July 30, 2025

Canada’s most selective university programs are becoming more competitive for prospects, reports Joe Friesen of the Globe and Mail, with many top applicants facing rejection despite their high grade averages. Friesen highlights how programs in health sciences, commerce, and engineering are drawing an “avalanche of applications” for limited seats. As a result, universities are relying more heavily on supplementary materials—essays, video interviews, reference letters, and more—to help identify the best candidates. Experts note that grade inflation and application volume are compressing admission standards and intensifying pressure on students, prompting debates about fairness and the future of merit-based admissions

The University of Waterloo has partnered with Bruce Power and Enbridge to teach undergraduate students about energy sustainability. The university is offering a new course—Energy and Society in Ontario—that gives students access to nuclear and wind energy sites in the province so they can learn about how these systems are built, managed, and operated. Students in the course develop their background knowledge before going to energy sites to connect theory to practice. Bruce Power Manager of Community Relations Dwight Irwin said that the company’s partnership with UWaterloo will help students learn about the province’s electricity system and about the careers that they can pursue.

The College of Northern Canada has launched two new programs, which My True North Now says are the first accredited postsecondary logistics programs in the Northwest Territories. The Logistics Management certificate and diploma programs—which received accreditation from the Government of the Northwest Territories earlier this month—combine technical training with cultural fluency, land-based learning, and Indigenous knowledge systems. The program aims to prepare students for roles in areas such as housing, food security, and infrastructure. “This accreditation is more than institutional recognition, it’s a bold affirmation of the North’s ability to lead its own future,” said College of Northern Canada President Dr Chehrazade Aboukinane.

A new research community led by McGill University and involving collaborators from 10 Canadian universities has received $5.6M from the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The research community, led by McGill Professor Benjamin Fung, will focus on exploratory analysis of unstructured data. The collaborators will undertake a four-year project to develop a comprehensive solution for analyzing and visualizing large-scale unstructured datasets such as text, code, and images. The project is funded through the NSERC-CSE Research Communities Grants program, which supports work in strategic research areas for the Government of Canada.

Keyano College and the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences (AELS) have forged a transfer agreement that will allow Keyano graduates to enter the third year of a university degree. The agreement establishes a pathway for eligible graduates of Keyano’s Environmental Technology diploma program into a BSc in Environmental and Conservation Sciences or a BSc in Forestry. “Keyano’s graduates will hit the ground running in our experiential and work-integrated learning, preparing them to be the scientists, leaders and problem solvers of tomorrow,” said UAlberta AELS Dean Dr Rickey Yada.

The Toronto Star reports that the private college Miami Ad School Toronto has abruptly closed, leaving several students and instructors frustrated. Students told the Star that they encountered issues such as poor onboarding and a lack of communication while attending the college; after the closure, several students told the Star that they either did not receive promised refunds or supports or that they were offered conditional refunds. Instructors also shared that they often waited months to be paid. College co-founder Muneet Dhaliwal told the Star that the college was forced to close by “broader industry conditions and prior changes at the global brand,” but noted that the study permit changes did not significantly affect the college. The Government of Ontario’s Ministry of College and Universities stated that the complaints are under review.

Canada must invest in its universities as part of the recent federal call for a “wartime effort” to rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure, writes Universities Canada President Gabriel Miller. Miller highlights the role that universities play in supporting key parts of community infrastructure—including public transportation and water systems—despite being routinely left out of federal programs designed to support this infrastructure. He emphasizes that efforts to revitalize housing and infrastructure will only succeed if Canada’s universities are at their full strength. The author proposes three steps that the federal government can take to address issues around student housing, campus infrastructure funding, and approvals and administrative barriers. “If we’re serious about a wartime-level response to Canada’s infrastructure crisis, we need to mobilize every asset we have,” writes Miller.

In a recent article for the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Stuart Green discusses what he calls the “perils” and “pleasures” of talking to reporters as a professor. Green describes the many unexpected experiences of “moonlighting as a media pundit,” such as the differences between his knowledge and what journalists are looking for, the surprises around what is broadcast widely and what may never be aired, and the different processes and expectations of journalists. Green also discusses two other issues and how he navigates them: being misquoted when speaking about a complicated story and being quoted “too accurately” when accidentally giving a wordy or embarrassing statement. He concludes by stating that he plans to continue taking calls from reporters, describing it “as close to showbiz as a law professor ever gets.”

New initiatives at Dalhousie University and the University of Calgary are putting community voices at the heart of academic research. At Dal, the Community-Oriented Coastal Observatory is training Nova Scotians to collect seawater samples for eDNA analysis. This in turn will help researchers monitor how marine species are shifting in response to climate change. “We can track these shifts together and make sure local voices are part of the conversation,” said Dal PhD candidate and project lead Samantha Beal. Meanwhile, UCalgary’s Precision Health Program is training healthcare professionals to design care strategies that reflect patients’ lived experiences and priorities, working directly with local organizations to address real-world challenges. Recent graduates worked on challenges ranging from vaccine delivery to curriculum development for health-sector innovation.

A recent feature in the The Guardian by journalist Jeremy Ettinghausen explores how three undergraduate students at an unnamed UK university used a shared ChatGPT Plus account over 18 months. In total, the students logged nearly 12,000 prompts. While half of the queries supported academic work—including a 103-prompt essay exchange—others addressed mental health, identity, job applications, and everyday dilemmas. Prompts ranged from “What’s a good internship cover letter?” to “Why are brown jeans not common?” Reflecting on these prompts, the author discusses his concerns about misinformation, over-reliance on AI responses, and the erosion of human interaction. Despite institutional policies on ethical AI use, Ettinghausen observes that students rarely disclose their usage. As such, the author suggests that AI’s role in student life is expanding rapidly while remaining largely invisible to educators and administrators.