Archive for December, 2011
It may be even tougher to find a job next year
Campus recruiters plan on less hiring, same pay
Job fair photo by stevendepolo on Flickr
A survey of 324 Canadian employers shows that they expect post-secondary graduates will still be struggling to find work in 2012.
Recruiters who hire students are projecting 2.9 per cent fewer job offers in 2012 and no increase in starting pay, according to the 2011 Campus Recruitment and Benchmark Survey. The survey was collected on behalf of The Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers between August 1 and September 26, 2011.
Since then, the economic outlook has worsened. In October, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty cut his growth forecast for 2011 from 2.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent. Earlier this month, TD Economics reduced its forecast for growth in GDP next year from 1.9 to 1.7 per cent due to weakness in Europe that is likely to spread. Scotia Capital is predicting 1.8 per cent growth. That follows last year’s post-recession rebound of 3.2 per cent.
Continue reading It may be even tougher to find a job next year
Raunchy comedy stirs controversy at Western
Student filmmaker questioned by police for online teaser
Screen shot from 3 Audrey
A University of Western Ontario student and his filmmaker friend have created a raunchy comedy series—and university officials aren’t amused.
It’s easy to see why. The trailer for 3 Audrey features multiple references to Western interspersed with jokes about a mother’s vagina, breast implants and excessive amounts of liquor.
3 Audrey is a six-part scripted series named for the house where a group of fictional Western students welcome a Carleton transfer student, Tommy Noble, into their oft-partying family.
It was co-written by Western media student Dave Provost and his 21-year-old director friend Miguel Barbosa, who is not a student at the school. Barbosa is part of YEAH! Films, a collective that plans to sell product placements in YouTube based viral videos. Provost took part in order to launch his acting and writing career, he says.
Continue reading Raunchy comedy stirs controversy at Western
Canadian student dead in Hong Kong
Police are investigating
Joey Basha, a 25-year-old Canadian who had been studying international and public affairs at the University of Hong Kong, was found dead last week by local police. Basha, originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, disappeared Dec. 21st after going for takeout food, prompting a search by his family. Police found him last week dead in a public washroom, but without any identification documents. They told CBC News that they do not consider his death suspicious.*
*Update at 11:30 on Dec. 29: Phyllis Basha told The Canadian Press that police say evidence from an autopsy has prompted a criminal investigation into her son’s death.
Christmas thefts at York
20-year-old charged
Toronto Police have charged James Wentworth Sutcliffe, 20, with a series of thefts that culminated in an investigation on Christmas Day. Sutcliffe is accused of stealing from several units at York University’s Vanier Residence during November and December. Police are looking for victims to come forward, as they have unclaimed stolen property.
Ontario tuition credit coming (for some) in January
CFS and opposition want credit extended to all families
*To see a more up-to-date version of this evolving story, click here.
Despite Ontario’s woeful fiscal situation, the Liberal government says it will make good on its promise to offer 310,000 students tuition rebates—$730 per college student and $1,600 per university student. At $6,500, Ontario has the highest average university tuition in the country.
Those receiving Ontario Student Assistance Program funding will automatically get the rebates in January, which will be credited online in time for second semester payments, according to CTV News. Other students will need to apply through a website that will be available in January.
Five out of six families with students will be eligible for the rebate—but families who make more than $160,000 will be left out. The Canadian Federation of Students presented a 40,000-signature petition to the legislature asking for the $423-million annual cost of the rebate program pay for a 13 per cent reduction in tuition fees for all students instead. The opposition New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives agree that all students—not just some—should get a break on tuition.
*Editor’s Note: In a comment below, Glen Murray, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, addresses who is eligible for these particular grants. The 30 per tuition reduction applies to students who are within four years of high school graduation, registered in a first-entry undergraduate university or college programs, and from families with incomes lower than $160,000. He notes that there are other provincial programs available for other students.
The enduring stereotype of the male nurse
The number of men in nursing schools is growing (slowly)
Calgary's Tyler Hume (Photo by Todd Korol)
From the Maclean’s special holiday double issue—on newsstands now.
