May 24, 2023

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has ruled that Edmonton-based Karamjeet Kaur be deported by May 29, reports the Canadian Press. This decision was delivered after it was discovered that the college admissions letter Kaur received more than five years ago from Seneca College–which secured her entry into Canada–turned out to be fraudulent. Though a Federal Court judge found that Kaur “genuinely believed” the validity the letter, the judge dismissed Kaur’s request for a review of the deportation order. The Canadian Press states that Kaur’s deportation may set a precedent for potentially hundreds of other international students in Canada, who reportedly received similar fraudulent letters from the same agent in India.

Southeast College has been granted full institutional eligibility for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This achievement will enhance the college’s access to more resources, create new partnership opportunities, and ensure all funded applied research meets the highest standards of excellence. “One of our primary goals at Southeast College is to enhance our service to the region and industry partners through applied research,” said Southeast President Dr Vicky Roy. “This is a significant milestone for a rural college in our region, and we are eager to witness further advancements in the field of applied research.”

After a cyberattack struck the institution last week, NOSM University has retained cybersecurity experts to outline its next steps. The attack caused the university to lose internet service at its Sudbury and Thunder Bay campuses and several shared drives and websites remain inaccessible. Staff immediately took steps to secure and protect its network; NOSM U employees and students are currently working remotely while the disruption is addressed. “We understand that disruptions like these are frustrating to staff, faculty and students, and that people have a lot of questions,” said NOSM U President Sarita Verma. “We are still in the early stages of addressing this matter. Be rest assured that we have taken the necessary measures to mitigate risk and address business continuity.”

The University of Prince Edward Island’s Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in clinical psychology program has received official accreditation for a three-year term from the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA). UPEI faculty first began working towards accreditation shortly after the program was created in 2018; the program itself was launched in 2019. “On behalf of UPEI, I congratulate our psychology colleagues on achieving this important milestone,” said UPEI VP Academic and Research Dr Greg Naterer. “Accreditation is a testament to the high quality of the program and the exemplary dedication and hard work of our faculty and staff.”

Centennial College recently received a $2M funding boost from private philanthropist Diane Blake to enhance student success and environmental sustainability. The funding will: support several full-tuition scholarships in sustainability-focused programs, especially for first-generation learners; bolster Centennial’s SDG Innovation Lab; empower the school’s Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurial Services; and contribute to the expansion of the college’s new build, which Centennial reports will be the country’s first mass-timber, zero-carbon certified higher education facility with LEED Gold and WELL Silver certifications. “Community colleges today provide an essential role in the future of our country that spans all of society,” said Blake. “It will be exciting to see Centennial College grow and thrive.”

Arthur Ross will receive his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia this week, more than five decades after he first enrolled. Ross—who is 71 years old—initially began the degree at UBC in 1969, but left after two years to pursue a career in acting and, subsequently, law. After retiring in 2016, Ross returned to UBC to complete his initial degree, choosing history for his course of study. CBC reports that Ross jokes this makes him the “slowest student in the world.” In fact, Ross has surpassed the Guinness World Record for longest time taken to complete a university degree; the previous record was held by Robert F P Cronin, who took 52 years to complete his biology degree.

The University of Regina is set to welcome more than 500 evacuees from communities impacted by the ongoing wildfires in northern Saskatchewan; specifically, from Buffalo Narrows and the surrounding communities of La Loche and Île-à-la-Crosse. 47 evacuees have already arrived and are being sheltered in a URegina building. Global News reports that URegina’s action is the result of an agreement signed with the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency last year, in which the university committed to providing “mutual aid and humanitarian support in the event of a provincial emergency.”

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has set up a distress fund to help some of the former Laurentian University faculty members who lost their jobs during the school’s CCAA proceedings. After Laurentian filed for insolvency in 2021, more than 100 faculty members reportedly lost their jobs. According to CBC, CAUT is now accepting donations to the response fund to support faculty who were especially hard-hit by the action, such as those with rare health situations or difficult home situations. Funds will be administered using an application form to identify those who need of additional financial support.

The University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering has received praise for its newly revamped first-year engineering program. The institution developed a new, first-year program that has moved away from a semester-long classes format in favour of a competency-based assessment approach. Prior to first-term, students can take part in asynchronous online summer courses that help to fill in the gaps in high school learning in areas like math and physics. Once they enter the program, students take part in courses that vary in length and intensity and require them to apply the skills learned in previous classes. Instructors coordinate assignments to ensure student workload is paced and daily study sessions are scheduled to provide students with access to teaching assistants.

Traditional research processes would benefit from an overhaul, write Australian researchers Marek Kowalkiewicz (Queensland University of Technology), Ivano Bongiovanni (University of Queensland), and Peter Townson (Queensland UT). The authors describe the beneficial use of “research sprints,” a non-traditional research process that draws inspiration from Google’s five-day design sprints. These sprints bring together researchers, industry partners, end-users, and stakeholders to develop practical solutions to specific problems. While the solutions are provided to the client for implementation, the authors explain that “there’s no ‘handover,’ – we literally lock ourselves in the same room with partner organisations during each sprint.” The article concludes with a discussion of the current lack of incentives at many universities to engage in collaborations with industry and outlines the opportunities sprints can offer young researchers.