The leaders of each of the three major parties had the chance to debate platform issues on Tuesday evening. The topics at the centre of the debate were jobs and the economy as well as financial mismanagement and accountability. The opposition leaders pointed to the gas plants, e-health and ORNGE debacles as evidence of the […]
OCUFA has responded to the unfortunate new report on faculty productivity published by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. The response can be read on the Globe and Mail , or below. Do universities have a productivity problem, or do they have a quality problem? If you believe a new report by the government-funded Higher Education Quality […]
The We Teach Ontario student video contest closed this week after engaging more than 1000 people in exploring and celebrating the incredible things that happen when we connect research and teaching at Ontario’s universities. Our first place winner is Brittany Dunbar of Brock University, told us about her journey to become a masters student in […]
Professor Ian Sakinofsky of Ryerson University has been awarded the prestigious Lorimer Award by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA). This honour recognizes individuals who have worked to protect and promote the interests of Ontario’s academic staff through collective bargaining. Prof. Sakinofsky received his award at a ceremony on February 7, 2014 in […]
Ontario’s professors and academic librarians are welcoming the news that former Prime Minister Paul Martin will help develop a new Ontario Pension Plan. Martin’s appointment was announced yesterday by Premier Kathleen Wynne. “A consensus is building that that an enhanced public pension plan is a desirable solution to the growing retirement income security crisis for […]
We Teach Ontario , OCUFA’s campaign highlighting the important connection between teaching and research, has launched a student video contest. The contest offers former and current Ontario university students the chance to win an iPhone, an iPad mini, or a trip to Toronto to attend the OCUFA “Future U” conference. To enter, students need to make a short video explaining how a […]
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 […]
On November 22, 2013, OCUFA held a university finance workshop. The goal was to provide tools to faculty associations to hold their administrations to account on financial issues. Faculty association representatives from across Ontario listened to presentations on how to interpret, challenge, and communicate about institutional budgets. Speakers included CCPA economist Hugh MacKenzie, Toronto City Councillor […]
Representatives of OCUFA’s 27 member faculty associations are on Queen’s Park today, meeting with MPPs as part of our annual lobby day. Faculty ambassadors are looking for support on several key requests, including: A made-in-Ontario solution to the challenges facing faculty pensions plans, including a one year extension of solvency relief; An impartial research project […]
This article, by OCUFA President Kate Lawson, originally appeared on The Huffington Post . The idea that universities are somehow not doing what we want them to do has become a popular trope in the editorial pages. To hear some columnists tell it, Canada’s universities are stuck in the past and not up to the labour market challenges […]
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is pleased to announce the appointment of its 30th president – Kate Lawson, an Associate Professor of English in the Department of English at the University of Waterloo. Lawson officially began her two-year term on July 1, 2013. “OCUFA is a powerful advocate for high quality and […]
OCUFA is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Academic Matters , OCUFA’s flagship journal of higher education, is now available online. Titled “The War on Knowledge,” the magazine examines attempts to muzzle scientists and academic librarians in Ontario, cuts to important data sources, and how over-exuberance for certain technological tools threatens the public university. Featured articles […]
Last week, Thomas Herndon, a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, discovered a huge flaw in a highly influential paper by the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff. The article claimed to demonstrate that countries with high debt-to-GDP ratios experience slower economic growth, and was widely cited in support of austerity policies […]
Johnny El-Alam, a PhD candidate in visual culture at Carleton University, has produced a video through the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Storyteller program . This initiative seeks to “show Canadians how the very best ideas in the social sciences and humanities—research about people, behaviour, human thought and culture—are helping us understand and improve the […]
Last week, OCUFA made its official submission to the Government of Ontario’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs (SCFEA). Titled Preserving the Gains We’ve Made , the submission contains a plan to dramatically increase the quality and affordability of Ontario’s universities by 2020. Key recommendations include: The Government of Ontario immediately begin moving per-student public investment in universities towards the […]