One recent November day, Tyler Hume, a 20-year-old nursing student, was at work in the maternity ward of Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre. Tending to a patient who’d just given birth, he listened to her heart and checked other vital signs, then moved on to her new baby. Being a male nurse in a maternity unit can be tricky, he says—but as one of just a handful of men in the University of Calgary’s entire faculty of nursing, Hume is used to feeling like the odd man out sometimes. “It’s unconscious things, like when [an instructor] is talking about a nursing action, and always refers to the nurse as ‘she,’ ” he says. To create a resource for men in the program, he co-founded the Nursing Guys’ Group, a club for male nursing students.
The case against Wikipedia in the classroom
Students should learn to build arguments, not write entries
Image by nojhan on Flickr
All professors have to deal with what Noah Geisel has recently termed The Wikipedia Dilemma. With the online encyclopedia now the largest in the world, freely available, and ubiquitous on the web, the problem is evident. Should a prof forbid students from using Wikipedia or embrace it as a modern research tool without equal?
The case for Wikipedia is obvious: it’s easy to access, simple to use, and covers a far wider range of material than any other reference work. And though it may occassionally be subject to error, as all reference works are, its eminent editability keeps it relatively accurate and incredibly up to date. I once read an article about quicksand, and curious to know more about it, checked Wikipedia, only to find the article I had just read, an article that had been published that very day, cited among the sources.
Continue reading The case against Wikipedia in the classroom
Trans woman files human rights complaint
Minister allegedly said she “spooked” the governor general
Photo by Yukon Human Rights Commission
Northwest Territories’ Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger is facing a human rights complaint for allegedly telling a transsexual student at Aurora College that she should leave the school because she had “spooked the Governor General.”
Gabrielle Landrie told CBC News that she was standing near a computer lab with a friend on Dec. 9, wearing a dress, when Minister Miltenberger made the comment and asked her to leave. She says she was later told that the Governor General’s route had been changed to avoid her.
Although she had initially agreed to leave, she says she decided against it as she had homework left to complete. She was asked to leave again by Miltenberger.
The 10 biggest stories in Canadian higher education
The (surprisingly) most-read stories of 2011
Photo by Kelly Finnamore on Flickr
Each year, we offer Maclean’s On Campus readers a look back at the Top 10 most-read higher education news stories of the year. There were two big themes in 2011. First, the many scandals over universities’ reputations, from Alberta to Queen’s to St. FX. Second, uncertainty about the job market for grads.
1. Time for this year’s edition of X-ring Idol
Our blogging English professor, Todd Pettigrew, dared to compare the obsession of St. Francis Xavier students with their beloved X-ring to Gollum’s unhealthy quest for the precious. We knew St. FX students would defend their tradition vociferously—and they did, with more than 250 comments over three days. Most were from alumni and students who thought Pettigrew missed the point. They argued that the ring symbolizes their hard work and the family-like bond they instantly glean whenever a fellow X-grad catches a glimpse of their band. Then again, dozens of readers agreed with Pettigrew—some even suggested the flood of emotional reactions reinforced his point.
Continue reading The 10 biggest stories in Canadian higher education
Yiddish lives on Canadian campuses
As the Jewish tongue dies at home, scholars step up
Photo by scazon on Flickr
The old language of Eastern Europe’s Jews—the tongue that brought us such lively words as schmooze, glitch, klutz, chutzpah, nosh, schmuck and schmo—has been through a lot.
Yiddish was threatened by the holocaust when five million speakers—roughly half of the total—were murdered in the genocide, writes University of Ottawa researcher Rebecca Margolis.
Then it was threatened by a generation in the diaspora that was sometimes embarrassed of their parents’ foreign tongue and preferred to converse in English or another vernacular anyway.
Today, Yiddish contends with the fact that its keepers are mainly Bubbes and Zeydes of the diaspora, who may not be around much longer. According to Statistics Canada, between 2001 and 2006, the number of Yiddish speakers declined from 37,010 to 27,605 nationally. More than a third of those who remained—9,305—were over 75 years-old. Only 1,345 were under age five.
In defense of the good old-fashioned exam
Take-home exams just aren’t the same
Photo by Patrik Axelsson on Flickr
I love almost everything about being a professor. Teaching, research—I even look forward to department meetings.
