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Policy & Practice
BY CRESO SÁ | February 20 2018

Creso Sá looks at what the recent superclusters announcement really means for universities and academic research.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our new series: Policy & Practice. These monthly posts will be brought to you by Creso Sá, the director of the Centre for the Study of Canadian and International Higher Education (CIHE) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toron...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/policy-and-practice/superclusters-plan-promises-can-likely-deliver/
Policy & Practice
BY EMINA VELETANLIĆ | February 07 2020

More funds for science in recent decades has meant more political pressure on research councils to showcase impact and demonstrate relevance.

The following is a guest column written by Emina Veletanlić, a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Study of Canadian & International Higher Education. Her interests include research policy and emerging technologies. Over the past four decades, governments wor...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/policy-and-practice/fundamental-research-continues-to-be-undermined-in-canada/
Policy & Practice
BY CRESO SÁ | June 14 2021

As it was not tasked with offering recommendations, the report’s conclusions are understandably generic and understated.

The Council of Canadian Academies recently released the report Continue reading, which was commissioned by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Ca...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/policy-and-practice/what-does-the-recent-powering-discovery-report-actually-say-not-much/
Policy & Practice
BY CRESO SÁ | April 18 2023

Questions around Stanford U president Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s research represent a case in point.

Perhaps the most written about institution in the world thanks to its unique relationship with Silicon Valley, Stanford University has been mired in controversy since last fall. Marc Tessier-Lavigne, its president since 2016 (and originally from Trenton, Ont.), has been accused of co-authoring a str...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/policy-and-practice/when-self-correction-meets-power-in-the-quest-to-uphold-scientific-integrity/
Ask Dr. Editor
BY LETITIA HENVILLE | June 17 2021

To recognize and remove biased language from your own letters of recommendation, you’ll need to locate and remove the inappropriate use of hedges and intensifiers.

Question:

I dread the number of letters of reference that I’ll need to write for my trainees’ job applications in the coming months. How can I accurately describe their intelligence and capabilities without simply repeating the word “excellence”?

– L...

https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/ask-dr-editor/how-to-write-a-compelling-letter-of-reference/
Ask Dr. Editor
BY LETITIA HENVILLE | September 16 2022

Clarify your concepts by structuring your work around nominal peaks and concrete valleys.

Question:

One of the things that drew me to literary studies was all the fun theory. But it turns out “theory is fun” is not a universal perspective! I find conceptual language really useful in my work, and I know why my work is important, but I have a hard time making thos...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/ask-dr-editor/zombie-proof-your-writing-tips-for-making-the-conceptual-concrete/
Ask Dr. Editor
BY LETITIA HENVILLE | October 18 2022

They are the bricks that you’re laying on the path towards your goal.

Question:

I’m an artist-turned-academic, and the unwritten rules of SSHRC grants do my head in. I recently received feedback from a colleague that my draft proposal’s four objectives were “unclear.” What’s unclear to me is how to write better objectives. What are the ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/ask-dr-editor/how-to-write-clear-objectives-for-your-research-grant-proposal/
Global Campus
BY EMMA HARTLEY & WINCY LI | March 08 2022

Preparing international students for the Canadian labour market using a cohort-based approach.

networking and employment rights and salary negotiation. We also created space for Q&As and for attendees to reflect on their own experiences as a group, and encouraged participants of the program to share their contact information with each other if they were so inclined. Participants who...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/global-campus/join-the-club-a-job-search-community/
Global Campus
BY YASEEN ALI | June 22 2023

Let’s create learning environments where students who speak English as an additional language needn’t apologize for speaking up.

International students attending postsecondary institutions (PSIs) where English is the medium of instruction are often users of English as an additional language (EAL), generating innumerable dialects, forms and accents. Although these students meet the language proficiency requirements to study at...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/global-campus/all-the-englishes-used-here/
Features
BY CHRISTINA FRANGOU | March 27 2024

Almost a year after the stabbing at U of Waterloo, what has changed?

For many, the first indication that something was terribly wrong came by text. The words “Are you ok?” popped up on the phone of Carla Fehr, the Wolfe chair in scientific and technological literacy in the philosophy department at the University of Waterloo, as sh...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/are-university-campuses-safer-spaces-for-2slgbtqia-folks/
News
BY MOHAMED BERRADA | May 01 2024

The proposed funding is intended to facilitate access to care and support mental health initiatives, as experts call for greater coordination between federal and provincial governments.

