30 percent in the last fiscal year.

Harvard Management Company announced the results on Thursday, saying they were in line with other major universities of Harvard's stature.

The endowment stood at $26 billion on June 30, down from $36.9 billion 12 months earlier. The fund's investment performance, excluding donations and distributions, fell 27.3 percent.

World Innovation Summit for Education

The Qatar Foundation is holding its inaugural World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar this coming November 16 to 18.

The Summit is expected to bring together about 1,000 experts, academics, and decision-makers from over 120 countries to "create a new international multi-disciplinary platform to shape education models of the 21st century". The central theme of the event is Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements. The sub-themes will be Pluralism, Sustainability and Innovation.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a special connection to the Summit. The College of The North Atlantic - Qatar is one of the largest post-secondary institutions in the State of Qatar and the region in general.

The current newsletter for the Summit can be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Thursday, 10 September, 2009

Challenge, expectations influence graduation

From USA Today:

Researchers studying how to improve graduation rates at public colleges and universities have come up with a surprising and counter-intuitive finding: Many students may fail to complete a bachelor's degree not because the work is too hard — but because they're not challenged enough.

Ontario college enrollment jumps 7%

From The Canadian Press:

For the third year in a row, enrolment at Ontario's 24 community colleges has seen an increase in first-year full-time students.

Colleges Ontario says enrolment rose seven per cent this year, with more than 113,000 students in first-year full-time programs. This increase follows growth of 5.6 per cent last year and a six per cent increase in 2007.

The province's 24 colleges have a combined enrolment of more than 200,000 full-time and 350,000 part-time students.

R&D spending in Canadian higher education

From Statistics Canada's The Daily:

Spending on research and development by higher education institutions such as universities and affiliated research hospitals, experimental stations and clinics, amounted to $10.2 billion in current dollars in 2007/2008.

In 2002 constant dollars, this was $8.8 billion, up 2.7% from the previous year and 85% above the level in 1998/1999.

Of six funding sectors, higher education institutions themselves continued as the largest contributors to research and development done by this sector (45% of total funding in 2007/2008), spending $4.6 billion in current dollars, up 3.1% from the previous year. The second largest contributor was the federal government, which provided $2.7 billion or 27% of total funding.

The higher education sector spent $2.1 billion in current dollars on research and development in the social sciences and humanities field in 2007/2008, up 7.9% from 2006/2007. Spending on natural sciences and engineering (including health sciences) stood at $8.1 billion, up 5.3%.

Switch fees with graduate tax says UCL head

From The Guardian (U.K.):

The government should urgently scrap the student fees system and introduce a graduate tax to ensure that people aren't put off doing a degree by rising levels of debt, according to a leading university chief.

The current £3,225 annual fee and loans system to pay for it should be rapidly revised and rebranded as a graduate tax, payable as a proportion of students' future earnings, Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London, said. But the tax should be set higher than the current loan repayments to boost university funding, he argued.

Grant, a former head of the Russell group of elite universities, is the first university boss to call publicly for a graduate tax – an idea that was rejected when top-up fees were introduced in 2006.

Wednesday, 9 September, 2009

Conference boycott urged over 'plagiarist' chair

From The Times Higher Education:

A group of academics are urging a boycott of a forthcoming conference in Croatia after it emerged that the chair has a proven history of scientific misconduct.

The group, led by Harvey Marcovitch, the former chairman of the Committee on Publication Ethics (Cope) – which represents about 5,000 journal editors – last week wrote to all 44 of the non-Croatian speakers due to take part in the fifth annual meeting of the International Academy of Perinatal Medicine.

He urged them to not attend the event, scheduled to run from 31 October to 1 November in Dubrovnik, on the grounds that the chairman, Asim Kurjak, a retired professor of obstetrics from Zagreb University Medical School, has a history of plagiarism and duplicating publications.

Early leaving at U.S. public universities

From The New York Times:

At its top levels, the American system of higher education may be the best in the world. Yet in terms of its core mission — turning teenagers into educated college graduates — much of the system is simply failing.

