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Current News In BC PSE

Weekly News Roundup

UNIONS | INSTITUTIONS | GOVERNMENT

Join CUFA BC each week for a roundup of news in BC’s post-secondary sector

Disclaimer: This circulation is an aggregation of current news. The information provided is from original news sources and doesn’t reflect the views of CUFA BC or its member associations.
Week of March 11-15, 2024
 

Departmental Statements: FA Preserves Protection for Academic Freedom and Collegiality at UBC

After three months of negotiations, the University of British Columbia and the UBC Faculty Association have come to an important agreement concerning the academic freedom of faculty members to issue public statements regarding matters which concern the membership, including political and social issues. Moving forward all academic units may continue to post statements to their websites so long as they are derived through collegial dialogue, do not purport to suggest unanimity of opinion where it does not exist, and do not purport to speak for the University at large. This agreement comes in response to actions by the University, beginning in the fall of 2023, that would have curtailed the academic freedom and past rights and practices of our membership to engage in and disseminate the outcome of collegial decision-making.

BC | UBCFA | UBC VP Academic + Provost

 

Government Confirms Funding for SFU Medical School

The British Columbia government has continued to provide funding in Budget 2024 for a medical school at SFU—the second in the province and the first in Western Canada in a generation. The investment is earmarked to cover all capital and operational expenses necessary to prepare the proposed school for its inaugural intake in 2026. This announcement follows the submission of a business case by SFU in May 2023, marking a significant milestone in the school’s proposed development.

BC | SFU | SFU Medicine

 

UNBC Innovation Hub to test cutting-edge AI wound care technologies

The Centre for Technology Adoption for Aging in the North (CTAAN) at the University of Northern British Columbia is involved in a national research initiative that aims to revolutionize wound care treatment, using artificial intelligence technologies to standardize treatment and improve patient outcomes.

BC | UNBC

 

Innovative UVic research gets a boost

From testing environmental stresses on plants to understanding mysteries of the universe, five University of Victoria (UVic) research projects received infrastructure support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Transport and Québec Lieutenant, announced today $515 million for 100 projects at 32 postsecondary institutions and research hospitals, funded through the CFI Innovation Fund that will help Canada remain at the forefront of scientific exploration, technology development and knowledge generation. UVic scholars are leading two projects funded through CFI’s Innovation Fund for a combined $7.6 million.

BC | UVic

 

UBC and the B.C. biotech boom

In a detailed exploration of British Columbia’s burgeoning biotech sector, The Globe and Mail recently cast a spotlight on Vancouver’s emergence as a global pharmaceutical leader and the pivotal role UBC researchers and UBC spin-off companies are playing in driving the sector’s growth. The article, B.C. biotech boom: Vancouver looks to join the global big leagues of modern medicine, written by innovation reporter Sean Silcoff, paints a vivid picture of a sector firmly at the global forefront, fuelled by a collaborative ecosystem of academics, research institutes, not-for-profits, public agencies and private sector firms — and with UBC at the centre of it all.

BC | UBC

 

B.C. universities could lose tens of millions per year due to student cap

If the federal government’s two-year cap on international students were applied equally to post-secondary institutions across Canada, some leading universities in B.C. could face losses of tens of millions of dollars in revenue annually. Public post-secondary institutes are expected to be impacted harder than private ones, which will receive 27 per cent fewer study permit applications in 2024 than they did in 2023, according to the B.C. government. Soaring enrolment and ongoing increases in international tuition have made international students the main driver of revenue growth for some of the post-secondary institutes in B.C. In total, they represent up to 78 per cent of total tuition revenue.

BC | BIV

 

Vancouver Island University may cut the music due to budget troubles

Bachelor of music degree and jazz diploma programs are on the table as part of plans to reduce academic department expenditures by 10 per cent and non-academic departments by five per cent. The university has grappled with multimillion dollar deficits since 2019-20, due to factors including COVID-19, and faces a $9-million shortfall in 2024-25. VIU said the integrated engineering technology diploma, advanced diploma in geographic information systems and master’s in geographic information systems courses are also in the midst of “going through the process of senate and board consideration for cancellation” and the major in economics program was recently suspended. The university is working its way to get back into the black.

BC | OBN | Times Colonist

 

BCIT appoints Cynthia Petrie as Vice President, External

The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is pleased to announce the appointment of Cynthia Petrie as the Vice President of External at the Institute. n this permanent role, Cynthia will champion the Institute’s vision and mission, providing executive leadership to a broad portfolio of departments including Advancement, Marketing and Communications, Stakeholder Relations, and Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships – whose unified goal it is to enhance the Institute’s profile locally, nationally, and globally.