But I hate grading exams. And just as I become a flat-tax advocate every April when I’m trying to locate receipts and hoping I don’t owe the government money, every December I harbor fantasies of getting rid of exams altogether.
Many of my colleagues in the arts are way ahead of me on this, either giving no exams at all, or giving students an extra, essay-like assignment commonly called a “take-home” exam. But since you take it home and have an extended time to do it, it’s not really an exam in the traditional sense.
Millenials shun the 9-to-5 workday
But work hours aren’t their top priority
Photo by La Citta Vita on Flickr
The Millenial generation (roughly defined as those born after 1980) aren’t too interested in the traditional 9-to-5 workday, branding expert Dan Schawbel writes on Time.com Schawbel provides examples of American companies that are accommodating this preference.
There’s evidence that Canada’s Millenials value flexible hours too—though it’s not their top priority.
Canadians researchers surveyed 3,000 people last year to gauge the differences between what four generations of working Canadians value in their jobs. Millenials placed “hours of work” at #7 on their list. Generation X workers (those born 1965 to 1979) ranked work hours slightly lower—at #8. But Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964) and those born earlier than 1945, “Mature” workers, didn’t have “hours of work” in their top 10 at all. It seems they’re comfortable working 9-to-5.
Why smart profs want students to use Wikipedia
It encourages research, citation, revision…
Photo by Kalexanderson on Flickr
Wikipedia is an outcast on most university campuses. At the beginning of the semester, most professors mention that it’s banished from essays and assignments. If you dare to include a Wikipedia article on your reference list, you’re practically asking for a zero on your bibliography. In extreme cases, your professor might set your essay on fire and scatter the ashes across the Pacific Ocean. That’s because most profs regard Wikipedia’s crowdsourced articles as unreliable.
Despite the website’s reputation, some professors at schools like the University of Alberta are using Wikipedia as a teaching resource. Never mind using Wikipedia as a reference: these profs are actually replacing traditional essays with assignments where students write Wikipedia entries.
Continue reading Why smart profs want students to use Wikipedia
Former UPEI student jailed for fraud
Stole $4,200 from school
A former University of Prince Edward Island student was sentenced Tuesday to one week in jail for stealing $4,200, reports CBC News. Steven Mitchell Colp worked as a room booker for the school. After he graduated, he still had access to the computerized booking system and he used it to request fake refunds that were credited to his own card. Colp is now a graduate student in psychology at the University of Calgary. He wept in court as he apologized for his crime.
Weird ways Canadians are coping with exams
Don’t end up like the angry library girl at California State
Studying at Waterloo. By Colin O'Connor
We all know exams cause stress. That explains the reaction of this student in a noisy library at California State University, Northridge.
Personally, I’m with the angry girl.
But that level of stress is better avoided. Last week, we offered readers 10 ways to study stay sane while studying. It was a pretty traditional list. But students across Canada have found a few more creative ways to procrastinate, ahem, study. I thought I’d share them with you.
At McGill University last week, hundreds of students showed up for pet therapy with animals from Therapeutic Paws of Canada. This may sound bizarre to the uninitiated, but there’s reason to believe it works. Petting dogs releases oxytocin in humans. Oxytocin, the so-called “love drug,” reduces anxiety and engenders calm.
At the University of Windsor, Bernarda “Bernie” Doctor, the 78-year-old director of the Organization of Part-Time University Students, offered peers surprise “cookie therapy,” handing out 360 sugar rushes. It’s not the healthiest snack, but Bernie knows how to study: she’s been doing it 50 years.
Leave it to Canada’s computer science mecca, the University of Waterloo, to offer a virtual snowman building game as a study tool. Students can build and share their own Mr. or Mrs. Frosty while snowflakes fall gently down their computer screens. By the way, try typing “let it snow” into Google.
Finally, the award for the weirdest—and smartest—way to cope with exam stress goes to Uytae Lee, a first-year student at Dalhousie University. Lee turned his boredom while studying for a Sustainability 1000 exam into a stop-motion music video with a soothing soundtrack based on his study notes. That’s more fun than traditional studying—and I bet he did well on the exam too.