Only 33 percent of the freshmen who enter the University of Massachusetts, Boston, graduate within six years. Less than 41 percent graduate from the University of Montana, and 44 percent from the University of New Mexico. The economist Mark Schneider refers to colleges with such dropout rates as “failure factories,” and they are the norm.

The United States does a good job enrolling teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree. Among rich countries, only Italy is worse.

Tuesday, 8 September, 2009

Looming crisis for African universities

University of Calgary professor Dr. Wisdom J. Tettey writes in the fall 2009 issue of International Higher Education:

Academic staff shortage has become a huge challenge for African universities, and no respite seems to be in sight.

In fact, observers of the higher education scene on the continent unanimously identify this issue as one of the most critical challenges to the mission of these institutions.

They contend that, if urgent concerted action is not undertaken soon enough to address the problem, the African academy will not only lose its ability to produce the requisite number of personnel to support the countries’ human resource needs, but the quality of intellectual life will continue to erode.

British school leaving 'among worst in developed world'

From The Times Online:

Britain has one of the worst teenage drop-out rates of any developed country, with more than one in ten of those aged 15 to 19 not in school, work or training.

Only Turkey, Israel, Spain and Brazil have more in this age group who are neither learning nor working, according to the report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Britain also has among the highest number who fail to complete their higher education. Vocational courses have a particularly low graduation rates. The number of those who finish university has also stalled.

Education in Canada: An International Perspective

With the release of the OECD's 2009 Education at a Glance report, the Canadian Education Statistics Council, a partnership between Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, has released a report titled Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, 2009.

This document compares data on the education systems in all of the Canadian provinces and territories with those of the member countries in the OECD. The highlights in the report include the following:

In 2007, 29% of Canadian adults aged 25 to 34 had graduated from university. On this measure Canada ranked 12th (tied with Japan and the United Kingdom).
In 23 of 25 OECD countries, including Canada (and all of the provinces and territories), women were more likely than men to graduate from both high school and university.
In 2006, post-secondary graduates in Canada earned considerably more than that of high school graduates -- an average of 40% more. This advantage ranged from 7% in Alberta to more than 55% in Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec.
With respect to expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP, in 2005 Canada ranked 7th amongst OECD countries with 6.2% of GDP allocated to educational institutions.

The full document may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

St. John's housing market and university students

As reported by CBC Newfoundland and Labrador:

About 200 students at Memorial University of Newfoundland are looking for a place to live even as the school year gets underway.

Officials at the university say the waiting list is the longest they've seen in years.

Education at a Glance 2009

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released its annual Education at a Glance report which provides an analysis of educational progress in 30 countries around the world.

The 2009 report says that the difference in income between people who have post-secondary education and people who do not is continuing to grow. The report says that, compared to someone with a high school education, a male university graduate can expect to earn a gross income premium over his lifetime of about $200,000 (Canadian dollars) on average across OECD countries. The figure is lower for women - about $144,000.

The report says that the average net public return on university investment across OECD countries, after factoring in the direct and indirect costs, is almost $56,000 (for a male student) - about twice the average amount originally invested from public funds.

See here for additional analysis from Statistics Canada.

Monday, 7 September, 2009

Record medal total for Canada at WorldSkills

After several days of skills competition at the 40th WorldSkills Competition held in Calgary, 8 Medals and 12 Medallions of Excellence were awarded to Canadian competitors.

This is the highest ever medal total for Team Canada. See here for the Team Canada medal results and here for the overall results.

Sunday, 6 September, 2009

France increases university grants

From The Connexion:

The government [of France] is increasing the size of the grants it gives to almost half a million university students by up to 3% to help them cope with rising costs.

About 100,000 students from under-privileged backgrounds will be entitled to the 3% rise for this academic year. Another 350,000 students will see their grant grow by 1.5%.

Higher Education Minister Valérie Pécresse has also announced a 10% increase in the emergency help fund for students who are not eligible for a grant but are in urgent need of financial support. The two combined measures will cost €50m.

Newfoundland students concerned about housing

Excerpted from a Friday news release from Newfoundland and Labrador's student federation:

With the school year about to begin, many students are finding it increasingly difficult to find on-campus or affordable off-campus accommodations. In particular, students moving to St. John’s and Corner Brook are finding it difficult to find apartments, due to a growing shortage of available lodgings. Unfortunately, the shortage in these communities represents just the beginning of a much bigger social challenge for Newfoundland and Labrador.

