News and commentary

OTTAWA, October 21, 2010 – The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada welcomes the work of the Council of the Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on research integrity made public today in their report Honesty, Accountability and Trust: Fostering Research Integrity in Canada.

“University research generates new knowledge, products, policies and programs that impact the lives of Canadians every day,” said AUCC president Paul Davidson. “We owe it to Canadians to ensure that research conducted on our campuses and in our communities is conducted with integrity.”

AUCC has a longstanding history of working closely with the TriCouncil (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and Canadian Institutes of Health Research) on the joint integrity policy framework. Together, we have put measures in place to improve policy implementation and transparency. The Panel’s report will be a welcome resource in continuing to strengthen the TriCouncil policy.

Most recently, AUCC and the TriCouncil established a Research Integrity Advisory Group (RIAG). Made up of university representatives, RIAG will provide agencies with external advice on research integrity and ensure that recommendations for research integrity policy changes will be well informed by the realities on our campuses.

“AUCC welcomes the opportunity to participate in the TriCouncil consultations on the revised draft policy in 2011, to build on existing policies and practices to strengthen the culture of research integrity in Canada, and to secure Canada’s solid reputation as a place where values such as honesty, accountability and trust are upheld and respected,” added Mr. Davidson.

AUCC is the voice of Canada’s universities. It represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

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For more information:
Lyse Huot
Director, Government Relations and Communications
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

OTTAWA, Ontario, October 20, 2010 – Today the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada released Foundations for Education, a brochure offering a snapshot of transformations taking place on university campuses across the country. In just 20 months, outdated labs as old as the Sputnik have been transformed. Small, cramped classrooms from the ’50s and ’60s will now be ‘smart’, wired and e-connected. Dark, inefficient buildings have turned on the light and gone ‘green’. Paul Davidson, President of the AUCC, says “the updated, retro-fitted and new, state-of-the-art buildings on university campuses will create a rich learning environment—an environment that will attract the best and brightest professors and students from Canada and around the world.”

In 2009, the Government of Canada announced the $2-billion Knowledge Infrastructure Program, with matching funds from provincial and territorial governments and other partners allowing universities and colleges to tackle several billions dollars of deferred maintenance – everything from leaky plumbing to crumbling buildings.

“We are seeing great stories unfold,” adds Davidson. “This investment goes far beyond bricks and mortar; it is the Foundations for Education – foundations that will encourage research and innovation; foundations that will attract international talent; foundations that are inviting to Aboriginal students.”

AUCC’s Foundation brochure offers a snapshot of some spectacular buildings, amazing researchers and their innovative research that will make Canada the prosperous, competitive, livable community that Canadians deserve.

View examples and additional features on KIP projects.

AUCC is the voice of Canada’s universities. It represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

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For interviews and information contact:

Lyse Huot
Director of Government Relations and Communications
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

Ottawa, October 15, 2010 – A partnership between universities in Canada and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted in Congolese farmers in some 20 communities more than tripling their corn production since 2005.

As World Food Day approaches on October 16, this effort responds to one of the event’s key objectives of strengthening collaboration against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the world’s undernourished live in just seven countries, one of which is the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congolese agronomy students from the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) are being trained, with Laurentian University’s support, to help farmers apply cutting-edge agricultural techniques. The main food source in this country – corn – lacks nutritional value. It doesn’t have the full range of amino acids needed to produce proteins, and has its niacin (vitamin B3) bound in an indigestible complex. Yet most Congolese cannot afford to buy meat or milk products especially in rural areas where over 70 percent of people live. To redress this challenge, the project promotes the cultivation of high-yielding corn seed with better nutritional value.

Administered by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the project’s goal is to promote UNIKIN’s efforts to help Congolese institutions and farmers achieve sustainable food security. Caritas-Congo, the largest NGO active in the country, also part of the partnership, provides the vital link to the communities.

Through the two universities working together, Master’s and PhD-level programs in food security have now been developed at UNIKIN. Students in the graduate programs are trained in community settings in Kasai province and work directly with farmers in addressing crop production problems.

“We are trying to have rural farmers take their destiny into their own hands,” said Kabwe Nkongolo, the project’s co-director and a professor of plant and human genetics at Laurentian University. Dr. Nkongolo, who is originally from DRC, notes that the improved seed production and adoption of appropriate agricultural practices have resulted in farmers producing enough for consumption and for storage for future use for about 6,000 families. The results are particularly impressive for an investment of approximately $166,000 per year.

“I’ve seen smiling Congolese farmers express their gratitude,” he adds. “They like to share the food they cook. They bring you gifts, chicken, even a goat, as a sign of appreciation.” The CIDA-funded project comes to an end in March 2011 but Dr. Nkongolo said he is already seeing the ripple-effect of its success.

“The project is ending but the partnership is continuing,” he said. “We have already laid a foundation for the activity to continue.”

He said the Congolese partners, particularly Caritas Development Congo, have been able to leverage an additional $10,000,000 US in funding from the European Union and from the African Development Bank to extend the project beyond the 20 communities that have already benefited. Funds will be used for storage facilities for the surplus corn, as well as for maintaining and building rural roads, and food market construction. This extended food security program is led by Dr. Bruno Miteyo, National Director of Caritas Congo and Deputy President of Caritas Africa.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945. People around the world will observe this 30th World Food Day, this year’s theme is “United against Hunger”.

According to the FAO, never before have so many in the world gone hungry, with one billion people facing hunger every day. Food security, a priority theme for CIDA, was set back in 2009 with the global financial crisis which caused food prices to soar.