BC | ENC

 

Eshana Bhangu and Kamil Kanji elected to the Board of Governors

Eshana Bhangu and Kamil Kanji have been elected to UBC’s Board of Governors. Kanji and Bhangu beat out student government newcomers Ferdinand Rother, Enav Zusman, Siddharth Rout, Jasper Lorien and Leonard Wang for seats on UBC’s highest governing body.

BC | Ubyssey

 

Province introduces Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act

Government introduced the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, to the legislative assembly on Monday, March 11, 2024. If passed by the legislature, the amendments will affect the several provincial statutes, including the Chartered Professional Accountants Act, which will moderately increase government oversight of CPABC by giving the minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills authority to issue guidelines, directives and information requests to CPABC. 

BC | BC Gov News

 

CapU launches new website font that supports Indigenous languages

Capilano University (CapU) is excited to announce the launch of BC Sans, a new font on the University’s website that can properly support special characters and syllabics found in Indigenous languages in B.C. BC Sans was developed by the B.C. Government with contributions from FirstVoices and a typographic Indigenous language expert. The Indigenization of font is a step forward in reconciliation and decolonization in CapU’s approaches. As a free, open-source font, BC Sans is available for everyone to access and download.

BC | CapU | BC Scans

 

UVic law community demands climate justice

The undersigned, 58 members of the University of Victoria Faculty of Law community, express deep concern about climate change and inadequate government action. This letter, by UVic Environmental Law Club students, implores the Capital Regional District to endorse the Sue Big Oil Campaign. Sue Big Oil, a class-action lawsuit by West Coast Environmental Law, aims to hold major oil companies accountable for worsening the climate crisis. These “Big Oil” companies, the largest emitters in British Columbia, must bear financial responsibility for the situation they’ve perpetuated and profited from.

BC | SNM

 

Okanagan post-secondary students angry with RBC

Okanagan students are continuing to pressure the Royal Bank of Canada to vacate post-secondary institutes. Students from the University of B.C. Okanagan and from Okanagan College protested the bank from March 6-8, alongside others across Canada. UBC Okanagan students spent three days disrupting the RBC OnCampus branch, including handing out information fliers outside of the business. The goal is to push RBC to stop funding fossil fuel projects and end financial support to a company providing surveillance tech to Israel.

BC | TSS

 

Help on the way to B.C. veterinarian clinics that treat farm animals

Clinics that help B.C. farmers and ranchers care for their animals will have extra sets of skilled hands in their offices through a new program that covers summer placement costs for both veterinary and veterinary technologist students. The $300,000 pilot program offers up to $6,000 per placement to help with wages and travel costs, and could support the placements of up to 50 students this year.

BC | BC Gov News

 

A Skills Agenda is an Infrastructure Agenda

Higher Education Strategy Associates’ Alex Usher discusses investment in the skills infrastructure. It’s a pretty simple story: if you want to produce the best workers in the world, they need to be training on the best equipment. The lack of up-to-date equipment means students can’t learn the latest techniques. To be clear: that doesn’t hinder the ability of graduates from all these programs to get jobs. But that’s because we are in a long-term labour shortage due to a demographic transition and jobs have to be given to somebody. The point, though, is that the quality of the graduates is affected.

National | HESA

 

IRCC says 292,000 permits will be approved for college and undergraduate students

Recent comments by Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller to the Globe and Mail have revealed that the actual number of study permits available for college and undergraduate international students this year is roughly 292,000. The cap aims to curb “unsustainable growth” in Canada’s international student program by reducing the number of approved study permits by 35% over two years. IRCC also said it would improve the system’s integrity.

National | CIC | Globe and Mail

 

Meet the 2024 CUFA BC
Early in Career Recipient Dr. Sean Irwin



CUFA BC announced the Distinguished Academic Early in Career Award to Dr. Sean Irwin of Royal Roads University. Dr. Irwin is Associate Professor in the School of Business at Royal Roads University. He receives this award in recognition of his work on sustainable social and economic development in the Global South and working with communities to develop food systems in South America, and water, sanitation, and hygiene in health care facilities in low-income countries in Africa. Dr. Irwin is principal investigator on a funded project on improving conditions of health care facilities in Malawi and he’s the co-principal investigator on the funded project “Fish for Life” in Bolivia.
 

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The Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia (CUFA BC) supports high-quality post-secondary education and research in BC. We represent over 5,500 professors, lecturers, instructors, librarians, and other academic staff through the faculty associations at British Columbia’s research and doctoral universities (the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Northern British Columbia, Royal Roads University, and the University of Victoria). The Confederation has been in existence for fifty years and works closely with member faculty associations at each institution. All of our member faculty associations are unionized under the Labour Code of British Columbia.

Our office is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ı́lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and Stó:lō Nations.