(snip)

While the problem is most visible in Corner Brook, housing shortages are affecting students in other parts of the province as well. According to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation, vacancy rates currently stand at 2.0% on average for the province – a drop of 1.2% in one year alone. Corner Brook has the lowest vacancy rate in the province at 0.4%. Particularly affected are those who are on a fixed income – students, seniors, persons with disabilities, single parents, those burdened with student loan debts, and those employed in low-paying sectors of the economy.

Stemming the tide of U.S. university attrition

This article from University World News looks at the Obama administration's plans for increasing university completion rates. They'll have their work cut out for them:

[U.S.] college drop-out rates have never been higher. At the end of the first decade of the 21st millennium, nearly one in two students will not complete their courses. Back in the 1960s, only one in every five students dropped out; by the 1990s, the statistic increased to one in three.

But, between 2000 and 2008, the US Department of Education reported that 30% of students will leave in their first year and as many as 50% will never graduate.

More worrisome are figures that show consistent racial/ethnic patterns of graduation success. Not only can these rates almost always be related to student income levels, they can also be coupled with statistics suggesting those who fail to graduate are worse off than they started - facing crippling debt and poor job prospects.

Saturday, 5 September, 2009

Summer student unemployment and student aid

As reported by The Toronto Star:

According to Statistics Canada, unemployment for students between the ages of 15 and 24 was at 16.4 per cent in August, the worst rate on record.

The rest of the summer wasn't any better. The unemployment rate for the summer was at 19.2 per cent, with most of the young people working only 23.4 hours per week.

The concerns can be seen on campuses across the city.

The University of Toronto has seen a 12 per cent increase in financial aid applications for the year, according to its financial aid office. Ryerson University has seen applications jump 10 per cent. And applications to the Ontario Student Assistance Program were about 5 per cent higher for colleges and universities for next year.

Friday, 4 September, 2009

Ridiculous and atrocious graduate tax credits

From Alex Usher's biting Educational Policy Institute commentary piece titled Damn the Facts! Just Declare Victory:

Then there’s tactic number two – declaring that increased spending is in and of itself evidence of improved policy outcomes . . . Tactic two works even better if the policy area you’re trying to affect isn’t the subject of regular measurement, or if the tool you’re using is tax relief, which is difficult to measure and doesn’t show up in any budget documents (since it’s not actually an expenditure). Both of these apply to the ridiculously generous and atrociously-designed graduate tax credits in place in New Brunswick and Manitoba (Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have equally goofily-designed credits, but they aren’t worth as much). Tens of millions in tax credits are spent each year on these initiatives, which are supposed to attract and retain talented graduates. Conveniently for these governments, movement of graduates is almost never tracked.

Almost – but not never. The National Graduates Survey (NGS) does in fact look at where graduates go after they leave school. And thanks to the recent release of the NGS for the class of 2005, the results are now in for Manitoba and New Brunswick. Turns out all those millions in tax credits did precisely nothing. The graduating class of 2005 was no more or no less likely to stay in the province than was the class of 2000. Between the two provinces, that’s $100 million in funding that’s doing exactly nothing other than providing windfall gains to people doing exactly what they were going to do anyways.

Canadian inventor sues U.S. universities over patent

From The Associated Press:

Three Pacific Northwest universities face a federal lawsuit that accuses them of using, without permission, a Canadian inventor's patented process to build a better yellow mustard seed.

Soheil Sharafabadi, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle, says the University of Idaho used his patent to produce new varieties of mustard seed with higher yields.

Washington State University and Oregon State University collaborated with the Idaho university, providing research stations and scientists, according to court documents.

The lawsuit, filed July 23, names all three schools and agricultural suppliers in Idaho, Washington, Montana and California that sell and distribute the mustard seeds Sharafabadi says were developed with his 1990 "Pseudoplastic Yellow Mustard Gum" patent.

