News and commentary

OTTAWA – Canada’s universities are urging swift passage of Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, which was sent to committee this week for review.

“This bill is an important step forward in providing a balance between the interests of creators and users of copyright works,” says Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “It’s a good approach for Canada’s universities, which are both creators and users of copyright works. The bill clarifies important questions and will help ensure students and learners have access to the content they need, including digital material.”

Bill C-11 will allow universities to harness new technologies, including the Internet, to deliver research and learning materials to faculty members and students. It contains many of the changes the university community suggested during the government’s public consultations in 2009, including exceptions permitting the educational use of Internet materials and the recording and Internet transmission of lessons. These changes will facilitate online learning, including distance education, and make university education more accessible for Aboriginals and mature students.

“Canadian universities recognize the importance of balance between the desire of creators to receive fair remuneration for the use of their works and the public interest in being able to use information for purposes such as research and education,” says Davidson. “This copyright law will result in a fairer treatment for both parties.”

Universities and university students pay large sums to purchase and license educational materials and this will continue under this new legislation. Canada’s university libraries spend more than $300 million annually to buy and license new content for research and learning. In addition, more than $400 million is spent every year in university bookstores to buy new textbooks, course packs and works in digital format.

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For more information or interview opportunities:

Helen Murphy
AUCC Communications Manager
hmurphy@aucc.ca
Tel.: 613-563-1236, ext. 238

OTTAWA – The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada welcomes news of increased cooperation between Canada and China in education, science and technology. The Government of Canada announced yesterday the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding related to the Canada-China Scholars’ Exchange Program (CCSEP) and new calls for proposals under the Canada-China Framework Agreement for Cooperation on Science, Technology and Innovation.

The CCSEP’s eligibility criteria will be expanded to include opportunities for Canadian undergraduate students and mid-career professionals to gain academic and professional experience in China (the program is currently open to graduate students and faculty members). “The renewal of this program signals the importance of higher education and research collaboration as a key pillar of bilateral relations between Canada and China,” said Paul Davidson, president of AUCC.

Canada’s universities also look forward to the upcoming calls for proposals for joint research projects, which are expected to be launched in spring 2012. A total of $18 million in funding will be available to support these initiatives, which will facilitate stronger ties between Canadian and Chinese graduate students and researchers in areas such as human vaccines and clean automotive transportation.

“Canada’s future growth and prosperity depend on our ability to be more innovative and competitive. Investments in international education and research will prepare our graduates to drive the innovative capacity of Canada’s economy and make positive contributions to their local and global communities,” said Mr. Davidson.

There are currently more than 475 active partnership agreements between Canadian and Chinese universities, facilitating student and faculty mobility, research cooperation and joint academic programming in a variety of fields. Canadian universities also hosted more than 30,000 Chinese students in 2009, which is the largest group of international students in Canada.

AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities, representing 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and degree-level colleges.

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For more information:

 Helen Murphy
AUCC Communications Manager
hmurphy@aucc.ca
613-563-1236 ext. 238

This article by James Bradshaw was published on the Globe and Mail website.

Universities have been vocal about their ambitions to lure more international students to Canada, but they are quietly worried far too few Canadian students go abroad for their own formative experiences.

Federal and provincial governments are eager to market Canada as a higher-education destination. They feel international students make the classroom more diverse and globally oriented, while also attracting new revenue.
 
But when 25 university presidents converged in Ottawa to discuss Canada’s innovation agenda with parliamentarians on Tuesday, several of them cautioned that more homegrown students need to study outside their own backyard to develop strong worldwide connections and an instinct to innovate.

“Canadian students are not big travellers in comparison to, say, Americans or New Zealanders or Australians, and they don’t even travel that much from province to province,” said Queen’s University president Daniel Woolf.

About 9 in 10 Canadian students go to university in their home province, and evidence suggests a large proportion choose a school within 20 kilometres of home. Only 12 per cent of undergraduates have an international placement or exchange experience, according to a 2009 survey – reason to fear the experience of many students is too parochial given high demand for the ability to work and think globally.

“If I look across the U.S. universities which are most like ours, it’s more like 20 per cent, or a little higher,” said Herb O’Heron, director of research and policy analysis at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “When I talk to people in Germany, more like a third of students have [such] an experience.”

Sean Riley, president of St. Francis Xavier University, was skeptical of his school’s service learning program that sent students to Guatemala to examine topics like the coffee economy, until he made the trip himself. Now he is “fanatical” about fostering international connections.

