In my opinion
A recent CACUSS panel shed light on the realities that many racialized staff face.
For the first time in its 50-year history, the Canadian Association for College and University Student Services (CACUSS) held a plenary panel, titled "Being Racialized and Indigenous in Student Affairs: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow,” which centred the experiences of colleagues who are Indig...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/reflections-on-being-racialized-and-indigenous-in-student-affairs/
In my opinion
Universities and colleges need better, more easily accessible and culturally competent mental health services targeted to the needs of international students.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, Continue reading. Classes moved online,
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-pandemic-exposed-the-vulnerability-of-international-students-in-canada/
In my opinion
A survey of primarily teaching math faculty reveals the need for standardization to strengthen and support these integral contributors to undergraduate education.
Over many years and across the world, the proportion of full-time, tenure-track faculty in academia has declined. This trend has been present in Canada, too, with universities relying on a precarious workforce (non-permanent, part-time, casual, contract, temporary-type employment) to fill in ever-in...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/it-is-time-to-make-teaching-stream-faculty-count/
In my opinion
Both the federal and provincial governments need to treat international students as a resource to invest in.
In an opinion editorial published by University Affairs in September 2023, Continue readingd that treating our international students poorly, with...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/better-integration-policies-for-international-students-needed-at-universities/
From the admin chair
This is a shared dilemma.
Being an administrator requires solving dilemmas. Those I have helped to solve are typically local and circumscribed, but larger country-wide dilemmas also weigh on my mind. The dilemma I’ve been thinking about lately relates to all three of the administrative positions I have held: dean of gradua...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/from-the-admin-chair/training-pipeline-is-overflowing/
From the admin chair
These partnerships can open doors and windows in the Ivory Tower.
Universities are increasingly moving from being Ivory Towers where research is conducted in a societally detached manner into a rich nexus of research partnerships. We have industry partners, partners at international institutions, non-governmental partners, community partners and governmental partn...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/from-the-admin-chair/why-academia-should-be-partnering-with-industry/
From the admin chair
Ongoing learning will be necessary for all careers, inside and outside academia.
The kind of skills that doctoral students will need for their careers is a topic that has been garnering considerable attention of late. With new data suggesting that only 20 percent of Canada’s PhD graduates will find tenure-track jobs in academia (forthcoming from the Conference Board of Canada)...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/from-the-admin-chair/skills-that-phds-need-for-their-job-is-a-critical-issue-for-universities/
From the admin chair
It’s not so much about stopping the migration of skills as it is about balancing human capital.
Brain drain, defined as the massive migration – whether voluntary or forced, and therefore without hope of return – of the intellectual elite of a country, is an ancient phenomenon. The reasons for it are sometimes obvious, such as the political persecutions and Nazi pogroms that emptied Germany...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/from-the-admin-chair/brain-drain-doesnt-have-to-be-fatal-and-universities-are-part-of-the-solution/
Margin Notes
The “gap year” – taking a year off between high school and college or university – is a well-established tradition in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. And it now seems to be gaining traction among Canadians.
The "gap year" - taking a year off between high school and college or university - is a well-established tradition in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. And it now seems to be gaining traction among Canadians.
For example, Travel CUTS, the student-owned travel company, offers
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/margin-notes/the-gap-year-comes-to-canada/
Margin Notes
Curriculum would be devised through a collaborative effort of participating institutions.
In aContinue reading last month, I proposed an experiment whereby a number of core courses (think Psychology 101, for example) would be taught online, perhaps to seve...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/margin-notes/core-courses-delivered-online-a-proposal-take-2/
Margin Notes
Now’s your chance to ask CIFAR to investigate.
It’s an intriguing invitation: the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research has issued its first-ever call for proposals for new research ideas that address “a complex question of importance to humanity.” My immediate response was to think of something snide, like “Why the Kardashians?” bu...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/margin-notes/have-a-complex-question-of-importance-to-humanity/
The Black Hole
Peer Review and Publishing – the best of the worst?
A look at the peer review system and the idea that anonymity of reviewers is an idea of the past.
QUICK HITS:
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/peer-review-and-publishing-the-best-of-the-worst/
- This is RALLY WEEK for the STEM CELL CHARTER - follow their Continue reading , twitter feed, or join theirContinue reading. David...
The Black Hole
Quick hit:
1. The Stem Cell Foundation has been nominated for a Webby – the Oscars of the Internet – in the category of Best Activism Website. It’s quite impressive that they were nominated as these are a big deal, and what’s even more impressive is that when I cast my vote, they had a slim...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/the-council-of-canadian-academies-thriving-surviving-or-doomed-to-fail/
The Black Hole
With the goal of assessing the state of science and technology in Canada, it seems quite reasonable that the STIC report has identified the development of new knowledge as a key metric for assessing Canada's relative and absolute performance. The difficulty with such a task though is understanding...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/final-notch-in-the-stic-how-should-we-measure-knowledge-development/
The Black Hole
I've been doing some work with the Aboriginal Health Program at my day job and it has reminded me of something that I've been meaning to blog about here: the rates of Aboriginal people in post-secondary education. Back when Dave and I were grad students and we were sitting around talking about "issu...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/a-quick-review-of-the-2009-the-state-of-aboriginal-learning-in-canada-report/
The Black Hole
In my last blog posting, I discussed “The State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada” report and promised to talk more about potential solutions to the barriers to education faced by Aboriginal people in Canada. To that end, I have just finished reading two reports:
The Black Hole
Earlier this summer, two major reports were released from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Continue reading. Beryl Lieff Benderly offers an excellent, though slightly pess...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/novel-ideas-for-the-biomedical-research-workforce-anyone-in-canada-listening/
The Black Hole
Citations are the standard benchmark for scientists to assess the impact of their work. Highly cited papers have clearly influenced the field and few would dispute their importance. What citations do not measure, though, is the wider impact of a paper - do industrial projects build from these discov...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/measuring-the-non-academic-impact-of-your-science/
The Black Hole
Government support of research and development should focus on expanding its ability to engage in early basic research, where Continue reading, w...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/how-to-build-canadas-science-and-technology-infrastructure/
The Black Hole
David Kent takes a closer look at some of the journal’s peer reviewers – and the results are distressing.
A colleague (thanks Elisa!) tipped me off to a new development at one of the most prestigious scientific journals: At some point over the last year, Nature magazine has begun to reveal the identities of some reviewers for their published letters and research articles. This is a big step tow...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/glimpse-past-smoke-mirrors-nature-magazine/
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