Don't be naughty

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

National American University is no longer worried about Naughty American University. The former, which operates 16 campuses in the United States and offers online courses, has dropped a lawsuit against the latter, which was operated by a pornography company, according to the Associated Press. The university had charged that the naughty site was "nearly identical" in appearance and impression to its own Web site and infringed on its trademark. The news organization reports that an attorney for the university said the naughty site's owners agreed to cease and desist.

Memorial University to be bottled water free

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release
Friday, September 4, 2009

Memorial University to Become Bottled Water Free

Water Pledge to be officially signed at MUN orientation event

St. John’s – Students will join Memorial University of Newfoundland’s (MUN) president pro tempore, Dr. Chris Loomis, in an event to officially sign a Water Pledge that commits the university to progressively eliminate the distribution of bottled water at all of MUN’s campuses in the province.

MUN will be the second university in Canada to make this commitment.

In March 2009, the Students for Sustainability Coalition at MUN – a coalition consisting of students’ unions and on-campus and community environmental organizations – launched a campaign calling on the university administration to improve access to public drinking water in an effort to make MUN bottled water free.

Where: MUN Field House
Date: Monday, September 7, 2009
Time: 1:45 p.m.

-30-

For more information, please contact:
Keith Dunne, Newfoundland and Labrador Organiser - organiser@cfs-nl.ca

Thursday, 3 September, 2009

Our infrastructure is younger than yours

Vancouver Sun story:

B.C. has the youngest education infrastructure in the country, according to a Statistics Canada comparison last year of the average ages of elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities across the country.

The average age of B.C. schools was 17.3 years, compared to a country-wide average of 20.1 years.

The agency says B.C. renewed investments in education infrastructure sooner than other provinces, largely to accommodate growing numbers of international immigrants and migrants from other provinces from 1991-96.

(snip)

Alberta and Ontario had the second and third youngest infrastructure.

Nothing new from education ministers meeting

Canada’s ministers of education met in Calgary this week for the 96th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada.

Is it me or does this concluding platitudinous press release sound a lot like the one from the 95th meeting with a few lines added on?

Lowering tuition fees in Nova Scotia

Tim Bousquet writes in Halifax's alternative paper The Coast:

Four years ago, the Progressive Conservative government promised that Nova Scotia's sky-high university tuition rates would match the national average by the 2010-11 school year. In reality that meant freezing tuition increases and hoping (!) that other provinces would increase their tuition rates. But even that cynical strategy hasn't panned out, so for the past couple of years the province has additionally given a "bursary" payment to universities on behalf of in-province residents. That payment is $1,022 this year.

Busary payments will help those students who fit a tight set of restrictions---the recipient must have been a non-student resident for the proceeding 12 months---but they don't match the reality of life as it is for the many of thousands of young people who may have left the province to find work to save up for a college education back home, or for those who drop in and out of school as finances permit. And bursaries miss out-of-province residents entirely; it's a mistake to lose out on the economic potential of those newcomers to the province.

The new NDP government plans to up the bursary a tad (to $1,283 next year) and is embarking on a tax rebate of up to $15,000 over six years for those graduates who make their home in Nova Scotia. But college education is by its very nature a guessing game---and those entering a post-secondary institution would be foolish to map out their educational expenses based on expected earnings to gain a future tax rebate.

The NDP needs to quit the accounting games and get to the core of the issue---the government should simply lower tuition rates to an affordable level. The investment would be good for our young people, and good for our economy.

U.S. student loan debt has grown dramatically

As reported by The Wall Street Journal:

Students are borrowing dramatically more to pay for college, accelerating a trend that has wide-ranging implications for a generation of young people.

New numbers from the U.S. Education Department show that federal student-loan disbursements—the total amount borrowed by students and received by schools—in the 2008-09 academic year grew about 25% over the previous year, to $75.1 billion. The amount of money students borrow has long been on the rise. But last year far surpassed past increases, which ranged from as low as 1.7% in the 1998-99 school year to almost 17% in 1994-95, according to figures used in President Barack Obama's proposed 2010 budget.

