June 8, 2007
The Ontario government has announced $30 million over 3 years to improve access for first-generation PSE students who want to pursue higher education. $27 million will go into projects being run at colleges, universities and community groups across the province. $3 million will fund Ontario First Generation Student Bursaries, to be distributed by the colleges and universities. Ontario News Release $10 million from the BC provincial government will triple the size of an internship program for BC grad students. 650 places will be available in the MITACS program over the next 4 years, increasing the number of “highly-skilled graduates while encouraging innovation and commercialization in BC’s knowledge-based economy.” Industry partners will add $5 million to the program. MITACS is a national research network that unites academics and industry to produce innovations solving industry needs. BC News Release
The Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in BC has a new campus in Burnaby that aims to move more aboriginal students into the province’s education system. Operations of the Institute of Indigenous Government in Burnaby will be transferred to NVIT as of September 2007 – current IIG students will be able to continue their studies under the new administration. NVIT has offered education in the Aboriginal market for almost 25 years. It was originally formed and governed by First Nations bands, and became a public post-secondary institution in 1995. BC News Release 2007’s "Top 20 Under 20" in Canada are unified by one characteristic: passion. The winners were selected by members of the Order of Canada, after a decision process that cut a list of hundreds down to just 20. While academics is not a requirement for inclusion, many of the top 20 are current or future students. The special section in yesterday's Globe & Mail featured current students from uAlberta, uToronto, uSask, uWindsor and UWO, and high school students planning to attend McMaster, uWaterloo, Concordia, UBC, uGuelph, and uManitoba this fall. In August, Wilfrid Laurier U will host the inaugural alumni conference for the top 20. UOIT and CFI are sponsoring the event. The Globe & Mail
First they crowded onto campuses, and now they are lining up in droves for exit tickets. Ontario’s 2007 university grads include the majority of the double cohort clump that has been working its way through the system, and they will do just about anything to snag an extra ticket to graduation. Schools are holding more ceremonies and hosting them at larger locations, and still seating for anyone beyond your two allotted guests is nearly impossible to get. McMaster has moved its convocation offsite to the 2,900 seat Hamilton Place theatre to accommodate 1,200 extra grads and their guests. uGuelph has added evening ceremonies to get its 3,000 grads across the stage. The Toronto Star The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has aligned itself in support of the $200-million class action lawsuit laid against Queen’s Park and the province’s community colleges. OPSEU represents the staff at all 24 of the colleges. The lawsuit claims that Ontario college students were charged illegal computer, library and “ancillary” fees beyond what was permitted by the provincial government's tuition freeze. NUPGE UPEI and Holland College will be working together to provide 3 new articulated degree programs. Starting in 2007, HC grads in Practical Nursing, Sport & Leisure Management, and Police Science will be eligible to transfer their credits into a UPEI BSc in Nursing, Bachelor of Arts, and Bachelor of Arts or Science in Psychology. The 2 institutions already have a joint Bachelor of Child and Family Studies, and Bachelor of Education Degree in Human Resource Development, among others. PEI News Release Another revelation from the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission report found that students from low-income families took on heavier debt to pursue their education, but were satisfied with their investment two years later (2003 and 2005). In PEI, grads are earning approximately $4,000 per year more upon entry into the workforce than the average citizen. They also took on an average of $20,941 in debt to earn a bachelor degree. 99% of respondents who attended UPEI were satisfied or very satisfied with the school, and 91% said they would go there again. The Guardian Participation in college sports is on the rise with both genders, according to a report by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Almost 2,000 schools were considered in the study, which concluded that 26,000 more women and 7,000 more men were playing on school teams in 2004-05 than in 1995-96 (data from 738 US institutions). In the last four years specifically, female participation rose by 11,000 (data from 1,895 institutions). Men’s tennis, volleyball and wrestling have seen declines, while baseball, football, lacrosse and soccer have grown. The report also gave 20% of schools failing grades in women’s athletics (for having more than a 22% discrepancy between the overall female population and the number of female athletes). The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription Required) 12 US universities have announced that they will be opening their library collections to Google for online digitization. Once online, the digital copies of books will be available to each school’s faculty and students, as well as the public. The project is seen as an opportunity to preserve library holdings, while also making them more accessible -- two goals of librarians that can often be antithetical. More than 10 million books will be included. Biz Report