Fired for giving James Franco a “D”?
Acting professor sues NYU for wrongful termination
Photo by Vanessa Lua (Wikimedia Commons)
An acting professor is suing New York University for wrongful termination, discrimination, and harassment, alleging that he was fired for giving James Franco a “D.”
Franco, famous for his roles in films like 127 Hours and for hosting the Oscars in February, missed 12 out of 14 classes at the school where he’s pursing a Master of Fine Arts degree, according to Prof. Jose Angel Santana. ”The school has bent over backwards to create a Franco-friendly environment, that’s for sure. The university has done everything in its power to curry favor with James Franco,” Santana told CBS News.
An NYU spokesman told CBS: “We have not seen the lawsuit yet, but the claims we are seeing in the media are ridiculous. Beyond that, it is regrettable and disappointing to see a faculty member — former or otherwise — discuss any student’s grade for the purpose of personal publicity.”
New president reflects a new University of Saskatchewan
She’s a Jewish-American engineer with research cred
Photo by Colin O'Connor/Maclean's
Under President Peter MacKinnon’s 13-year reign, the University of Saskatchewan was transformed from a staid Prairie school into an institution that attracts not only plenty of research dollars for things like the Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation and the Canadian Light Source synchrotron, but also a diverse faculty and student population.
That’s makes it unsurprising that the U of S’s new president is a Jewish-American female engineer who has helped lead top research institutions
Ilene Busch-Vishniac, originally from Philadelphia, Penn. has worked for Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Texas-Austin, Johns Hopkins University and McMaster University, where she currently serves as provost and vice-president academic.
Busch-Vishniac is an accomplished acoustics researcher and engineering education advocate. In the past, she’s advocated that women don’t need to give up motherhood to have successful careers in academia, encouraged more minorities and women to pursue engineering and worked with the Six Nations in Ontario to increase access to education for Aboriginal Canadians.
Continue reading New president reflects a new University of Saskatchewan
MIT announces free, open source courses
Certificates for a “modest fee”
Photo by liquene on Flickr
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) plans a spring launch of its ambitious new program, MITx, which includes a freely accessible suite of online courses that’s expected to attract millions of learners from around the world. MITx will allow students to learn at their own pace, participate in online labs and interact with fellow students online.
But most exciting is that MITx courses will come with a certificate of completion for students who have proven they’ve mastered the subject materials and paid “a modest fee.”
Open learning courses that come with credentials have proven enormously popular. When Stanford University professors offered an online course in Artificial Intelligence this fall with a “statement of accomplishment” and the possibility of interaction with professors through crowd-sourcing, 58,000 signed up by August. A similar Stanford course in machine learning drew nearly 100,000.
Companies will add more MBAs in 2012
Three quarters plan to hire
A new poll shows that a Master of Business Administration may be a smart choice for 2012. The Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2011 Year-End Poll of Employers shows that 74 per cent plan to hire MBA graduates in 2012. That’s up from 58 per cent in 2011. And nearly one-quarter (22 per cent) of companies plan to increase the number of MBA grads hired in 2012 over 2011, compared to just six per cent last year. The GMAC surveyed 209 employers at 216 companies. The GMAC administers the test most students write to apply to management schools.
Click to see Canadian Business’s list of the MBAs with the greatest return on investment.
Côte d’Ivoire shuts down its universities
Closed for renovations or revenge?
Photo by Sunset Parkerpix on Flickr
Côte d’Ivoire, a West African nation, has had its two universities shut down by President Alassane Ouattara until at least September 2012, provoking condemnation by human rights organizations frustrated that students will lose even more time.
Côte d’Ivoire has experienced increased instability in recent years following a civil war from 2002 to 2004 and a 2010 election when former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down after losing the vote. He was ousted with the aid of French and United Nations troops earlier this year and is now facing justice in the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The fighting caused many lost semesters at the country’s two universities.
Now, Ouattara’s government will close both the Cocody and Abobo-Adjamé universities again, ostensibly to renovate the buildings and reorganize the higher education system to meet international standards. But some Ivorians believe the closure is punishment for students and professors who supported Gbagbo. You can read more at University World News.
