September 15, 2025

The Government of British Columbia has added 65 nurse practitioner training seats to the University of British Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia, and the University of Victoria. The province has committed $4.7M in annual ongoing funding to support the 65 seats, as well as dedicated funds for UBC ($17.5M) and UNBC ($4.1M) to support facility renovations. “This growth not only helps fill an urgent need for more primary-care providers across the province, but it also expands UBC’s program in Surrey, adding classes to the clinical placements already taking place in the Fraser Health region, closer to where many students live and plan to work,” commented UBC School of Nursing Director Elizabeth Saewyc.

In an article for University Affairs, Moira MacDonald explores the current challenges and uncertain future of Ontario’s universities. She attributes today’s financial strain to the provincial government’s decisions in 2017 and 2019 to freeze funding and reduce tuition, which left ON institutions with per-student funding well below the national average. MacDonald highlights several universities facing significant projected deficits today, with little left to cut. Looking to the future, she notes that recent provincial funding initiatives—marking the first real-dollar increases in years—are reasons for cautious optimism. However, she suggests that institutions will also need to look to other options— including inter-institutional partnerships and increased fundraising efforts—to ensure their sustainability.

In a recent interview for the Illumination podcast by Modern Campus, Carola Weil (McGill University) discusses collaborations between continuing education divisions and the private sector. Weil underscores the mutually-beneficial relationships that can be cultivated between university continuing ed divisions and private sector organizations. She notes the impact of obstacles such as fiscal and resource limitations, competition, employer demands for rapid on-demand learning, and perceptions of universities as “naval-gazing” and “too theoretical.” However, she asserts that partnering with universities gives employers access to high-quality, transferrable, and recognized training credentials.

Biztech College—a private college in Mississauga—is struggling to remain open after losing a series of accreditations for its programs from Accreditation Canada, City News reports. After losing accreditation for both its cardiac and general sonography programs, the college was ordered by the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security to reimburse affected students. College founder Harpal Dharma said that Biztech is working towards reaccreditation in these programs through Accreditation Canada, but contends that the ministry is not giving him sufficient time to do so. If the college does not follow the ministry’s direction and reimburse students, Dharma said that the college will lose OSAP eligibility, which would potentially lead to the institution’s closure.

The University of British Columbia has officially opened its new staff and faculty rental building, which is named Symphony. The building contains 157 units in a variety of sizes, as well as a ground-level courtyard with a furnished patio, a playground, study nooks, and a second patio on the fifth floor. UBC Associate VP of Campus and Planning Michael White explained that the units were created with sustainability in mind. “Appliances and fixtures are water efficient, units are designed to limit heat loss and have high-performance windows and patio doors, and landscape design is drought resistant,” said White. The project is a part of UBC’s Campus Vision 2025 plan to prepare for a projected doubling of the campus’s residential population by 2050.

Algonquin College and Trent University Durham have each celebrated the opening of buildings and facilities on their campuses recently. Algonquin renovated a learning space on its Ottawa campus into a state-of-the-art, fully equipped electrical training lab that will be used by students in its electrical techniques apprenticeship program. The lab is named in honour of Merit Ontario, which sponsored the renovations. Trent Durham has launched the Black Life and Community Knowledge (BLACK) Lab that will be used to support community-engaged learning and scholarship and foster connections. The university announced the creation of a new Black Studies specialization for its sociology program as part of the launch.

Assiniboine College and Northwestern Polytechnic have each announced new certificate programs. Assiniboine’s Peters School of Business has replaced some of its diploma programming with three certificate programs that it says are more efficient, hands-on and aligned with industry needs. The accelerated timeline of the program will help graduates to enter the workforce sooner with the skills and confidence they need to make an impact. NWP is collaborating with Aquatera Utilities to offer a 12-month Water and Wastewater Technician certificate program that includes online learning, in-person hands-on learning opportunities, and a WIL component in the industry. The program can also be taken as individual classes for continuing education unit credits through the Government of Alberta’s related certification program.

The National Post and Toronto Sun report that an associate professor at the University of Toronto is now on leave, after she made a social media post after the death of Charlie Kirk. In a written statement, the university asserted that it took “immediate action upon learning of the concerning social media posts of a University of Toronto professor” and added that it will not comment further while the matter is being investigated. Government of Ontario Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security Nolan Quinn stated on X that he told the university to act, as the professor’s comments were opposed to the role of universities and faculty in “foster[ing] critical thought, respectful debate, and be[ing] safe learning environments.”

Postsecondary institutions are increasingly examining the potential for on-campus power generation, writes Adam Stone of EdTech. These “microgrids” deliver power to facilities across campus, as if the campus were its own small city. Stone explains that the benefits of microgrids are severalfold: powering campus when the main grid loses power, providing a revenue source to the institution through electricity buyback schemes, and increasingly, meeting the increasing demand for power from AI applications and servers on campus. Steve Gillum, solutions manager at IT provider CDW, explained that for campuses with the need to power 10 or more AI solutions, “The microgrid is going to be the only thing that’s going to be able to support that.”

While students hold different opinions on AI, they agree that the technology is changing their education and career paths, according to CBC. CBC engaged in discussions with students across the University of Regina’s campus. URegina arts student Payton Todd said that she hated the idea of AI being used in one’s studies. “[AI] takes away the human element of creating something and it robs you of being able to do it yourself,” said Todd. Meanwhile, URegina student Parth Patel, who is studying software system engineering and is working on developing an AI tool himself, suggested that the tool would become commonplace in the future. “What’s to be scared [of]?”, he said.