Recently it seems there is no more popular discussion than that concerning the job outcomes of a degree. This discussion largely began, and continues, in the media, where the rhetoric is that universities are failing to produce graduates ready to fill in the skill shortages of the marketplace. With recent economic downturns, it is easy to see why such a story gains so much traction. From the media this discussion has spilled into the speeches and boardrooms of the political and post-secondary wo …read more
Last Friday myself and OUSA Executive Director Rylan Kinnon made a presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs regarding Bill-65, the 2013 Ontario Budget. Although the majority of our presentation was concerned with the Youth Jobs Strategy included in the Budget, I’d like to take this opportunity to highlight three other issues we addressed for the Committee that rarely get the attention I believe they truly deserve.
The first of these issues concerns the pro …read more
After plenty of activity during summer 2012, copyright has inevitably come back from dormancy as a major Canadian post-secondary issue in the last few weeks. This was prompted by the organization known as Access Copyright (AC) filing a lawsuit against York University (which opted out of signing their proposed agreement last summer), stating that the university has been improperly reproducing and authorizing the copying of protected works. At the same time, Access Copyright has also filed two app …read more
On May 16th, 2013, McMaster Association of Part-Time Students President Andrew Smith received a letter from McMaster University Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Dr. David Wilkinson informing him that the University Administration would be recommending to the University’s Board of Governors to suspend the collection of MAPS student fees for the 2013-2014 academic year. On Monday, June 3, just three days before the Board was scheduled to meet, an agenda including the motion to suspend MAPS …read more
