News
New position announced at an Association of Atlantic Universities’ conference on mental health held at Mount Allison University.
Universities in Atlantic Canada are taking a regional approach to address the urgent need for improved mental health services on its campuses. The Association of Atlantic Universities, representing 16 universities, has appointed Elizabeth Cawley as the full-time regional coordinator to support stude...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/atlantic-universities-appoint-regional-coordinator-support-student-mental-health/
In my opinion
Is it best to start from scratch, or to retrofit an existing institution?
“You’ve been to a Silicon Valley startup before, haven’t you?” Not an opening question I would normally expect from the equivalent of a provost who’s about to show me around campus – or rather, head office. The Continue reading doesn’t act...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/build-intentional-university/
In my opinion
Every decade has its trend, and in the university sector “differentiation” seems to define the current one. It’s difficult to take issue with the basic idea: different institutions should focus on their different strengths. But, this notion has encouraged some implausible conclusions that warr...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/research-funding-skewed-larger-universities/
In my opinion
The Magna Charta Universitatum is being used across the world to shape, guide and defend university values.
In an opinion piece published by University Affairs last July, Julia Eastman offered Continue reading on university autonomy in Canada, noting in the first instance that the erosion of decision-making authority in our country’s universities appears to be...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/enunciating-the-fundamental-principles-of-a-university/
In my opinion
The shift online demonstrated the convenience of distance learning and has convinced some learners, including workers and unemployed people, to study.
As of mid-March last year, governments worldwide imposed quarantines and social distancing practices as health measures in response to the spread of COVID-19. These restrictions disrupted millions of university students’ education worldwide and significantly altered university operations. Universi...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-may-have-changed-university-teaching-and-testing-for-good/
In my opinion
Imposing broad rules on universities around ownership of intellectual property in complex research collaborations is not the answer.
A recent Continue readingby the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) reports that foreign companies scoop up more than 50 per cent of the patents emerging from researc...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/understanding-university-ownership-of-ip-in-foreign-research-collaborations/
Speculative Diction
A few of weeks ago, an article about Canadian universities’ hiring of teaching-intensive faculty p...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/speculative-diction/teaching-shouldnt-be-a-problem-for-universities/
In my opinion
As a first-generation immigrant living in Toronto from the mid-1970s to 2002, I had never heard of Lakehead University. In fact, I first heard of Lakehead University when I applied for the position of director of communications in November 2002. Once hired, I was excited when my proposal to launch a...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/marketing-universities-is-a-modern-day-necessity/
In my opinion
Sometimes, delaying the university experience is the best move.
There is a myth in our society that everyone completing Grade 12 should aspire to attend university, as soon as possible. It’s not true.
The risk of students attending university in a habitual manner, solely according to this myth, is that they will waste their time, money (or someone else’s ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/lets-reconsider-the-value-of-university-for-students-and-society/
Features
If you want to know what a given university is all about, you might check the calendar, and there you will likely find some version of what is called, without irony, a mission statement. It will probably be filled with whatever buzzwords were current at the time of its composition, words like sy...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/words-to-learn-by-the-case-for-the-unheralded-university-motto/
News
Presidents and senior administrators from 36 universities convene for AUCC workshop about mental health issues on campus.
Amid growing concerns over the mental health of students and other members of the university community, a group of university presidents has formed a working group to look at the role universities can play in addressing and dealing with mental illness on campus.
The decision to form the group was...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/universities-to-examine-their-role-in-students-mental-health/
News
Students’ mental health seen as a priority by many administrations.
Acting on the knowledge that university-age youth are among the most vulnerable to mental illness, Canadian universities are taking concrete measures to deal with mental illness on campus.
“Many universities have highlighted this issue for immediate institutional action,” said Robert Campbell...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/universities-step-up-mental-health-efforts/
News
The province’s university community, like the rest of Quebec society, is torn apart over the proposed ban on wearing religious symbols.
Nora Jaffary, chair of Concordia University’s history department, is not a Muslim. But she is wearing a hijab to protest Bill 60 – entitled the Charter affirming the values of State secularism and religious neutrality and of equality between women and men, and providing a framework for accom...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/quebec-charter-of-values-worries-members-of-the-university-community/
News
That was the theme of third annual reconciliation forum, held at University of Manitoba.
More than 350 leaders from universities, colleges and Indigenous communities gathered at the University of Manitoba for the third annual Continue reading. The theme for this year’s event, held on November 8 and ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/universities-colleges-asked-imagine-reconciled-education-system/
Features
Give up a regular paycheck and leave home for grad school? Why bother, when more graduate programs are available by distance, especially for working professionals.
Practising medical doctor in India, Kalpita Gaitonde was hoping to resume her health care career after moving to Waterloo, Ontario, but she wondered how to balance additional training with raising two young children. Joan Francuz had always wanted to write a book, but didn’t want to give up her da...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/why-more-universities-are-offering-online-graduate-degrees/
Features
A Q&A with Belinda Robinson, chief executive of Universities Australia.
Though they’re on opposite sides of the planet, Canada and Australia have much in common when it comes to the higher education sector. Universities in both countries are focused on increasing international student mobility and are also working alongside government mandates to strengthen innova...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/australias-universities-face-many-issues-canadian-counterparts/
News
Canadian schools have faced delays and slower than expected growth in enrolment.
News
A strong university helps build a strong city and vice versa, says U of T’s Meric Gertler.
Universities and the cities where they reside have a symbiotic relationship, each deriving benefits from the other, according to Meric Gertler, president of the University of Toronto. “A strong university helps build a strong city and a strong city helps build a strong university,” Dr. Gertler t...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/big-city-universities-examine-their-relationship-to-the-cities-in-which-they-reside/
News
Move is overdue recognition that the university has become much more diverse, says president.
The Concordia University of Edmonton’s announcement in April that it will no longer be religiously based reflects what the university has been for decades: a publicly supported institution that does not serve one particular constituency, said the university’s president, Gerald Krispin.
What b...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/concordia-university-of-edmonton-sheds-its-religious-ties/
News
The plight of Concordia professor Homa Hoodfar in Iran has once again brought up the question of what universities can do to protect scholars detained abroad.
Editor's Note: It was reported in the Continue reading on Oct. 2 that Tahmid Khan was released on bail in Bangladesh. Also, the Government of Canada confirmed on...
https://universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/fighting-free-detained-scholars-abroad-vexing-issue-universities/