December 9, 2009
The Ontario government announced yesterday an $8-million investment in the Colleges Integrating Immigrants to Employment program over the next 2 years, adding to the $11.5 million contributed to the program since 2003. The CIITE program, operated by the Colleges of Ontario Network for Education and Training, helps provide immigrants with education and career advice, referral services, and academic credential assessments on 18 college campuses. The program is also developing an online Record of Education and Experience database to better connect internationally-trained immigrants with employers.
Ontario News ReleaseSt. Thomas University's board of governors has approved in-principle a proposal brought forward to establish a "college of extension" in
Miramichi. A university spokesman says the board was in favour of the idea because of STU's historic connection to the area, as well as the university's ability to bring greater accessibility to PSE to the region. The university has had preliminary meetings with the federal and New Brunswick governments, and further discussions to touch on funding opportunities and other necessities will likely take place next month. Meetings will also be scheduled with New Brunswick Community College officials and local business groups to explain STU's intentions for the college of extension.
Times and Transcript Under a deal announced Tuesday, St. Clair College's journalism school will set up shop in downtown Windsor at the
former Salvation Army building and pay the city $1 a year for the facility. The only condition is that the college must hold the property for 15 years. With the property, St. Clair hopes to double its current journalism enrolment and create programming for up to 200 students, including post-graduate programs in media and public relations.
Windsor StarUniversity of Canada West announced Tuesday that Dr. Verna Magee-Shepherd has been named acting president of the institution, and will assume her responsibilities at once. A graduate of the Universities of British Columbia and Calgary, Magee-Shepherd has held several teaching and administrative positions in the PSE sector, including acting president of the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Magee-Shepherd succeeds former University of Victoria president and UCAN co-founder David Strong as the institution's president. The search for a permanent replacement for Strong is underway.
UCAN News Release |
Victoria Times-ColonistOn Tuesday, Olds College celebrated the grand opening of the Canadian Equine Centre for Innovation. The centre will incorporate leading-edge expertise, facilities, technology, and applied research to provide unique human resource solutions for the $15.7-billion equine industry, which employs over 750,000 Canadians. At the event, the college celebrated the conclusion of its 2009 Capital Vision Campaign, which raised more than $32 million for new learning facilities such as the CECI.
Olds College News ReleaseSaskatchewan-based Great Plains College announced this week it will not proceed with a project involving the development of a power engineering training laboratory on a site adjacent to the former Swift Current Hospital. The college cites the $2.8-million price tag to develop the facility as the reason for the change of plans. The school acquired the facility in 2007, and will now turn it back to the City of Swift Current. Demolition of the power lab site will now take place to allow area re-development to go forward. The college will remain busy with its current campus renovation project.
Southwest Booster A report released yesterday by the Canadian Council on Learning presents a unique vision of learning among Aboriginal Canadians that extends well beyond the classroom, incorporating learning from family, community, languages, traditions, and cultures. The report finds that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis learners display higher rates of volunteerism, informal learning such as participation in social clubs, and family and community involvement than non-Aboriginal Canadians. The report also indicates that Aboriginal individuals are on equal footing with their non-Aboriginal peers when it comes to attainment rates in colleges and trade schools. The report's findings are the result of the first application of the Holistic Lifelong Learning Measurement Framework, a tool developed by CCL that incorporates over 30 statistical indicators reflecting the full range of lifelong learning for Aboriginal people.
CCL News Release |
Read the full reportAccording to new research from the US, personality traits play a major role in determining who succeeds in medical school. The study, which followed an entire cohort of Belgian students through their 7-year med school career, found that during the early, pre-clinical years, conscientious individuals did much better than those who displayed lower levels of this trait. As the curriculum changed over the years, interpersonal aspects became more important for success. While conscientiousness continued to relate to high grades, extraverted individuals also earned high grades in later years. Students who exhibited assertion, warmth, and altruism did siginificantly better in med school than those who displayed low conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness.
University of Minnesota NewsCIBT Education Group, a Canadian-based company with a global network of over 45 business, vocational, and language schools, announced Monday plans to expand into India by licensing the brands of its subsidiaries CIBT School of Business and
Sprott-Shaw Community College in a number of selected states in the Asian nation. A term sheet agreement CIBT signed with a Canadian investment holding company allows for the licensee to offer selected programs at campuses in India, market the programs and recruit Indian students to Canada, and establish credit transfer programs among India and other CIBT and Sprott-Shaw partner campuses worldwide.
CIBT News ReleaseGoogle Inc. announced Monday a new service called "real-time search," in which Google lists on the usual search results page real-time results as the search engine picks them up, thus updating the results page in real-time. Such results will include traditional Web pages and posts from Twitter users. Google has also struck deals with Facebook and MySpace whereby the social networks will provide Google with feeds of user updates for inclusion in the real-time results.
Globe and Mail
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