January 27, 2025

The Government of Ontario has announced that it is investing $228M to help postsecondary institutions modernize their infrastructure. The majority of the funding ($196M) will be provided through the Facilities Renewal Program to support maintenance and repairs to existing facilities. The rest of the funds will support the purchase of instructional equipment and learning resources: colleges will receive $21.5M from the College Equipment and Renewal Fund, while universities will receive $10.5M through the Training Equipment and Renewal Fund. Colleges Ontario and the Council of Ontario Universities each praised the funding for ensuring that students will be able to develop their skills with modern, cutting-edge equipment and facilities.

Aurora College will close all 19 of its Community Learning Centres by June 2025. In a statement, the Aurora Board of Governors explained that enrolment and completion rates at the centres have decreased dramatically in recent years while the delivery model has become “prohibitively expensive, outdated, and ineffective.” Aurora will also withdraw from its partnership with Inclusion NWT and will no longer offer literacy-level programming. The college will continue to provide academic upgrading in person at its three campuses and online. The Union of Northern Workers claims that this decision will impact 47 unionized jobs. It has accordingly filed a grievance with the Government of the Northwest Territories, asserting that the closures were “announced as final without giving the union an opportunity to meet with the employer to discuss ways to avoid layoffs.”

McMaster University and the University of Waterloo have received funding through Natural Resources Canada’s Climate Change Adaptation Program. McMaster was awarded $721K to produce resources that will help practitioners in Canada’s electricity sector incorporate climate change data into their work. UWaterloo received a total of $1.2M for two climate change adaptation projects: the first will accelerate the integration of climate change adaptation knowledge into Canadian professional degree programs; while the second will map, create, and test disaster-risk reduction tools with Canadian businesses. Canada Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Julie Dabrusin said that these investments “go a long way to help mitigate the impacts associated with climate change that are devastating livelihoods, environments and the economy.”

Times Higher Education has released its World University Rankings by subject for 2025, which evaluates the performance of universities in 11 subject areas. The rankings used data from the 2022 academic year to rank subjects, with evaluations based on the number of students, student-to-staff ratio, percentage of international students, and female-to-male student ratios. Six Canadian postsecondary institutions appeared in the top 50 of one or more subject areas: McGill University, McMaster University, Université de Montréal, the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, and the University of Waterloo.

Lakehead University will receive $15M over the next 10 years from the County of Simcoe to support the expansion of its Orillia Campus. The funding will help construct a new building to expand programming and improve access to education. The new space will include an Indigenous learning and gathering centre, student programming space, and a centralized student services hub. “This [support] will allow our campus to grow to an estimated 3,500 students,” said Lakehead President Dr Gillian Siddall.

The Government of Saskatchewan’s Innovation Saskatchewan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the German Academic Exchange Service to enhance academic partnerships and exchanges in areas such as the life sciences, climate change, and clean energy. “By working collaboratively and establishing new pathways between Innovation Saskatchewan and the German Academic Exchange, Saskatchewan and German researchers will be on the forefront of advancing research solutions to the world’s evolving needs while creating economic opportunities across both jurisdictions,” said SK Minister Responsible for Innovation Warren Kaeding. As a result of this agreement, Innovation Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan will also launch a three-year pilot project to operationalize future collaborations with Germany.

The University of King’s College will establish a renewable bursary program for students facing financial and social barriers to postsecondary education, thanks to a $1M gift from The Joyce Family Foundation. This program will fund two annual, renewable bursaries, which will be awarded to undergraduate students who are experiencing financial barriers to education and have demonstrated an ability to overcome adversity; Maritime students will be given priority. “The Joyce Family Foundation Bursary will help us foster the potential of a diverse group of students with the talent and motivation to make the world a better place—and we all benefit from that,” said U of King’s College President William Lahey.

HEC Montréal has launched the maîtrise en management du sport (MM) [Master of Management in Sports Management] program. Students will gain hands on knowledge by completing an innovative integration project in collaboration with one of the university’s sports organizations. Students can also become part of the HEC Montréal Sports Management Hub. Additionally, graduates of HEC’s sports management DESS program can apply for accelerated admission to the MM program. HEC says that this French-language professional degree program is the first of its kind in North America.

Western University has announced its goal of ensuring that all undergraduate students participate in experiential learning by 2028. To ensure that 100% of its students graduate with hands-on experience, Western will expand and develop five types of experiential learning: education abroad, entrepreneurship, project-based learning, research, and work-integrated learning. “Students have shared how [experiential learning has] increased their interdisciplinary knowledge, developed skills, clarified their interest and values for future careers or graduate programs and helped them create new networks,” said Western Manager of Experiential Learning Kelly Hollingshead.

Both Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Vancouver Island University are expanding their student housing options. Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue is upgrading a building that belonged to the diocese of Rouyn-Noranda to create 30 new beds for students. The renovation work is expected to be completed by July, with the building welcoming students starting this August. At VIU’s Nanaimo campus, construction is now underway on a new student residence that will offer 266 new beds, a 200-seat dining hall, study rooms, lounges, shared kitchens, bike storage, and office spaces. The Government of British Columbia has committed up to $103M to support the construction of this ten-storey building, which is set to welcome students by 2027.