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For further information please contact:

Elizabeth Smith
Communications Manager
Partnership Program
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Email: esmith@aucc.ca
Telephone: 613 563-3961, ext. 246

Dr. Kabwe Nkongolo
Project Co-Director
Laurentian University
Email: knkongolo@laurentian.ca
Telephone: 705 675-1151, ext. 2307
Cell: 705 691 1140

In DR-Congo:
Dr. Bruno Miteyo
National Director of Caritas Congo
Email: directeur@caritasdev.cd OR nyengemiteyo@yahoo.fr
Cell: 243 99 99 88 725
Time difference between Ottawa, ON and Kinshasa, Congo – Dem.Rep. of : +5:00 hrs

NOTE: Photos available

OTTAWA, October 14, 2010 – The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada welcomes today’s announcement of the composition and mandate of the Research and Development Review Expert Panel. As drivers of research, universities have a keen interest in the work of the review panel. It will be critically important for the review panel to identify best policies and practices to enhance the Canadian R&D community’s capacity to meet the challenges of a globally competitive world.

Representing strategic segments of the R&D enterprise, the distinguished panel members will undoubtedly contribute to the strengthening of Canada’s R&D funding portfolio. We are especially pleased to see several prominent academics serving on this review panel and confident Tom Jenkins will bring able leadership to this process.

Canadian universities are a $30 billion enterprise, educating more than 1.5 million students annually and performing more than one-third of Canada’s research and development. University research impacts the daily lives of Canadians, and the greatest role universities play in the research and innovation cycle is in educating the next generation of leaders and innovators who take their knowledge and ideas with them when they graduate. It will be the ideas and the transfer and exchange of new knowledge – into policies, products and services – that will enable Canadians to increase our productivity, and remain competitive in the decades to come.

The Canadian university community recognizes that the best ways to inspire and support innovation are changing and require strong collaboration with governments and the private sector. With Canada’s productivity and competitiveness challenge in mind, universities are committed to working closely with the Government of Canada throughout this review to determine the most effective and efficient funding models to support research and development, and ultimately, Canada’s innovative capacity.

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The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is the voice of Canada’s universities. AUCC represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

For more information please contact:

Lyse Huot
Director, Government Relations and Communications
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

by:

• Paul Davidson, President, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
• Roberta Jamieson, President and CEO, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation

This op-ed was published in the Hamilton Spectator and the Victoria Times Colonist on October 6, 2010.

If the future of a country is its youth, then Canada’s future is increasingly Aboriginal. Canada’s Aboriginal youth population is growing at three times the national average. It is and will be a force to be reckoned with. But whether these youth are a force for positive change and economic growth will be determined by the actions all of us take.

Improving Aboriginal education is not an issue we can ignore. It affects every Canadian. Aboriginal youth are the least likely to graduate from high school and are far behind Canadian students generally in terms of completing a postsecondary education. At the same time, our country is aging and record numbers of workers are set for retirement. Young workers are needed to fill these jobs and sustain the Canadian economy.

The hard-nosed economic facts are that unless we do something about education of Aboriginal youth, hundreds of thousands of youth will not be available to help Canada deal with this demographic crunch. Just as important is the impact that highly skilled and educated Aboriginal people can have on their communities – the much-needed engineers, doctors, nurses, teachers, entrepreneurs. In other words, inaction means human tragedy with significant economic consequences.

The National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada are working together to advance a positive agenda. Canada’s universities and NAAF have identified the crisis of First Nations, Inuit and Métis education as one of the most compelling national issues facing Canada.

Yesterday we held the National Working Summit on Aboriginal Postsecondary Education at Six Nations Polytechnic at Six Nations of the Grand River. We were joined by university and college presidents and staff, charities, Aboriginal organizations, private sector companies and Aboriginal educational institutes, all of whom are actively involved in this issue.

All of the more than 50 participants shared in the belief that as a country we can improve the results that Aboriginal Canadians are currently getting from the postsecondary education system. This will give them the skills to get good jobs and contribute to their communities. But we know that hope is not good enough.

Summit participants were asked to commit to actions. This commitment included some shared principles: to work collaboratively and share knowledge and to take a holistic approach to ensure more Aboriginal students start and complete their postsecondary studies.

Of course, it will take more than just the group we assembled at the summit to achieve the task ahead of us. We are calling on others to join us, to build on the work of this summit by investing time and money in their communities, so that more young Aboriginal Canadians can fulfil their dreams, so that our country can grow stronger.

There is a clear and compelling argument for the federal government to act. In spite of increased numbers of qualified Aboriginal students, the number of students supported by the federal Post Secondary Student Support Program is decreasing. In 1996-1997, the program supported 26,493. Ten years later it supported just 23,780 students.

According to the Assembly of First Nations, the national organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada, more than 10,000 Aboriginal Canadians were denied funding from the program between 2001 and 2006; and an additional 2,858 were denied aid in 2007-2008. Put simply, many qualified students are not able to continue their education.

In 2008 and again in 2009, the federal budget indicated the federal government’s intention to reform student financial assistance. More must be done to build on the work of the Prime Minister’s apology for residential schools. With more First Nations people than ever before wanting to attend post secondary education, Ottawa must do more to assist them.

Federal funding for Aboriginal postsecondary education has been inadequate for too long. We are calling on the federal government to increase student financial aid to First Nations peoples, to better support the college and university programs that help these students succeed and to work with those organizations who participated in the working summit to improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal Canadians.

We are proud of what the summit achieved yesterday. We know it is only a start, but it is a strong one. Given the economic and demographic challenges facing Canada, fostering success of young Aboriginal peoples is essential. When they succeed, we will all benefit.