By Melonie Fullick. As many of you will have heard by now (since I’m slow to comment on these things), recently the Canadian government released another strategy piece regarding ongoing efforts to recruit international students to Canada. There’s been some great commentary on this already, and I can’t add much to what others have said. Much of the criticism I would agree with, given the nature of the issues involved in branding, recruitment, and retention/graduation (though that last piece doesn’t seem to have made it onto the table for discussion). But I have a few points to add about the practical elements of this plan as a communication strategy. Read more...

By Jennifer Polk - From PhD to Life. Over the past few months I’ve been in conversation with other post-academic business owners and freelancers, many of whom work with graduate students and PhDs. I had no idea such people existed during my doctorate, and it was only thanks to Versatile PhD that I got connected to Hillary Hutchinson, who was my coach for six months in 2012-13. Working with Hillary lead to me take coach training and start my own business. More...

By Léo Charbonneau. There’s a strong case to be made about the benefits to Canada of attracting more international students to our universities and colleges. And setting an aspirational goal of doubling the number of those students, from around 240,000 in 2011 (according to the federal government), to more than 450,000 by 2022, is a fine idea – provided universities have the additional resources necessary to welcome these students and to help them succeed. So, from that perspective, I take no issue with the federal government’s recently announced International Education Strategy. Others have panned it but I leave it to them to make their case. More...

By Marie Lambert-Chan. CRÉPUQ will no longer be the voice for Quebec universities with the public, the media and government. The Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec (CRÉPUQ) is officially changing its name to the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) — the office of interuniversity cooperation. The organization will continue to offer services to universities, such as joint purchasing for libraries. It will also continue to act as a forum for coordination and cooperation on issues of mutual concern. However, it is giving up its role as the official voice of university administrations in Quebec in their dealings with the public, the media and government. More...

By Oronte. Eudora Welty says, “Place is one of the lesser angels that watch over the racing hand of fiction,” though she quickly adds that “place can be seen…to have a great deal to do with…goodness, if not to be responsible for it. […] The truth is, fiction depends for its life on place. Location is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of ‘What happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming?’—and that is the heart’s field.”
As I mentioned in my last post, we’ve been talking a lot in workshop about representations of place. We live down the road from a famous city that invites notice, that wants to be discussed and remembered, in a region that prides itself on easily-named features and whose people are often distinctive. I don’t know why a writer wouldn’t make an attempt, eventually, at a story set here. Read more...