(snip)

The new numbers highlight how debt has become commonplace in paying for higher education. Today, two-thirds of college students borrow to pay for college, and their average debt load is $23,186 by the time they graduate, according to an analysis of the government's National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, conducted by financial-aid expert Mark Kantrowitz. Only a dozen years earlier, according to the study, 58% of students borrowed to pay for college, and the average amount borrowed was $13,172.
Lend a Hand

The ripple effects for today's heavily indebted young people are becoming palpable. A growing body of research suggests that tough loan payments are affecting major life decisions by recent graduates, forcing them to put off traditional milestones—from buying a first home to even marriage and having children.

University status for Mount Royal College

From today's Calgary Herald:

Thousands of students signed up for Mount Royal College this fall. But when they start classes next Thursday, they'll be attending Mount Royal University--the first new public university to be launched in Alberta since Athabasca University opened in 1970.

The eagerly awaited announcement comes on campus at 2:30 p. m. today from Premier Ed Stelmach and Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner.

Government sources say the change from college to university will take effect immediately, enabled by a simultaneous order-in-council released in Edmonton.

Today's formalities finally end a gruelling multi-year quest for university status that often seemed doomed because of inter-school rivalries.

Hardly anybody in any other university or college wanted Mount Royal to take this leap. The University of Calgary was always quietly opposed, preferring to make Mount Royal its own satellite university campus.

Sensitive to these jealousies, the government will present the MRU triumph as part of the overall Campus Alberta plan.

Wednesday, 2 September, 2009

Generation (student) debt

Federation of Students Chairperson Katherine Giroux-Bougard on student debt:

On January 21, 2009 Canada marked a regrettable milestone when student loan monies owing to the federal government surpassed $13 billion. This figure does not include the $5-8 billion in provincial student loan debt nor billions of dollars in other personal debts including credit cards, lines of credit and family loans. This year alone, over 385,000 students will require loans from the federal government and the average student will have between $21,000 and $28,000 at the end of a four-year program.

Saddling a generation with billions of dollars in debt will have far reaching implications for Canada’s economy and socio-economic equality. High levels of student debt have a direct impact on a student’s ability to succeed. Being saddled with debt reduces the likelihood of continuing studies beyond a bachelor’s degree or college diploma and research has shown that, as student debt rises from $1,000 to $10,000 per year, completion rates for students dependent on loans plummet from 59 to 8 per cent.

Not only is debt responsible for lower levels of university and college completion, but also for causing stress related health problems. Students from low-income backgrounds are more likely to suffer from tension, anxiety and other stress related conditions.

The worst teaching mistake

The most recent digest I received from Tomorrows-Professor details "The Ten Worst Teaching Mistakes" as compiled by North Carolina State University's Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent of Education Designs, Inc.

The #1 teaching mistake to avoid? Disrespecting students:

How much students learn in a course depends to a great extent on the instructor's attitude. Two different instructors could teach the same material to the same group of students using the same methods, give identical exams, and get dramatically different results. Under one teacher, the students might get good grades and give high ratings to the course and instructor; under the other teacher, the grades could be low, the ratings could be abysmal, and if the course is a gateway to the curriculum, many of the students might not be there next semester. The difference between the students' performance in the two classes could easily stem from the instructors' attitudes. If Instructor A conveys respect for the students and a sense that he/she cares about their learning and Instructor B appears indifferent and/or disrespectful, the differences in exam grades and ratings should come as no surprise.

Even if you genuinely respect and care about your students, you can unintentionally give them the opposite sense. Here are several ways to do it: (1) Make sarcastic remarks in class about their skills, intelligence, and work ethics; (2) disparage their questions or their responses to your questions; (3) give the impression that you are in front of them because it's your job, not because you like the subject and enjoy teaching it; (4) frequently come to class unprepared, run overtime, and cancel classes; (5) don't show up for office hours, or show up but act annoyed when students come in with questions. If you've slipped into any of those practices, try to drop them. If you give students a sense that you don't respect them, the class will probably be a bad experience for everyone no matter what else you do, while if you clearly convey respect and caring, it will cover a multitude of pedagogical sins you might commit.

University student satisfaction and persistence

The results of a new study sponsored by higher education consultants Noel-Levitz demonstrates that university student satisfaction is connected to persistence, however, it also shows that the impact of satisfaction factors varies with the level of study. Reflecting the differences in student experiences at different levels of study, this research found that many of the factors influencing student persistence differ with students' level of study.

