October 20, 2009
A suspect has been arrested after a male student was stabbed Monday evening at the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus. The victim, in his early 20s, is in stable condition in hospital. Police say 2 students got into an altercation, and money is believed to be a motive in the stabbing. A uManitoba spokesman says other students and staff were not in any danger.
uManitoba Security Notification |
Winnipeg Free Press |
CBCNew figures from Statistics Canada show full-time undergraduate students in the country face the same increase in tuition fees -- 3.6% -- for this academic year as they did
last year. Students this year are paying an average of $4,917 in tuition fees, compared to $4,747 in the 2008-09 academic year. Tuition fees rose in all but 3 provinces -- Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. On average, undergraduates in Ontario are paying the highest fees at $5,951, while their peers in Quebec pay the lowest at an average of $2,272. Graduate and international students are paying more this year, and additional compulsory fees are also on the rise.
Statistics CanadaLast Friday, BC-based Northwest Community College held a groundbreaking ceremony for the $16.7-million expansion and upgrade of its Smithers campus. Set to be completed by March 2011, the campus will accommodate additional mining and mineral exploration programs such as geo-science technician and environmental monitoring assistant, as well as adult special education, home support, and long-term care aide.
BC News ReleaseOver the weekend, Waterloo-based Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics announced a comprehensive advancement program called "Expanding the Perimeter," which has recently secured the funding needed to double the institute's physical research space. Another $28-million has been raised to support Perimeter's goal of significantly increasing its funding base in order to facilitate its growing research operations. The institute has set a $400-million fundraising goal to be achieved over the next few years. The announcement included an update on the 55,000-square foot expansion of the institute, which recently received a
$10-million investment from the Ontario government.
Perimeter Institute News ReleaseLast Friday, the University of Western Ontario opened its new $21-million Student Services Building. The 4-storey facility is home to a number of student services, including Financial Aid, Registrar's Office, Services for Students with Disabilities, International Student Services, and Indigenous Services. A major contributor to the project was the David S.H. Chu family, whose $2-million gift helped establish an international student centre named in his honour.
Western NewsWilfrid Laurier University's School of Business & Economics has kicked off a
mobile e-learning pilot project in which MBA students will use BlackBerrys as part of their class curriculum. Professors will "push" content to their students' smartphones, and students will be challenged to find new uses for the applications and handsets. Anticipated benefits from the pilot program include improved sharing of educational content, a better understanding of how content is used by students, easier access to educational material so students can be more productive with their time, and enhanced MBA team experiences.
WLU News ReleaseFor the last 2 years, a group of students at the University of Winnipeg has been calling for a larger, more accessible space for the school's Disability Resource Centre. The centre is currently housed in a lower mezzanine level on campus, making access to it challenging for some students, especially those in wheelchairs. uWinnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy says the institution is working on a plan to move the centre into a new space by next summer.
CTV Red Deer College has introduced a new-look website. The colourful, easy-to-navigate website includes examples of the college's new
recruitment campaign, and a video message from president Joel Ward. At the bottom left-hand side of the homepage, visitors to the site will find links to RDC's Twitter account, Facebook page, videos, and chat services with the admissions office and library. Videos featuring current students will be added to the site in the future.
RDC websitePrinceton Review, a US-based provider of test preparation and educational support services, agreed Monday to spend $170 million to purchase Penn Foster Education Group, Inc., an online career education firm that also operates a virtual high school. Princeton Review's chief operating officer says Penn Foster might help the company provide a "turnkey solution" that might help community colleges take their associate degree programs online. Officials at Princeton Review hope to find ways to take advantage of some of Penn Foster's strengths to improve the Review's own operations, particularly in the area of online marketing.
Princeton Review News Release |
Inside Higher Ed In a study on the Twitter usage of the top 100 American colleges and universities, as determined by
US News and World Report, UniversitiesAndColleges.org concludes that schools tend to use the microblogging service as a broadcast channel instead of a medium for conversations. The study found that a high number of followers was generally correlated with a strong academic reputation or large student population. An account with a large number of followers did not necessarily mean a user would be inclined to follow a large number of accounts themselves. The study found that most schools who follow many users are among the most prolific tweeters. Harvard has the most followers (18,955) and the University of Florida has the most Twitter accounts (24).
How the Top 100 Colleges & Universities are Using Twitter