Sajjan’s mandate offers welcome focus on education in Canada’s international development policy
With its December release of new minister mandate letters, the Trudeau government built on the directions and goals previously stated in the November Speech from the Throne by detailing specific directives to each minister on the priorities of their individual portfolios. As expected, as Canada’s newest international development minister, Harjit Sajjan’s priority is to support […]
Polytechnics can help fill Canada’s talent gaps
When I ask business leaders what keeps them up at night, it is not only about supply chains, inflation, or rising commodity prices. The No. 1 concern is about talent. How do I fill critical staff vacancies in a tight labour market? Where can I find workers who are digitally literate? How can my employees […]
Approach to skills must be reinvented in post-pandemic Canada
The transition from education to workplace and beyond used to be relatively straightforward: high school, post-secondary, job market, promotions, management, retirement. In today’s environment, with new complexities related to technology, shifting global markets, a desire for work-life balance and the speed of change, skills require constant reinvention. Now more than ever before, the business community […]
Fixing post-secondary education key to fixing social inequities
This past February, Laurentian University—an important institution for francophone, Indigenous, and Northern Ontario students—declared insolvency and drastically reduced jobs and programs, cutting mathematics, midwifery, and more. The significance of this story has not been lost on the federal political parties during a federal election. In a tight race for votes in a city devastated by […]
International students struggle to come to Canada amid COVID-19 variant concerns, says Universities Canada president
COVID-19 variants of concern and the pandemic’s fourth wave are impeding the movement of international students seeking to attend Canada’s universities, making this fall a critical time for the federal government to take action to ensure student mobility, according the head of Universities Canada. “September is the largest intake point in the calendar for international […]
Investment goes beyond supporting the institutions themselves
On Sept. 8, nearly all of Lethbridge College’s 5,000-plus students returned to campus to start the school year. While we’d been able to safely offer some in-person classes and labs throughout the 2020-21 academic year—with as many as 400 students per day on-campus—this was as close to a full campus as we had seen since […]
Investing in people and ideas for Canada’s recovery
For those in the education sector, September is always a time of hope and promise. This year, those hopes are tempered by threats of a fourth wave of the pandemic. But to see students arrive on campus, to see residences and classrooms open safely, and to see researchers back in labs at higher levels gives […]
Post-pandemic recovery plans must include access to education for refugee students
The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges for internationalization in Canadian higher education over the past year. Study permits issued for international students dropped by 22.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2020. As part of pandemic recovery, Canadian higher education institutions have focused on enticing the return of international students. This is understandable in Canada, […]
We need a long-term plan for the post-secondary sector in Canada
For decades, Canada’s universities and colleges have been adrift. There have been reports and targeted programs, but no long-term plan to sustain a complex sector that generates research, supports federal policies from immigration to economic development, and helps educate about half of adults in Canada aged 25 to 64. Comparing federal support for post-secondary institutions […]
Keep the umbrella handy to weather the next storm
Investing for a rainy day is hard for governments who are often judged on “what have you done for me lately.” This is why adequately preparing for rare events like global pandemics is challenging. The better prepared we are, the less likely we will see really bad outcomes. When we don’t see bad outcomes, we […]
