Comments on: 2010 Student Surveys: Complete results

By: Joe Lund

Joe Lund — Mon, 09 May 2011 21:32:32 +0000

there will always be that timeless argument of where the money should be spent, on academics or sports, and unfortionatly it is a halting topic in many large universities, which in turn leads to these unwelcoming societies that don’t appeal to everyone, but thats life and thats how it will always be.

By: Jack from SAP Transaction Codes

Jack from SAP Transaction Codes — Tue, 03 May 2011 03:46:39 +0000

One problem with most international rankings is that they tend to measure historical quality and are not much use for predicting what will happen in the near future. The Shanghai rankings’ alumni and awards criteria allow Oxbridge and some German universities to live off intellectual capital generated decades ago. The surveys of the QS rankings inevitably favour big, old, wealthy universities with years of alumni and endowments behind them. It will take a long time for any rapidly developing school to score well on the eleven year criteria in the HEEACT rankings.

No effort is made to verify it the abilities of the students are in line with the reality of the working world. Being able to use SAP, by knowing SAP transaction codes remains one of them!

Interest in rankings in Asian higher education is undoubtedly high and the introduction of the QS Asian University Rankings in 2009 served to reinforce this. The publication of ranking lists is now greeted with a mixture of trepidation and relief by many university presidents and is often followed by intense questioning from media that are interested to know what lies behind a particular rise or fall on the global or regional stage.

By: alex

alex — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 06:23:23 +0000

Laurier is an awesome school and as a first year i am glad I choose it

By: TWU student

TWU student — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:36:38 +0000

to Observer Guy and others who thinks that “TWU is not a real school” – why don’t you come and actually observe or participate in a class before you cast judgment on a place you’ve never attended. I suppose the nurses and teachers and other professionals graduating from our school aren’t “real nurses” or “real teachers” either by your false and inferior judgment.

I suppose you also believe the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) is not a real place to work out either. Or the US dollar bill that says “in God we trust” is not real currency. Or our Canadian anthem is fake because we say “God keep our land.”

Keep your anti-Christianity from judging whether a school is a school.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:44:54 +0000

I am disappointed that UBC-V and UBC-O are not separated out as in Western’s three campuses. UBC-O has been up and running fully for sometime so would like to see how they rate against each other and others of the same size

By: J Brian Scott

J Brian Scott — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:35:23 +0000

Looks like all the rabid Neo-con Anne Coulter hate speech supporters are out in force in a full frontal attack on U of O.

By: J

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:19:41 +0000

Then again a big proportion of people failing first year is not unexpected. I do mean schools do end up filling slots up in first year to earn huge dollars, especially in the big research schools. Money for research has to come from somewhere!

As for why many top students fail, I’ll take the known example of Wateroo (if you think I spelled the name wrong, you are the example).

By: John

John — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:03:42 +0000

I am not sure how well the univeristy rankings are being done or the way they ask questions about over all student satisfaction and success. I know from experience when I was studying in Ontario at St Lawrence College I noticed a big drop in student success. This is due to alot of the first year students who were totally unprepared for college let alone univesity. I peer mentored two classmates who were fresh out of high school and both could barely could read let alone write a 2 page paper, and their reading comprehension was very poor to not at all. So when these surveys come out I can see these first year students ranking things on the lower end of the scale. In my final year at St Lawrence College I had a heard about nearly half of the first year students were failing out of school in the first year. I think this is because of their total unpreparedness for college and university life as well as how pop culture portrays college and univerisy in movies and tv as big parties, lots of girls and the students are never hung over from the night before to get to class. But also alot of students getting out of high school the last few years have been used to reciving extension after extension on assignments that are late, and are passed onto the next grade with the hopes of picking it up in the next grade. A friend that is a child youth worker explained this to me of “holding a student back a grade can be detrimental to their social development and can cause them stress not being in the same class as their friends but can give them the feeling that they are a failure. And this can cause them to believe that is all they are” I now study at the UofA and this was an issue of debate a short while ago about why there are students being accepted to the university that barely passed high school and are barely passing university why they were being accepted to attend university with low grades and unable to meet the enterance requirements let alone assignment due dates. I over heard a first year student one day complaining how the professor would not give her an extension on her assignment and how each day late she has 5% taken of the assignment mark. She was quite mad about becuause she always got extension in high school. One of the main points about the debate on university rankings that was made was their lower grades and GPA’s as well their over all satisfaction at their university/college would affect their opinion of their university/college experience and in turn affect the survey rankings.

By: Mature Student

Mature Student — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:35:36 +0000

Point taken, UVic, and my comment was not intended as a slight against Trent specifically. I’ve attended neither Trent nor UofT and cannot comment on either from personal experience. My observations are really based on my experience at the various Vancouver area schools.

By: UVIC Grad student

UVIC Grad student — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:37:34 +0000

Just a note to Mature Student:

During the course of my academic career, I have had occasion to study at both Trent and U of T. Trent may have had softer entrance requirements, but that hardly translated, in my experience, to a lower calibre student body. I don’t necessarily disagree with most of what you’ve been saying, but at the same time I caution against putting too much stock into current practices used to evaluate undergraduate applicants. As Mr. Jerema observes, high-school grades are a fickle measure of a student’s academic future.

http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2010/07/08/your-grades-will-drop/