The federal government’s 2024 budget has brought the mental health of young Canadians to the forefront. For many students and young professionals, the lack of access to private mental health care, combined with the high cost of living, can make overcoming mental illness a steep hill to climb. The ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/does-budget-2024s-500-million-investment-over-five-years-address-the-mental-health-challenges-young-people-are-facing/
Graduate Matters
BY TANIA SULTANA | May 08 2024

When you feel overwhelmed, it is good practice to remind yourself about what you hoped to achieve in this academic space.

In congruence with Mental Health Week Canada 2024 and International Mental Health Awareness Week, I feel it is important to underline both the mental health challenges and support that can be found in gradu...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/graduate-matters/the-grad-school-pressure-cooker-how-to-keep-your-cool/
Features
BY NAVNEET ALANG | April 23 2019

Researchers now have access to a flood of educational data on students that they hope will offer insights on how to improve the learning experience. Will it work?

A couple of years ago, Marek Hatala, a professor at Simon Fraser University, faced a conundrum. He was teaching a computer science course to students who weren’t majoring in the field. Tasked with rather difficult projects that would often take three or four weeks, students complained that they wo...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/the-lure-of-learning-analytics/
Features
BY NAVNEET ALANG | April 23 2019

Les chercheurs ont accès à un flot de données sur les étudiants et espèrent qu’elles leur permettront d’améliorer l’expérience d’apprentissage. Est-ce que ce sera le cas?

Ce texte est un sommaire de l’article « Continue reading ». Il y a deux ans, Marek Hatala, professeur à l’Université Simon Fraser, enseignait l’informatique à ...
https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/articles-de-fond/article/lattrait-de-lanalyse-de-lapprentissage/
Features
BY MOIRA MACDONALD | June 30 2020

Seven academics reflect on the moment they realized the world had changed.

Exhausting days, sleepless nights, overwhelming uncertainty and a paramount concern for the welfare of students, faculty and staff. Universities were among the first organizations to shut down in-person operations and pivot rapidly to remote teaching and learning in response to the COVID-19 global p...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/where-were-you-when-the-pandemic-hit/
News
BY NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY | October 24 2008

Creative writing students at UBC strike compromise with the university to protect their future works

Graduate students at many Canadian universities are required to submit their theses to an online repository through programs operated by their universities, and, often, to another program run by the National Library and Archives Canada. The purpose of the programs is to make their research available...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/some-graduates-question-thesis-publication-requirement/
News
BY ANNE MULLENS | September 21 2009

Un mégaprojet de recherche dévoilera sous peu les mystères des profondeurs océaniques

Au début, l’aventure était totalement hypothétique, mais NEPTUNE Canada est maintenant un projet concret de 125 millions de dollars. C’est le plus grand et le plus avancé des observatoires océaniques par câbles, et il révélera, en temps réel, au cours des 25 prochaines années, les secr...
https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/actualites/actualites-article/la-derniere-frontiere/
News
BY BRIAN OWENS | January 08 2018

This latest overhaul of the NRC aims to boost engagement, restore lost morale.

The National Research Council of Canada will set up a postdoctoral program, appoint a chief scientific adviser and establish a president’s research excellence committee as part of the lat-est round of reforms at the agency. The four-year reform plan, the result of a year-long “dialogue” with N...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/national-research-council-lays-four-year-reform-plan/
In my opinion
BY ANTHONY GURR | June 08 2009

It’s not enough to teach about teaching technologies – use them!

My graduate adviser, an academic of great wisdom and wit, is currently on a one-year sabbatical from Simon Fraser University. A few months ago, he was living large in the picturesque alpine town of Chamonix in France, where he communed daily with herds of goats, took classes in making ratatouille, a...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/faculty-need-to-walk-the-talk/
In my opinion
BY ANITA SINGH + HOWARD ADELMAN | January 16 2013

Traditional universities will have to respond to new challenges.

In June 2012, University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan was unceremoniously fired. According to university board members, Sullivan's inadequate response to initiatives underway in MIT, Stanford and Harvard to online education prompted the https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/how-open-courses-are-changing-the-modern-university/
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