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2 juin 2013

AAUP Urges Direct Talks Between Colleges' Boards and Faculties

http://chronicle.com/img/subscribe-footer.pngBy Peter Schmidt. Citing several instances of what it regards as breakdowns in shared governance, the American Association of University Professors is calling for colleges' governing boards to take steps to hear directly from faculty members, without letting administrators filter such talks. In a draft statement issued on Thursday, the AAUP calls for colleges to establish committees consisting solely of trustees and faculty members to meet regularly to discuss subjects of interest to both sides. The association also calls for faculty representatives to attend the business meetings of governing boards and have a seat on every standing committee of such boards, including the executive committee. Read more...
2 juin 2013

ROI from all that university research = x

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www2.canada.com/images/newspapers/edmontonjournal/widgets/paper_image.gifBy Gary Lamphier. The push by cash-strapped governments for more commercially focused scientific research has triggered a backlash among academics, who regard the unfettered pursuit of basic science as sacrosanct. Their concerns are understandable, to a degree. After all, no one wants university labs to become mere appendages of giant pharmaceutical, energy or food-products companies, whose primary goal is to grow shareholder profits, not expand the frontiers of scientific knowledge. Still, the fearmongering from academics seems a tad overdone. Typically, on most research projects, the relationship between industry sponsors and university scientists is clearly defined. Read more...

2 juin 2013

Atleo says aboriginal education essential

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash4/373031_164697223559731_475559954_q.jpgBy Kerry Benjoe. All foster children graduating high school will have their tuition paid for if University of Regina President Vianne Timmons has her way.
"That is something I am going to begin to work at advocating for," she said. "And I'm going to do it."
Timmons made the announcement at the end of the two-day Lloyd Barber Summit on Aboriginal Education at the U of R.
"I have a wide range of emotions on the last day of the summit," said Timmons. "But the most important thing is that I feel a sense of pride and a sense of optimism."
"I think the 150 people here have made the commitment to take action," she said.
She plans to get to work on her goal immediately.
Timmons challenged everyone at the summit to focus on one thing they can do to improve the aboriginal education situation.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo, who delivered the closing keynote address, was impressed by Timmons. Read more...
2 juin 2013

Parts of (great convocation) speech: Funny, personal, inspiring – and short

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/media/www/images/flag/gam-masthead.pngBy Kathryn Blaze Carlson. U.S. President Barack Obama took on race. Media mogul Arianna Huffington called for a “third women’s revolution.” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo noted how much the world has changed in his lifetime, saying, “When I was your age, we didn’t have the Internet in our pants. We didn’t even have the Internet not in our pants.” Read more...
2 juin 2013

The so-so state of science communication in Canada

By . The recent public outreach efforts of International Space Station Commander and Canadian Chris Hadfield – his explanatory videos, photos and remarkable cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” shot from outer space, not to mention his nearly one million Twitter followers – was a triumph for science communication, says science writer Kyle Hill, writing for Scientific American. Who could argue with that? Read more...
2 juin 2013

Practical ways to shorten graduate program lengths

By In my last blog, I talked about the lengths of graduate students’ programs. I noted that often, longer times to completion are in the best interests of the graduate students, and we shouldn’t try to shorten all completion times regardless of individual circumstances. In general, I still think this way. However, I also appreciate the benefits of finishing up and getting on with one’s life; I also had an interesting discussion with a reader, who noted that long completion times can raise red flags with hiring committees. So, assuming that sometimes it really is in the best interests of students to just get on with it, already, this week I’m going to talk about some of the practical steps that we can take to encourage students to complete their graduate programs in a timely fashion. Read more...
2 juin 2013

In defence of the three-minute thesis

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/images/logo-university-affairs.gifBy Martha Radice. Making us proud to be part of academia. Hot on the heels of tedx talks and Pecha Kucha nights, there’s a new knowledge mobilization craze sweeping the world of higher education: the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. It started in Australia and in 2011 reached Canadian shores at the University of British Columbia. 3MT has been spreading ever since, making it to the East Coast and my university, Dalhousie, in 2013. The idea is that graduate students present their research in three minutes flat, using only a single static slide as a visual aid – no props, extra audio or video allowed. Presentations are judged by professors and other experts, such as university communications staff, on criteria of comprehension, engagement and communication. A 3MT contest can involve several heats, with winners from each heat going to the next round. Ontario and Quebec have run provincial competitions, so a pan-Canadian one might be next. Read more...
2 juin 2013

The Americans are not coming. Should Canada's universities care?

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/media/www/images/flag/gam-masthead.pngBy James Bradshaw. From Alan Wildeman’s office window, the Ambassador Bridge to the United States is “about a driver and two 3-woods away” – a few hundred yards, in golf parlance. So it is a source of frustration to the University of Windsor president that of 2,000 international students his university hosted this year from all corners of the world, only 82 came from south of the border. Read more...
2 juin 2013

Are public universities too big to fail?

https://admin-newyork1.bloxcms.com/timesdispatch.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/f/65/f6534fd0-2398-11e2-99ec-0019bb30f31a/5091890f8cc27.image.jpgBy Wade Gilley. Dark clouds are forming over America’s public universities as the Wall Street mindset spreads across more of our institutions. A decade of excessive spending based largely on unlimited student loans is looming dangerously over a major national asset. In January 2013, Moody’s, the nation’s premier credit rating organization, issued a report titled “U.S. Higher Education Outlook Negative in 2013.” Moody’s evaluation was based on the hundreds of billions of dollars in institutional debt incurred by America’s public universities, including exotic non-traditional financial schemes. Read more...

2 juin 2013

An Irrefutable Data-Based Argument For Going To College

http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/51a60bd0eab8eabd03000002-695-540/screen%20shot%202013-05-29%20at%2010.06.38%20am.pngBy Max Nisen. Many recent studies and reports have lamented the relatively meager job market open to graduates, especially those outside of rapidly growing fields. In an exhaustive research review of the return on investment of a college education, the University of Toronto's Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic find that not only college is as good an investment as ever, even as the supply of graduates has exploded. The most convincing argument as to why that's happened? Technology. As computers and information technology get adopted, there are more jobs that require non-routine, abstract thinking — exactly what colleges hope to develop. In about 1980, the demand for college-related skills started to beat supply, and that's never stopped. The following chart highlights that despite a massive increase in the supply of college graduates, the premium in wages for college graduates has continued to rise. Read more...
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