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THE NEWS
ACADEMIC PREPARATION
Trustees, staff agree to help students graduate
By Canada News Services, Canada.com
Trustees and staff in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district have signed a contract last week to work toward having every student complete Grade 12 and to encourage safe, caring and orderly behaviour and conduct in schools. All of the province's school districts are required to submit a plan, called a district achievement contract, each year that outlines how they intend to improve student achievement. The contract is built on the educational plans developed by each district school.
Education system fails to meet its own targets
By Jonathan Fowle, Postmedia News
British Columbia's education system is failing to meet some of its own targets for student performance and satisfaction, a year-end report from the Ministry of Education shows. The recent report found that during the 2009-10 fiscal year, only 45% of students who responded to an annual satisfaction survey felt they were properly prepared for post-secondary education or a career. That number is down seven percentage points from the year before, and is well below the ministry's target of 54%. Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said the results are troubling.
Comics have a role in boosting literacy among boys: Canadian Council on Learning
By The Canadian Press
Although often dismissed as light and "sub-literate" fare, comic books should be getting more respect from parents and educators who want to encourage boys to read, a new report suggests. Surveys show that many educators consider comics unsuitable as reading material, says the report released Wednesday by the Canadian Council on Learning. The article summarizes various findings from around the world and comes to the conclusion that comics and graphic novels are more than just funny books — they have untapped potential to improve literacy among young males.
POSTSECONDARY ACCESS SUCCESS
StraighterLine and Thompson Rivers University partner to offer North American adult learners exceptional flexibility and access to earn a college degree
By StraighterLine News Release
StraighterLine announced that the Open Learning Division of Thompson Rivers University, a leading provider of quality online and distance education, has joined StraighterLine’s expanding partner college network as their first Canadian partner university. StraighterLine partner colleges are all regionally accredited institutions that award post-secondary credit upon transfer for successfully completed online college courses from StraighterLine. Through this partnership, students who successfully complete StraighterLine courses may now transfer these courses for full credit when they enroll with Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning (TRU-OL). Students can then use these transfer credits towards the completion of their post-secondary degrees through TRU-OL.
Governments of Canada and Manitoba working to better integrate skilled newcomers into the labor market
By HRSDC, Canada News Center
The governments of Canada and Manitoba are cooperating to help internationally trained professionals participate in the provincial labour market. The federal government will provide the Manitoba Department of Advanced Education and Literacy with over $1.2 million in funding for its project entitled Partnerships for Labour Market-Driven Bridge Programs in Manitoba's Post-Secondary Institutions. Through this project's innovative partnerships will work with post-secondary institutions to pilot bridge-to-work programs that will help internationally educated newcomers gain access to the education, training and work experience they need to prepare for licensing exams and find jobs appropriate to their previous training and education.
N.B. university ranks decline
By Greg Weston, Times & Transcript
The provincial government says it's taking steps that will reverse declining enrollment at New Brunswick's universities, even as new figures show the number of students has dropped in recent years - all while the national average increased. Despite an overall increase of 3.7 per cent at Canadian universities, New Brunswick enrollment went down 2.8 per cent between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years. It was the second-largest decrease in the country, behind Saskatchewan, and the third consecutive year of decline. Luke Seamone, the head of recruitment at Mount Allison University, calls the trend a "troublesome predicament" for institutions in New Brunswick and across Atlantic Canada.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Ireland’s universities are hit hard as the country’s economy tumbles
By Aisha Labi, The Chronicle of Higher Education
As Ireland's economy boomed for much of the past two decades, prompting wonder at the transformation of one of Western Europe's poorer nations into the vaunted Celtic Tiger, the country's higher-education institutions, almost all of which are publicly financed, rode the wave of prosperity that swept the country. But just as Ireland became synonymous with the property-boom-fueled riches of the early years of this century, it has now become emblematic of the harsh toll exacted when governments impose severe austerity measures to deal with the fallout from the global economic crisis.
Higher education becomes a globally traded commodity as demand soars
By John Morgan, Times Higher Education
A worldwide trend of falling state investment and rising tuition fees will prompt intense competition in the "globally traded commodity" of higher education - and the sector must also prepare for the global advance of private providers. Those were the messages from two presentations at the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) annual conference, which took place last week. John Hudzik, former vice-president for global engagement and strategic projects at Michigan State University, said there was evidence to suggest that the economic crisis had not damaged global student mobility - but that funding provided by students through tuition fees is changing higher education.
U. of Hong Kong looks to the West in curricular redesign
By Mary Hennock, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Jessica King is a geologist at the University of Hong Kong. This year she taught a new course on scientific literacy to first-year students, encouraging them to take an informed and skeptical look at how data are used in media coverage of controversial topics like climate change. The class, she says, was a success. Students are not afraid to ask questions, she jokes, because "they're no longer scared that if they don't know the correct terminology I'm going to beat them up." Ms. King believes that the open-ended nature of the new course aided that dynamic.
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