October 16, 2006
For the second time in a row, Queen's tops the BusinessWeek biannual ranking of MBA programs outside the US . The rankings, released on Friday, place UWO's Ivey School of Business at #2, UofT's Rotman at #3, York 's Schulich at #9, and HEC Montreal at #10. Ivey and Rotman climbed from #6 and #9 respectively in 2004. The methodology involves surveys of business school recruiters, graduating MBA students, and analysis of academic publications. (Queen's news release at
http://qnc.queensu.ca/story_loader.php?id=452f903eaade3 )
The $6.5 million Wind Energy Institute of Canada opened last Wednesday in North Cape , PEI , on the former Atlantic Wind Test Site. Supported by provincial and federal funds and revenue from the North Cape Wind Farm, the laboratory and workshop facility will conduct wind energy testing and certification, research and innovation, and public education. (Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2006/10/12/wind-institute.html?ref=rss )
Middlebury College , in Vermont , may be the only US institution giving an enrolment boost to gay applicants. Of 6,200 applicants to Middlebury last year, 5 indicated they were gay in their application essays, and more than 50 cited membership in gay-straight alliances. Verbal and physical abuse in high school can have an educational impact that affects grade averages, say some admissions experts. (See a detailed account of discussion at the NCAC conference at
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/10/09/gay )
Last week, the National Center for Postsecondary Research, based at Columbia University 's Teachers College, outlined a research agenda that will concentrate on ways to reduce barriers to postsecondary education and increase college-completion rates, particularly at two-year institutions. (Item at
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/10/2006101302n.htm - requires subscription)
A faculty committee at Harvard University is recommending that one of several courses in "reason and faith" be added to the core curriculum required of all undergraduates. In the Ivy League, Columbia has a significant core curriculum with courses that include material on religion, and Dartmouth currently requires a course in the analysis of religion. (See CNN story atÂ
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/04/harvard.curriculum.ap/index.html )
In early September, Nipissing University purchased the Precious Blood Monastery and 23 acres of land near its North Bay campus to help address a "critical shortage of physical space for classrooms, offices, meeting rooms, seminar rooms and storage." The land is located between Nipissing's main campus and two of its largest residences. (News release at
http://www.nipissingu.ca/news/view.asp?ID=20060808 )
Last week CNN interviewed Bill Pepicello, recently-appointed president of the University of Phoenix , the largest accredited private university in North America , with almost 300,000 students. Pepicello defends Phoenix 's $484 million marketing budget and 60% completion rate, and describes Phoenix 's plans to continue growing "to help address the nursing shortage and the shortage of high school teachers." (Transcript at
http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_education/~3/36781265/index.html )
Recent
focus group research with 550 international undergraduate students in Australia and Britain has found that those who would have preferred study in the US has dropped significantly, from more than half in 2000 to just 15% now. The research was presented at a major education conference in Australia last week. The "fading pro-American sentiment" is most pronounced among Muslim students, or students from countries with substantial Muslim populations. (See
http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/10/2006101307n.htm - requires subscription)
A local man bulldozed a mile-long trail through four long-term University of Alaska Fairbanks research projects "designed to study vegetation patterns in areas relatively undisturbed by humans." He claims he was careful not to disturb the research areas, but the bulldozer cut power lines to a weather station, damaged fences, disturbed a hare-trapping grid and drove through a vegetation plot that had been growing for 20 years. (AP news item at
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DISRUPTED_RESEARCH?SITE=NEYOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT )
Lawyers defending operators of "Saint Regis University" and "James Monroe University" intend to identify more than 135 US federal employees who were their customers -- including a senior State Department employee in Kuwait, staff in the White House and the National Security Agency. Prosecutors call the issue a "smokescreen." The ringleaders are charged with laundering more than $2 million. (See Washington Post article at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200680.html )
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