For example, first-years are more likely to persist when they are satisfied with the campus climate and their adviser's availability; when they are impressed with the content of courses in their major area; when they believe that student fees are wisely put to use; and when they feel that their campus is safe. In comparison, the persistence of students in their final (fourth) year of study is more strongly connected to institutional characteristics and grade point average.

The full text of the report is available here in .pdf format.

Hat tip to Academica's Top Ten

Harvard shelves limits on student-media contact

In response to student complaints, Harvard Medical School is backing away from a policy that would have restricted student interaction with the news media. The policy was approved in the winter but not circulated to students until last week. It stated the following:

All interactions between students and the media should be coordinated with the Office of the Dean of Students and the Office of Public Affairs. This applies to situations in which students are contacted by the media as well as instances in which students may be seeking publicity about a student-related project or program.

More here from The New York Times.

Tuesday, 1 September, 2009

Smartphones in halls of learning

Financial Post story:

Today, smartphones such as the iPhone, Research In Motion Ltd.' s BlackBerry and other mobile devices are as much a part of university life as study halls and Thursday night pub outings. Just as the PC revolution changed the very nature of higher learning, the smartphone is beginning to transform the university experience.

(snip)

One of the first academic iPhone applications was created by Stanford University in California. The journalism school at the University of Missouri has mandated that all its incoming students purchase either an iPhone or an iPod Touch device, in addition to their textbooks, as part of their studies.

In fact, in some academic circles, a push is on for all students to purchase smartphones before coming to university, similar to how students today are all but required to have their own computer when they first arrive at their dorm.

College Republicans to identify liberal profs

Joe McCarthy would be proud:

[University of Toledo] College Republicans are compiling a list of liberal professors who they claimed have a bias against conservative students.

The list will include professors who students say have let their political views interfere with the way they interact with students in the classroom.

UT College Republicans President Matt Rubin, a junior majoring in political science and public administration, said the list is not an attempt to bash professors who have liberal ideas, but instead, it is an attempt to speak out for students who may have been victims of the bias, which was then reflected in their grade.

Green jobs blooming in the skilled trades

From The Calgary Herald:

So-called "green jobs" are growing at more than twice the rate of traditional jobs in Canada--9.1 per cent over the last decade compared with the average of 3.7 per cent--but it's the skilled trades that could stand to reap some of the biggest gains as new green initiatives in sustainable energy and construction get underway across North America.

(snip)

Careers in science and engineering will be one focus area of these green jobs as new technologies and processes are developed, but the skilled trades will also play an important role and provide new career opportunities for trades workers.

Green energy and construction projects will open up new careers in manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance of projects such as wind turbine farms, building retrofits, solar panel installation and transit-line building, for example.

First day of WorldSkills Calgary 2009

Today's Opening Ceremony marks the first day of international competition at the 40th WorldSkills Competition in Calgary.

Held once every two years, the WorldSkills Competition showcases excellence in a variety of specialized skilled trade and technology categories through Olympic-style team and individual competitions.

WorldSkills Calgary 2009 takes place from September 1 to 7 with over 900 participants from 51 countries. The 38 members of Team Canada will participate in 35 of the 45 skills categories.

We wish them the best of luck.

Millions of UK student loans have interest rate cut to zero or less

As reported by The Guardian(UK):

Millions of students and graduates will see the cost of their loans drop to zero or lower [today], after falls in the retail price index this year.

While the majority of students – those who took out loans after 1998 – will see the interest on their loans set at 0%, a smaller number who took out loans before 1998 will have an interest rate set at -0.4%, so even if they pay nothing towards their loans, the value will have dropped by the end of the 2009-10 academic year.

The interest rate charged from 1 September each year on the 3.26m "income contingent" student loans taken out since 1998 is based on the lower of the retail price index in the previous March or the Bank of England base rate plus 1%. Until now, the interest has always been set at RPI, which would have meant a rate of -0.4%, but this year the government has used an option not to set an interest rate at all, in effect making the rate 0%.