September 2, 2026

The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce has written to the Government of Northwest Territories to call for territorial support for several postsecondary education initiatives in the territory. Primarily, the chamber asked NWT to move forward on the Aurora College’s North Slave Campus proposal, which is currently before the territory’s Financial Management Board. “The NWT needs this investment to build the skilled and productive workforce required to participate in the economy that is coming,” explained Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce President Mark Henry. The chamber also called on the government to invest in programming at Aurora’s Thebacha and Inuvik campuses.

Memorial University has announced that it will create an Office of Human Rights, a move that follows the implementation of its Human Rights Policy this year. In an update to the community, Memorial President Dr Janet Morrison thanked those who provided feedback earlier this summer on the human rights reports commissioned by the university, calling the feedback “significant and thoughtful.” Morrison announced that the Office of Human Rights will report to the president and will incorporate the Office of EDI-AR and the Office of Sexual Harassment.

Students from across Canada are preparing for the beginning of the semester. At institutions like the University of Regina, students shared their hopes for the year ahead with CBC and CKOM. Many universities are offering welcome activities for new students, including food trucks and a “Settling-in Social” at Brock University and a BBQ and a concert at Laurentian University. Students also shared some of their concerns about the upcoming semester: several University of Alberta students discussed their worries about financial considerations and course loads; while students from Saint Mary’s University and Dalhousie University talked about adjusting to their new environments, homesickness, and time management.

In a recent article for Nature, Shea Andrews describes a four-step workflow for staying on top of literature in his field of research. Andrews uses passive discovery through an RSS feed to identify relevant new publications, as well as active discovery using search functions and AI tools to identify papers that may be relevant. Then, he “triages” these papers by either tagging them by topic and adding them to a reference manager or reviewing them with an LLM to determine whether they are worth looking at further. Andrews skims each piece to identify their key findings, before deep reading them while making detailed notes. He writes that this has resulted in a “library” of resources he can use for new projects.

Conestoga College has announced that 32 of its full-time faculty have been given layoff notices. Conestoga Interim President Normal McDonald Ewing explained that the decision was “not a decision made lightly,” but that the move was necessary to ensure the college’s long-term sustainability. OPSEU Local 237 President Leopold Koff said that the faculty union was aware of this round of layoffs and that it is not currently aware of any further layoffs. Those receiving layoff notices will be able to continue their work until November 30.

The Université du Québec à Rimouski is taking steps to expand its university offerings in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region. The institution is expanding its faculty and staff, developing a future bachelor’s degree in administration, and focusing on adapting its continuing education to the needs of the region. Adel O Dahmane, vice-recteur à la formation et à la recherche at UQAR, explained that strengthening UQAR’s presence in the region will enable it to be a key player in the region’s development.

Nunavut Arctic College has been awarded $600K by ArcticNet’s North-by-North Program to support its research capabilities. Funding will go to three areas of focus: developing parasite detection capabilities, upgrading NAC’s online portal for accessing research licenses, and developing training modules on ethical research practices and relationship building with Indigenous communities. NAC Nunavut Research Institute Director of Innovation and Research Jamal Shirley explained that the college plays a role in preparing Nunavummiut to take part in research collaborations and in ensuring that researchers are prepared to work “in a responsible, ethical, respectful way.”

Four cégeps have signed an agreement with the Department of Mayotte in France that will expand opportunities for students who are interested in studying in Québec. This agreement is part of a partnership between the Assemblée de Mayotte and Mobilité Mayotte Québec that is focused on encouraging youth from Mayotte to continue their studies in Québec, bringing these skillsets back to Mayotte when they return. Cégep de Sorel-Tracy Director General Diane Dumas said that the program will allow young people to pursue programs and training opportunities that are not available in Mayotte.

Polytechnics Canada has released a report summarizing the key insights drawn from the first phases of the projects undertaken as part of its Canada-Ireland collaboration. The report authors note that Canadian and Irish institutions are aligned in their values and approaches to education, and are also grappling with similar fundamental challenges around scaling high-quality education and integrating rapidly evolving technologies. The projects offer insights into how institutions have collaboratively re-imagined education, such as by creating a sandbox learning environment (Humber Polytechnic & Technological University Dublin) or by using digital solutions to fulfill the need to scale up high-quality, hands-on learning experiences in the life sciences (BCIT and Munster Technological University).

McGill University Security Services agents have adopted a new badge ID system in an effort to make their agents more identifiable in stressful situations. In Québec, security guards are not required to display their names, which students said can make it difficult to remember the identification of guards during tense moments on campus. The badges—developed in consultation with McGill Professor Oliver Hardt—now contain a pronounceable three-letter combination followed by three numbers. “Using standard distinctiveness measures, the IDs generated were ranked in order of highest likelihood to be encoded and faithfully retained in long-term memory,” Hardt added.