One of the many casualties of the recent federal budget is the University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS) . This Statistics Canada survey was an annual census of full-time faculty in Canadian universities, and an invaluable source of information for the postsecondary sector. Due to cuts, the August 2011 data will be the final UCASS release. Without detailed information on faculty [Read More…]
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The voice of Ontario’s university professors and academic librarians
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Committed to enhancing the quality of university education in Ontario
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Advancing the professional and economic interests of faculty and academic librarians at Ontario universities
The University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) is heading to mediation with mediator-arbitrator William Kaplan. Two days are scheduled, on June 2nd and 3rd. Brescia reports that the parties continue to meet regularly and progress toward a first collective agreement. Their next bargaining session is June 14th. At Nipissing, the parties have met [Read More…]
Professors and academic librarians are concerned about the quality of education at Ontario’s universities, according to a new survey released today. Of those surveyed, 42 per cent believed that quality had declined at their institution. “Ontario’s universities have welcomed thousands of new students over the past five years, but public funding has just not kept [Read More…]
The latest Education Indicators in Canada report from Statistics Canada shows that the national unemployment rate for those with university education continues to be lower than the remainder of the working population. Although unemployment caused by the Great Recession peaked in 2009 for most Canadians, the highest level of unemployment amongst the university-educated was in 2010. Other wrinkles [Read More…]
Academic Matters – OCUFA’s flagship publication – has received a facelift with a brand new website. The new site improves functionality, puts more emphasis on our blogs, and integrates better with the magazine’s social media channels. The official launch of the new website coincides with the publication of our May 2012 issue. Using the [Read More…]
On May 4, 2012, OCUFA’s Status of Women Committee hosted a workshop titled “Navigating the Academy: Lessons and Strategies for More Equitable Universities.” The workshop was attended by 40 participants from universities across Ontario. Presentations explored some of the challenges that women and members of other equity seeking groups face when building an academic career. [Read More…]
As it goes with student-faculty ratios at Ontario universities, so it goes with class sizes. As the number of students relative to the number of faculty increases, class sizes get bigger. This has serious implications for the quality of higher education in our province – larger classes mean less student interaction with faculty, a key [Read More…]
Registration is filling up fast for OCUFA’s Building Member Solidarity Workshop, hosted by our Collective Bargaining Committee. The workshop will be held at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel in Toronto on May 23, 2012. The goal of the workshop is to provide attendees with the skills and tools needed to run effective local engagement [Read More…]
The nomination deadline for the 2012 OCUFA Teaching and Academic Librarianship Awards is May 21, 2012. Since 1973, these awards have recognized individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the quality of university education in Ontario, either through exceptional teaching or dedicated library service. Any member of an OCUFA-affiliated faculty association is eligible [Read More…]
Since the mid-1990s, Ontario has had the worst student-to-faculty ratio in Canada. While the number of students per full-time faculty member in other provinces hovered around 20-1, the Ontario ratio rose from 22-1 in the fall of 2000 to 27-1 by 2005-06 as the “double cohort” entered the university system. A slight improvement occurred [Read More…]