July 11, 2025

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union has asserted that the Ontario public college system will have faced as many as 10,000 job losses and more than 600 program cancellations and suspensions by the end of the year. In a speech, OPSEU President JP Hornick pointed to factors such as chronic provincial underfunding as contributing to this situation and emphasized the fact that the programs impacted include those with relevance to in-demand labour market areas like nursing, child and youth care, and engineering and manufacturing. The College Employer Council and ON Ministry of Colleges and Universities reportedly challenged OPSEU’s claims, with ON Ministry spokesperson Bianca Giacoboni calling OPSEU’s underfunding claims “baseless.”

The Government of Canada has announced an investment of over $1.3B in funding to 9,700 researchers and numerous research projects across the country. The funding includes investments into a variety of programs, including $589M through the NSERC Discovery Research Program, $127M through the SSHRC 2024 Insight Grants, and $29.8M through the College and Community Innovation program. Administered by NSERC in partnership with CIHR and SSHRC, the funding includes $23.5M over five years for 17 Technology Access Centre grants to help colleges expand applied research and innovation services for local partners, as well as $6.3M to support equipment purchases and student training. “Today’s funding will advance genomics-driven agricultural innovation, accelerate health sector innovation and accessibility, and strengthen critical minerals research for sustainable mining, among many other areas,” said NSERC President Alejandro Adem.

Languages Canada has released the results of a national study conducted by Academica Group that examines the impact of English for Academic Purposes programs on international student retention and achievement. At universities, international EAP students had higher GPAs and retention rates than their non-EAP peers; at colleges, their academic outcomes were on par with their non-EAP peers. “These findings send a clear message to public institutions and policymakers alike: EAP programs are not remedial,” said Languages Canada Executive Director Gonzalo Peralta. “They are a powerful enabler of student success.”

Brock University has revamped its Smart Start orientation program to include faculty-specific content and an open-house approach for incoming students. This summer, eight Smart Start sessions will help new students prepare for academic life and connect with classmates, faculty, and campus services. In addition to long-standing elements like course registration support and tutorials on paying fees, the updated program includes tailored sessions from faculty, drop-in opportunities at student service centres, and a daily community barbecue open to students and the broader Brock community.

Memorial University’s Board of Regents has approved several strategic investments that will support enrolment and operational efficiencies. Memorial has set aside a total of $13.68M for initiatives that will support the university. At its recent meeting, the board approved the use of $5.4M on two key efforts: Enrolment and technology. The university will invest $3.4M to unify its student recruitment and retention efforts across its campuses. Second, it will invest $2M into technology to modernize the university’s procurement program and space management systems, which will address the recommendations made in past audits of the university.

Two Ontario postsecondary institutions are drawing on partnerships to expand their training opportunities in health care. The University of Niagara Falls Canada and Northeast College of Health Sciences in the United States have signed a cross-border articulation agreement that enables UNFC students to earn a bachelor’s degree from UNFC and a Doctor of Chiropractic from the American college one year faster than completing both degrees separately. Meanwhile, the University of Toronto and Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre have launched two emergency medicine training programs in Barrie, ON. The one-year Enhanced Skills Program offers advanced emergency medicine training for two family physicians annually, while the three-month Supplemental Emergency Medicine Experience provides immersive clinical experience for rural and small-community physicians.

Two student pilots from the flight training school Harv’s Air lost their lives Tuesday when their single-engine planes collided mid-air during practice exercises near Steinbach, MB. Steinbach Online reports that Harv’s Air President Adam Penner said that the pilots appeared to have collided while attempting landings at the same time on the rural runway. RCMP confirmed that the two pilots—Savanna May Royes and international student Sreehari Sukesh of India—were pronounced deceased at the scene. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating the incident.

A recent article about doctoral research by Kristin Ridge (University of Rhode Island) explores how first-generation students often face hidden barriers in navigating student conduct processes, and what staff, faculty, and institutions can address this issue. Ridge found that complex, legalistic handbooks and opaque procedures often do not provide students with the support or understanding needed to avoid lasting consequences. To address these inequities, Ridge recommends designing handbooks that are easy to access, written in plain language, and available in multiple languages. She also advocates for offering conduct advising and introducing conduct information early in students’ postsecondary journeys. “[C]olleges and universities should seek to create environments that ensure all students are aware of conduct procedures,” Ridge writes.

In an article for the Nanaimo News Bulletin, retired Vancouver Island University Professor Don Alexander laments how cuts at VIU have changed the institution. Alexander describes the university’s development over the last two decades, highlighting both its growth and expansion into graduate programming and the headwinds it and other BC universities have faced. He asserts that VIU and other universities have been “starved” by decades of underfunding, the ongoing tuition cap in British Columbia, and the federal international student cap. As a result, Alexander explains that VIU has lost most of its graduate programming, ended community-focused initiatives like ElderCollege, and suffered a “massive loss of institutional memory” through layoffs and staff departures.

Canada’s family doctor shortage—an estimated 23,000 physicians—requires urgent action, with Canada’s postsecondary sector poised to play a key role, writes Queen’s University Professor of Medicine Anthony Sanfilippo. Drawing on his professional experience, Sanfilippo highlights seven potential remedies to the doctor shortage, including: expanding medical school admissions, partnering with international institutions to train willing Canadians, and reforming Canadian medical school admissions and training to better align with primary care needs. “It’s time to develop and empower a multi-disciplinary, pan-Canadian panel to decide which mix of the options will build the reliable, sustainable physician workforce that Canada needs and deserves,” Sanfilippo concludes.