“If I had a choice, I’d take the number of students that have a significant international exposure and multiply it by 10 or 20,” Dr. Riley said. “I think we’re kidding ourselves if we think we actually have a global mindset.”

Most universities have dozens, even hundreds of partnerships with schools abroad, but only a fraction of students take advantage of them, especially early in their studies, said Dalhousie University president Tom Traves.

“It exposes you, it transforms you, changes you as a person – you never see the world in the same way again,” he said.

That was Georgia Anstey’s experience. The 21-year-old Vancouver native and University of British Columbia student stumbled on a UBC international service learning program in 2010, and spent six weeks that summer in Swaziland working on a community-level HIV/AIDS project and talking to families. She quickly switched her major from history to international relations, and now has two longer study trips planned, to Uganda and France.

“It shifted my entire direction,” Ms. Anstey said. “Looking at trends with HIV is so staggering sometimes, you distance yourself from it in a classroom sense, from a book or a report. But when you know people, it definitely makes a difference.”

Dr. Traves worries the public still sees study abroad as frivolous, making student travel a tough political sell. Most trips are funded out of strained university budgets, through in-house fundraising or out of students’ pockets.

By contrast, the Brazilian government recently promised to spend $2-billion sending 75,000 more of its students abroad.

“If you put in place a broad national strategy along these lines, I don’t think it would cost big money in the context of the total budget of the federal government – we’re talking tens of millions of dollars, not hundreds. That would be astonishing and have a huge impact,” Dr. Traves said.

“To be a global player, you have to have global understanding, and you can’t do that sitting in your basement looking at a computer screen.”

OTTAWA – Ten of Canada’s top university faculty are starting a campaign this week to thank the teachers who inspired them in their careers. The 2011 3M National Teaching Fellows will launch a campaign starting this Saturday, February 4, 2012, in The Globe and Mail. The ads will also be published in the magazine University Affairs.

Maureen Mancuso, 3M Fellow and Provost at the University of Guelph, who has led this campaign, says: “Whether it’s through opening their eyes to new ideas or providing encouragement and motivation, a teacher can truly change the direction of a person’s life.”

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada agrees. AUCC is supporting the series of 11 advertisements, in which each national teaching fellow will say “Thank you” to the teachers who inspired them to change.

“Canada’s universities are home to outstanding teachers, whose knowledge and skills are shaped by scholarship,” says Paul Davidson, president of AUCC. “Great professors give us the tools to navigate in our changing world – and here’s a chance to pay tribute to them.”

Anyone inspired by his or her university teacher is encouraged to post to www.thankyourteacher.ca. Hosted by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) who co-sponsors the 3M National Teaching Fellowships, tributes from the public will be featured for everyone to see.

Arshad Ahmad, President of STLHE and 3M Fellow (1992) echoes his thanks and is quick to name great teachers who have moved him. “I encourage all Canadians, irrespective of where and when they were educated, to write a note and remind their great teacher of the difference they made. Anyone can do it. After all, we are all students.”

And on February 9th, read Maclean’s magazine’s feature article announcing the 2012 3M National Teaching Fellows.

Join us!

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Maureen Mancuso
Provost, University of Guelph
mmancuso@uoguelph.ca
Tel: 519-824-4120, x53845

Paul Davidson
President, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
president@aucc.ca
Tel: 613-563-3961, ext. 232

Arshad Ahmad
President, STLHE
arshad@jmsb.concordia.ca
Tel: 514-947-2095

OTTAWA - Canada’s university presidents are on Parliament Hill today to talk with MPs and senior civil servants about the role universities play in building a culture of innovation in Canada. The day’s activities and discussions are focused on the benefits gained by Canadians through investments in innovation, and the impressive results of university and private-sector partnerships. Close to 30 university presidents are participating.

“Our country’s future growth and prosperity depend on our ability to be more innovative and globally competitive,” says Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “The federal government is responding to this imperative, and universities are active partners.”

Canada’s universities do more than $1 billion in research each year with the private sector, and almost $1 billion of research for health and social service non-profit groups annually. A number of private-sector partners are joining the university presidents in their “Day on the Hill.”

The day begins with the “Big Thinking Lecture” on Parliament Hill, co-hosted with the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, on the topic of re-thinking innovation. The closing event is an evening reception to demonstrate the university and private-sector partnerships that energize Canadian innovation.

AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities, representing 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and degree-level colleges.

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Media Contact:

Helen Murphy
Communications Manager
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
hmurphy@aucc.ca
613-563-1236, ext. 238