QS Quacquarelli Symonds has released the QS World University Rankings for 2025, assessing a record 1,503 institutions from around the world. The ranking measures universities on their performance across metrics such as reputation, faculty-student ratios, citations, and sustainability. Four Canadian institutions appeared in the global top 100: the University of Toronto (#25), McGill University (#29), the University of British Columbia (#38), and the University of Alberta (#96). U of T was also noted for having the world’s leading score in the measure of sustainability. Outside of Canada, QS noted the improvements made by universities from countries in the Global South, such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkiye, while marking the declining rankings of institutions from leading countries like the United Kingdom and United States.
Top Ten News
June 6, 2024
As part of a broader initiative to help grow Canada’s economy, RBC has announced $2M in donations to support green skills education and training. The donations will go to five Atlantic Canada colleges: College of the North Atlantic, Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick, Holland College, New Brunswick Community College, and Nova Scotia Community College. CCNB, CNA, NBCC, and NSCC will use the funds to develop their programming in areas such as electric vehicle education and wind and solar technician training programs, while Holland College will undertake a four-year green retrofit project.
University of Waterloo researchers have developed a new tool that reveals where large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT get their sources and evaluates if these sources are trustworthy. Nicknamed “RAGE,” the tool uses a strategy called “retrieval-augmented generation” to understand and assess the context of an LLM’s answers to a given prompt. UWaterloo computer science PhD student and lead author Joel Rorseth explained that this strategy illuminates how providing LLMs with different sources can lead to different answers. “We’re in a place right now where innovation has outpaced regulation,” said Rorseth. “People are using these technologies without understanding their potential risks, so we need to make sure these products are safe, trustworthy, and reliable.”
Champlain College Saint-Lambert, Dawson College, Heritage College, John Abbott College, and Vanier College have released a video featuring Indigenous students speaking out about the barrier that Bill 96 will create for them. The bill requires students who are attending English cegeps to complete an additional three French courses, starting this Fall. Some students noted that these changes have led them to reconsider postsecondary studies, while others discussed how the new requirements put learning their own language and culture in jeopardy. “They’re talking about preserving their language, but what about ours?” said Angela Ottereyes, who is Cree. “French is my third language. And I feel like as I’m learning more, I’m forgetting my own language.”
In an article for Times Higher Education, Alison Taylor (New York University) argues that business schools must move away from a siloed approach to sustainability in favour of meaningfully incorporate sustainability into all operations and curricula. Taylor offers five ways to do this: tensions and trade-offs of sustainability, fostering students’ negotiation and coalition-building skills, treating sustainability as an essential “minor” for everyone, working with businesses on real-life challenges, and taking corporate political responsibility seriously. “Rather than offering sustainability courses to the subset of students who are interested in them, we need to prepare our future business leaders to build coalitions and drive influence in a divided world,” concludes Taylor.
The Université du Québec à Rimouski has revised its accounting sciences programming to now offer three distinct certificates in accounting, taxation, and financial information and management. This revision provides students with the opportunity to focus their education on the specific sector that they would like to pursue in the future. UQAR Professor Vincent Bal Gagnon further explained that the shift better reflects the needs of the labour market, where companies and organizations specialize in particular areas of accounting. The three certificates will be offered at the Lévis and Rimouski campuses, as well as in Rivière-du-Loup and Beauce in the winter of 2025.
On York University’s Keele Campus, students have formed a new encampment that they are reportedly calling York Popular University for Palestine (YPUP). The demands from YPUP include disclosure and divestment of the university’s financial holdings that have a connection to the war in Gaza, as well as a boycott of “current and future partnerships with Israeli academic institutions.” City News reports that the protestors plan to remain outside of the university until all of the demands are met.
A building at Concordia University was vandalized and briefly occupied by protestors on Monday morning. “A small group of masked protesters blocked all access to one of our buildings … chaining doors and vandalizing the lobby,” explained Concordia spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci. Montréal police were called to campus, but the protestors left on their own before police intervened. CTV News reports that some protestors went to join the Université du Québec à Montréal pro-Palestinian encampment, which MSN says will be dismantled by June 6. Government of Québec higher education minister Pascale Déry put out a statement on social media calling for protestors to express themselves without resorting to intimidation, incitement, and vandalism.
Northlands College has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SpacesShared to provide innovative housing solutions for students in Northern Saskatchewan. This partnership allows Northlands learners to use the SpacesShared virtual platform to connect with safe, affordable home-sharing arrangements. “Given the housing challenges Canada has faced in recent years, this innovative measure will help our learners focus on achieving their academic goals without the added stress of finding affordable housing,” said Northlands President Karsten Henriksen.
The University of Guelph has issued an update on an encampment set up on its campus that was blocking the evacuation pathway from Zavitz Hall. UoGuelph President Dr Charlotte Yates wrote that Guelph Fire Services issued orders for a walkway beside Zavitz Hall to be cleared of tents and personal belongings, as they were creating an unsafe situation in case of a fire. CTV News reports that the university originally stated that it was being fined $20K a day for non-compliance, but an update from UoGuelph clarified that Guelph Fire Services had extended the deadline for compliance and that the university has not been fined.