Topic: Universities and the academic mission

Equity and social justice, Public engagement, Truth and Reconciliation and decolonization, Universities and the academic mission

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: Universities need to revisit their founding stories

Thomas Peace, Western University and Candace Brunette-Debassige, Western University

Indigenous histories often go unrecognized in institutional university memories. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston Universities pride themselves on their founding stories. These stories, […]

Online education, Teaching and learning, Universities and the academic mission

Glimpsing the future, thanks to a pandemic

Ken Steele

The breadth of the pandemic’s impact on postsecondary education is difficult to fathom. What is likely to return to pre-COVID normal, and […]

Equity and social justice, Research and innovation, Teaching and learning, Truth and Reconciliation and decolonization, Universities and the academic mission

From Ryerson to Toronto Metropolitan University: What can we learn from the renaming?

Dino Sossi, University of Toronto

With the new name comes a model for other renaming processes in the realm of reconciliation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston Ryerson University […]

Academic freedom, Corporatization and commercialization, Faculty associations, Funding, Governance, Hiring, promotion, and tenure, Public policy, Research and innovation, Truth and Reconciliation and decolonization, Universities and the academic mission

Are there ever really ‘financial reasons’ to fire faculty? Laurentian University, academic freedom, and the disciplining of the professoriate

Honor Brabazon, St. Jerome’s University

The 2020–21 academic year saw two incidents of Ontario professors being effectively fired: the termination of 116 of the 345 professors at […]

Corporatization and commercialization, History, International issues, Public policy, Universities and the academic mission

Remaking Australian universities: notes from the sidelines of catastrophe

Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney

Can we grieve not for a person but for an institution? Should we be angry over possibilities destroyed, young talents denied a […]

Academic freedom, Free speech and expression rights, Universities and the academic mission

Universities: The often overlooked player in determining healthy democracies

Marc Spooner, University of Regina

In Georgia, the Board of Regents has given its universities the power to fire tenured professors without faculty input. Now some fear […]

Performance assessment, Students, Teaching and learning, Universities and the academic mission

Universities need to focus on students—not teach to targets—to help them succeed

Catherine Carroll-Meehan, University of Portsmouth and Harriet Dunbar-Morris, University of Portsmouth

Kate Kultsevych/Shutterstock The Office for Students, England’s higher education regulator, has outlined new proposals to ensure university students reach “acceptable outcomes” from […]

Equity and social justice, Intellectual property, Students, Tuition and student fees, Universities and the academic mission

Fair access to university depends on much more than making students ‘job-ready’

Sally Patfield, University of Newcastle

Shutterstock Today is World Access to Higher Education Day, but Australia is still a long way off fair access for students from […]

Equity and social justice, International issues, Research and innovation, Universities and the academic mission

Hit hard by the pandemic, Australian researchers expect its impacts to linger for years

Sora Park, University of Canberra; Jennie Scarvell, University of Canberra, and Linda Botterill, University of Canberra

Shutterstock The impacts of COVID-19 on Australian university researchers are likely to have consequences for research productivity and quality for many years […]

Equity and social justice, Teaching and learning, Truth and Reconciliation and decolonization, Universities and the academic mission

National Day for Truth & Reconciliation: Universities and schools must acknowledge how colonial education has reproduced anti-Indigenous racism

Lisa Howell, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa; Kiera Brant-Birioukov, York University, Canada, and Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Protesters march to Parliament Hill in Ottawa in response to the discovery of unmarked Indigenous graves at residential schools on July 1, […]