Posts from December 2013

The new agreement for contract academic staff at Laurier has been ratified by members and the university’s Board of Governors. The new three-year deal will expire on August 31, 2016. Of the contract academic members voting, 82.1% cast their ballot in favour of the agreement.  The new deal provides a 1.5% scale increase in each year, […]

The early-bird registration discount for OCUFA’s “ Future U: Creating the universities we want ” conference ends on Dec. 20, 2013. Register now to save on your conference fee! Future U will consider current trends in higher education, and will explore alternatives that serve the needs of students, faculty, and communities. Topics include: Re-imaging research, teaching, community service, and governance The real uses […]

Across Canada and in Ontario, business and provincial government investment in research is falling, and universities are picking up the slack. The latest data on research and development (R&D) from Statistics Canada indicate that aggregate research expenditures in Canada will fall this year. Once forecast GDP inflation (1.3 per cent) is taken into account, the decline […]

On November 29, 2013, the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities Released its “ Differentiation Policy Framework .” This document is the finalized version of the framework that was leaked in September and then made public on the Ministry’s website. It lays out the principles, components, and metrics that will guide the Ministry’s differentiation policy going forward, and is intended to inform the Strategic Mandate Agreements (SMAs) currently being […]

The newest issue of Academic Matters is now available online and in faculty mailboxes across Ontario. The magazine is OCUFA’s flagship publication, dedicated to exploring ideas and controversies that matter to academics and academia. In this issue, we’re trying to get to grips with the changing world of graduate education and we’ve assembled an impressive group of contributors […]

Contract Academic Staff at Wilfrid Laurier University reached a tentative deal last Tuesday after a mediation session with William Kaplan. The ratification vote is scheduled for Monday, December 2, 2013 and will run until December 6th. OCUFA Report will have more details after the vote is complete. As part of the bargaining strategy, the faculty association […]

The term “program prioritization” has been making headlines recently, as several Ontario universities have begun this controversial rationalization process. Program prioritization involves ranking every academic and administrative program according to set criteria, and then directing more resources to highly ranked programs while marking poor performers for cuts and closure. Program prioritization is based on a […]