April 26, 2007
New Brunswick's commission on higher education began its public hearings last week, and the president of UNB has proposed a single English-language university system with UNB as its "anchor" -- leaving two long-standing institutions, St. Thomas University and Mount Allison University, worried that they will be relegated to satellite campuses of UNB. NB's premier warned institutions that the commission would bring "transformation," not merely a "tweaking."
Maclean’s | CBC Just days after faculty of New Brunswick's public universities urged the province to ban new private institutions, Lansbridge College announced its intention to build a new campus in Fredericton. Lansbridge’s BC campus is scheduled to close at the end of the month, after being investigated for violations of the Degree Authorization Act ranging from advertising unapproved degrees to failure to maintain the required financial security.
Maclean’s BC has announced a $65 million Aboriginal post-secondary strategy to encourage Aboriginal student enrolment in and completion of PSE. Currently, 4 of 10 Aboriginal people complete a higher ed program -- 20% less than the non-Aboriginal population. $10.3 million will fund scholarships; $14.9 million will fund strategies to identify interests and needs of Aboriginal students; and $15 million will go toward creating gathering places that embody Aboriginal culture at public PSE institutions in the province. BC News Release | The Victoria Times-Colonist
The province of Manitoba has promised to add 700 new nurses and nurse practitioners to the health care system over the next 4 years. The province will fund 100 new nursing spaces at Brandon University, uManitoba, uCollege of the North, Red River College and College universitaire de Saint-Boniface, as well as 7 new seats at uManitoba’s grad school of Nursing. The NDP also plans to reduce wait times in the province by expanding the Nurses Recruitment and Retention Fund.
Brandon University News Release uGuelph’s President Summerlee is apparently looking for cuts in places that faculty don't appreciate. By considering salaries and benefits (which account for 72% of the school’s budget) as a place to pinch pennies, he has provoked charges of interfering with ongoing contract talks with the faculty association. uGuelph is facing the largest deficit in its history, despite a 4.5% increase in tuition for first year undergrads.
The Guelph Mercury A development agreement from the early 1990’s has recently surfaced, and might make the University of Western Ontario responsible for a $3 million bridge on London’s Western Road. Western Road runs along the west side of UWO’s campus, and has been on the list of worst roads in Ontario for several years. The agreement with the City details a five-lane bridge over Medway Creek, to be paid for by UWO. It also calls for improvements to lighting and sidewalks.
The London Free Press Many Canadian universities have risen to the challenge of providing bilingual degree programming. SFU offers a public administration degree with courses in both national languages. Bishop’s University and Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec run joint bilingual degree programs in arts and engineering. uAlberta has a bilingual program in education, science and arts. York offers bilingual programs at its Glendon College campus. An organization of 2,000 students from bilingual schools is calling on uToronto to expand its French programming beyond French Lit classes. Laurentian, uOttawa and RMC are recognized as the bilingual programming leaders in Canada.
The Toronto Star At 125, Westervelt is Canada's longest-established private career college, but today it looks to the future with the launch of its new recruitment website -- developed by the marketing team at Academica Group, and our technology partners at Toronto-based x2idea corp. The site uses an open-source Content Management System (CMS) platform called Drupal, and incorporates streaming video testimonials and PDF downloads from the current viewbook.
Check out the site Rural students at Vanderbilt University are able to turn their long commute into a learning opportunity by downloading lesson content via cell-phone towers. School buses and other vehicles are getting “wired” for wireless access that gives students a new way to review on the way to school. The professor behind the project was inspired by his own long commute to high school. Students participating in the pilot project received video iPods to view education videos and podcasts. 15 students received laptop computers equipped to communicate back and forth with Vanderbilt professors.
eSchoolNews The Virginia Tech massacre unfolded for online observers almost completely in real-time. VT students created an “I’m OK” page on Facebook almost immediately, to let friends and family know that they had survived. Student witnesses uploaded cell phone pictures and videos of the shootings to websites, friends and news outlets as events unfolded. Profiles created on social networking sites by the victims have become sites of mourning for those who knew them. TechSideLines.com was also repurposed for communication between friends and family while phones were jammed with an overflow of calls.
USA Today
