October 12, 2007
The Manitoba government has announced $8.2 million in funding to extend the Technical Vocational Intitiative (TVI) for 4 more years. The initiative was created to encourage students to consider careers in the technical vocational field by strengthening existing progrmas, developing new programs for market needs, upgrading high school equipment and standardizing programs.
If elected, the Saskatchewan Party is promising a $20,000 tuition rebate to college or university students that stay in the province for 7 years after graduating. This would see the average undergrad receiving a full refund of their tuition. The rebate would be received in cheque form each year and taxed as income -- at a cost of $90 million to taxpayers over 4 years.
The University of Ontario Institute of Technology has opened an innovative Crime Scene House where students will investigate homicides, break and enters, shootings and suspicious deaths. The cutting-edge facility will open officially next Wednesday, with staged crime scenes and demonstrations. The facility is unique in Ontario, and will be used by the BSc in Forensic Science program. Students will get hands-on training in tasks such as analyzing DNA, fingerprints, footwear impressions and tool marks.
The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance is asking Ontario's newly-elected government to make higher education a priority as it goes forward. OUSA's president is looking forward to working with the McGuinty government to bring election promises into reality. Among the promises: replacing education tax credits with need-based grants, extending the loan repayment grace period, and investing in early outreach intiatives for at-risk youth.
Fleming College has achieved its highest first-year enrolment in 40 years, a 12% increase -- one of the highest increases in the Ontario college system. Fleming attained a confirmation rate 10% above the provincial average this fall. The School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, and the School of Continuing Education and Skilled Trades, saw the largest increases.
A representative from TD Waterhouse suggests that the "Freshman 15" (referring to weight gain in pounds) could just as easily be the "Freshman $1,500" in student debt. More than half of students are shown to underestimate the cost of going to university by as much as 34%. Lovett-Reid says sticking to a financial plan can be one of the toughest challenges for a student, especially when an unexpected expense comes out of the blue.
A recent study has found that 56% of European internet users visit social networking sites, but that British browsers are the heaviest users. Almost 25 million British residents logged into bebo, Facebook and MySpace during August 2007 -- almost 20% of the total European internet audience. Brits were also found to spend more time on the sites, up to 5.8 hours per month.
A recent mobile-browser ad campaign targetting business travellers for Hampton Hotels via Weather.com had a measurable impact on goodwill toward the brand. The evaluation study found that 62% of respondents exposed to the campaign felt favourably toward the Hampton brand, compared to just 48% in the control group. Mobile advertising is still in its infancy, but may prove worthwhile.
While some initiatives are encouraging students to avoid gambling, the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society aims to use poker as an educational tool. Poker, they say, promotes skills in "strategic understanding of risk, resource management and self control." The project gives students a legitimate reason to gather and play the game that they have been playing socially for more than a century. Chapters of the GPSTS have been formed all over the world, including at Harvard Law School, Penn State, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Brown, Tufts and Boston University -- as well as in Singapore, Finland and the UK.
Andrew Meyer, a University of Florida senior student, was pulled from an on-campus event calling out "Don't tase me, bro!" to the security officers, who wound up tasing him repeatedly. Not only is Meyer a YouTube sensation, but he has also inspired hundreds of vendors to produce commemorative t-shirts emblazoned with "Don't tase me, bro!" and "I went to a Kerry speech and all I got was tasered."
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