The Academica Top Ten

What we publish: We prefer to publish strong, nationally-relevant, recently-published stories explicitly about Canadian postsecondary education that reflect a variety of topics, regions, and sources each day. Inclusion is a competitive process, with our team often receiving over 100 sources each day, and so inclusion is never guaranteed.

Topics: Stories from the below areas and themes are generally considered for the Academica Top Ten:

• Accreditation
• Admissions/Enrolment/Graduation Trends pertaining to more than one Canadian institution
• Closures/Mergers
• Competitive Rankings pertaining to more than one Canadian Institution
• Capital Projects and New Facilities
• Donations of $500K or greater ($1M or greater preferred)
• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
• Financial Issues
• Fundraising Campaigns
• Government Funding Announcements of $500K or greater (incl. CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC announcements)
• Government Higher Education Policy
• Indigenous Education
• Institutional Anniversaries (50th, 100th, 150th, and so forth)
• International Education
• Lawsuits/Legal Cases
• Online/Open Education
• Partnerships and Collaborations
• Program/Department Additions, Cuts, and Changes
• Research and Statistics related to Higher Ed
• ROI/Outcomes
• Skills/Labour Market Shifts and Shortages
• Student Services/Engagement

Unless a news item draws significant media attention or otherwise demonstrates national interest, we generally do not cover news outside of these topics.

Recency: Due to the nature of our publication, we place an emphasis on recency and will typically only consider news published within five business days, with new stories prioritized over older ones. Exceptions may be made for less timely items such as opinion pieces, research studies, and round-up news items at the editor’s sole discretion.

We offer advertising and sponsored content opportunities for the following types of content:

• Appointment announcements with additional space to celebrate or welcome an individual (inclusion in the Appointment Notices section is available once at no cost)
• Award nominee or winner announcements
• Event, including conferences and online workshops
• Private sector goods and services, including educational technology, publishing services, and general vendors.
• Professional development opportunities relevant to those working in higher ed.
• Resources that have been published more than 3 months ago and therefore no longer qualify for our regular content.

Content must be directly relevant to the Canadian postsecondary education sector and is subject to approval.

Job postings and paid appointment notices can be purchased through the self-service system on Academica Careers.

Please note that we do not allow sponsorship of individual stories in the daily digest or any content that we would typically cover as core content. To inquire about advertising and sponsored content opportunities, reach out to us by email (today@academica.ca) or complete the form below.

If you have published a news item within the last 3-5 business days that fits our publishing criteria (See: What do you cover in the Academica Top Ten?), you can submit the URL to a dated copy of the item by email or through the Contact Us form below.

Please note that submission does not guarantee publication due to the sheer number of news items we receive.

Every edition of the Academica Top Ten and Indigenous Top Ten newsletters feature career postings that are pulled exclusively from our Academica Careers portal. If you would like to post a career ad, post a special appointment notice, or browse available ads, please visit Academica Careers.

For our full (paid) and limited (complementary) appointment offerings, visit the FAQ page on Academica Careers.

Due to the brief nature of our newsletter, we frequently use common abbreviations to refer to organizations and activities in the sector. Some of the abbreviations that we most commonly use in the Academica Top Ten include the following:

Organizations:

• ARUCC – Association of Registrars of the Universities and Colleges of Canada
• BCCAT – BC Council on Admissions and Transfer
• BCCIE – BC Council for International Education
• CACUSS – Canadian Association of College and University Student Services
• CASFAA – Canadian Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
• CAUT – Canadian Association of University Teachers
• CBIE – Canadian Bureau for International Education
• CFS – Canadian Federation of Students
• CIHR – Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• COU – Council of Ontario Universities
• CUPE – Canadian Union of Public Employees
• HEQCO – Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
• ISED – Innovation, Science and Economic Development
• MPHEC – Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission
• NACC – National Association of Career Colleges
• NSERC – Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• OCAS – Ontario College Application Service
• OCUFA – Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
• OPSEU – Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union
• OUAC – Ontario Universities’ Application Centre
• OUSA – Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance
• PCCAT – Pan-Canadian Consortium on Admissions & Transfer
• SSHRC – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• StatsCan – Statistics Canada

Titles and Terms:

• AVP – Associate/Assistant Vice President
• BHASE – Business, humanities, arts, social science, and education. Typically used to refer to non-STEM programming.
• C-suite – An organization’s top executives, which may include the following:
  • CAO – Chief Administrative Officer
  • CEO – Chief Executive Officer
  • CFO – Chief Financial Officer
  • CHRO – Chief Human Resources Officer
  • CIO – Chief Information Officer
  • CMO – Chief Marketing Officer
  • COO – Chief Operating Officer
• Cégep – Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (general and vocational colleges found in Québec)
• ESL – English as a Second Language
• FTE – Full-time Equivalent or Full-load Equivalent
• KPI – Key Performance Indicator
• MLA – Member of Legislative Assembly
• MOOC – massive open online course
• MOU – Memorandum of Understanding
• MP – Member of Parliament (federal)
• MPP – Member of Provincial Parliament
• PSE – Postsecondary Education
• R&D – Research and development
• STEM – Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
• VP – Vice President
• WIL – Work-integrated learning

Academica Group has been publishing the Academica Top Ten for over a decade. We maintain an online archive of the most recent three years’ worth of story summaries, which you can view here.

Please note that due to the sheer amount of stories we cover in a given year, we are unable to monitor or update links on archived news items. If you are searching for an article that we have linked to that is no longer available, we encourage you to follow up with that publisher for copies of their content.