Top Ten
May 29, 2007
$583 million in funding for Canadian professors and students was announced yesterday by the Canadian federal government. $458.8 million allotted to Discovery Grants will be split between 3,300 professors towards their research efforts in natural sciences and engineering. 2,402 graduate and postdoctoral students will split the remaining $99.2 million. Just over 4,000 undergraduate students will receive part of $19.3 million in Undergraduate Student Research Awards. NSERC News Release | The Ottawa Business Journal Shiraz Dossa, the St. Francis Xavier University professor who was accused of participating in a conference that supported Holocaust denial, has thrown accusations back at the university as well as the media. The university has described Dossa’s actions as causing “shock and regret.” Dossa has accused the University of engaging in “a small Spanish Inquisition” in their quick judgment of events. The Iranian president, who was affiliated with the conference, was reported as denying the Holocaust. Dossa says this was a mistranslation. CBC The University of Saskatchewan is currently hosting 5,500 of the world’s academics at CFHSS’ 2007 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Congress brings together representatives from across more than 70 disciplines and scholarly associations each year at a different Canadian university. The 2006 Congress was held at York University. An article in yesterday’s Globe & Mail called the event a “summer camp for intellectuals,” but the Congress, formerly called the Learneds, is also an invaluable collaboration and networking opportunity as well as a huge boost for the host institution’s hometown economy. uSask News Release | The Globe & Mail The Newfoundland & Labrador Minister of Education has announced a substantial increase in funding for the province’s student loan program, allowing for more students to receive funding through the program. A bill proposing amendments to the Student Financial Assistance Act is currently in the House of Assembly and, if passed, will allow for $14.4 million to go towards creating a non-repayable, needs-based grants program as well as a reduction in the interest rates charged on student loans. Tuition in the province is currently frozen, and is 60% lower than the national average. NL News Release
Queen’s opened its executive education facility in Dubai yesterday, making Queen’s School of Business the first Canadian business school to operate in the region. The facility will be run collaboratively with the Dubai International Finance Center, and will start offering classes in the Fall. According to the school’s news release, courses in Dubai will be taught by Queen’s School of Business’ “award-winning faculty.” Queen’s News Release An article in the Edmonton Journal reports that Athabasca University’s cellphone ESL program has been successful at helping immigrants to learn English. Close to 70% of the students involved in testing reported that mobile lessons improved their learning experience. They noted, however, that they did not consider the lessons suitable to potentially replace classroom language learning. The Edmonton Journal The dean of uOttawa’s Telfer School of Management recently spoke with the Ottawa Business Journal on the significance of the school’s recent name change. Ian Telfer graduated from uOttawa’s business school in 1976 and has since built an impressive name for himself. Unlike many other business school names, says the dean, uOttawa’s is now drawn from one of its own alumni. The Ottawa Business Journal The court has upheld the ruling that a First Nations University of Canada staff member’s academic freedoms were violated by the university in 2005. The uRegina Faculty Association, which represents FNUC staff, filed the grievance on behalf of Dr. Blair Stonechild at the time, on the charge that his freedom was violated when an invitation to speak at a national forum was withdrawn. News Talk 980 Barix Instreamer is a technology which is able to capture lectures from a classroom’s PA system and then send the recorded audio files to a server in MP3 format. uWashington has equipped 24 classrooms with the service, allowing the entire student population to download lectures almost immediately after they occur, via Internet feeds straight to their home computers. The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription Required) | Campus Technology A new study has found that college binge drinking is related to loss of decision-making skills. Students who exhibited stable high-binge drinking at a pre-college age, showed lower decision-making abilities because of a preference for short-term rewards over long-term losses. Adolescence is a time of “exquisite sensitivity to the effects of alcohol on the brain,” and even students without alcoholic drinking patterns can be affected with occasional bouts of heavy drinking. CBC | ECanadaNow
