Meet the Minister: Marlin Schmidt
AV: What do you see as the purpose of post-secondary education? It serves two purposes. The first is to create well-educated citizens who are prepared to engage in public discourse and [...]
By Evan Osenton
Postsecondary
Postsecondary
Freedom and Loathing in Lethbridge
On a fall afternoon in 2016, Michael Mahon, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Lethbridge, sat in his office and pondered, once again, what to do about Anthony Hall. Hall is a [...]
University Debased
University of Calgary president Elizabeth Cannon seemed troubled in 2012 at delays in implementing her school’s new collaboration with Enbridge. A year had passed since the energy giant had [...]
By James Turk
Where are the Boys?
It’s Friday at about 8:00 p.m., and Jeremy Paulgaard has just come in from work when he calls. He’s hung up the keys to his new Dodge Mega Cab Diesel and is relaxing at home. Paulgaard, 22, grew [...]
Beyond Bad Grammar
In high school, I avoided trickily spelled words such as “believe.” I also ran on instinct for essay structure and was so alarmed at the thought of dangling participles that I resolutely avoided [...]
Will that be Truth or Profit?
Over the coming decades, Alberta’s universities will be lucky to survive in any recognizable form. Over the coming decades, Alberta’s universities will be among the most important contributors to [...]
Alberta’s PSE Crisis
She stood trembling at the microphone, perhaps nervous to tell her story to a room full of strangers and television cameras. “I am in my third year of university and I already have student loans [...]
Industry Dollars and the Pursuit of Truth
The University of Alberta scored an academic coup when it recruited eminent diamond researcher Dr. Thomas Stachel. German-born Stachel arrived in Edmonton in September 2001 under the splendid [...]
By Alison Azer
Head of the Virtual Class
Debbie Jabbour hasn’t attended a single lecture in her three years as a psychology student. In fact, she hasn’t gone to a class, lecture or lab. When she sits down to study for an upcoming exam [...]
Cutting at the Core
Across Alberta, the cranes have come to campus. Buildings are going up: at the University of Calgary, for Information and Communications Technology; at the University of Lethbridge, for Life [...]
MOST READ
MOST READ
Not a White-Bread Childhood
Toronto freelance portrait photographer Markian Lozowchuk (disclosure: his mother and I are second cousins) has photographed Justin Trudeau for Toronto Life and Margaret Atwood for Maclean’s, but his editorial shoot of Chrystia Freeland for Toronto Life in 2017, including the cover, was “the most memorable shoot I’ve done.” Even three ...
Jason Kenney’s Vision for K-12
It was by all accounts, a fiery speech. Standing on a blue-curtained stage in front of a couple thousand supporters at the UCP’s inaugural policy convention in Red Deer in May 2018, leader Jason Kenney went on the attack against anti-oilsands activists and the foreign money he says funds them ...
Should Post-Secondary Education be Free?
Hugh Mackenzie
The economist and research associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says yes.
Free tuition would redress a massive intergenerational inequity created over the past 30 years. In 1990–91, average university tuition in Canada was $1,464; adjusted for inflation, that would be $2,541 in 2019–20. Today the actual average ...