19th annual Maclean’s rankings

“Mount Allison placed first for the third year in a row. Acadia moved from third place last year to second this year, while UNBC moved down to third place. St. Francis Xavier maintained last year’s fourth-place ranking, but this year shares it with Wilfrid Laurier. Bishop’s University made the greatest jump of all schools, having moved to 11th place this year from 17th in 2008.”

(Title links to Maclean’s article, text from the press release. Additional coverage in the Toronto Star.)

Newfoundland and Labrador government launches Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy

“Employment is the number one priority for young people in considering where to live and work. Second to employment among young people’s priorities for retention and attraction, was continued access to affordable, quality education.”

Tuition rates vary considerably across Canada

“On average, undergraduate tuition fees across Canada increased by 3.6 per cent this year, the same percentage jump as last year. Ontario had the highest increase at five per cent, the maximum allowed by the provincial government, while British Columbia had the lowest increase at two per cent. Despite a 4.2 per cent increase, students at Quebec universities still pay among the lowest tuition in the country—as long as they are residents of the province. Meanwhile, Manitoba and Saskatchewan ended tuition freezes with increases of 4.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively.”

Want a job? Hit the books

“A working paper, by University of British Columbia’s Craig Riddell and York University’s Xueda Song, has found the chances of “re-employment” – or finding work after a period of unemployment – rise by 27 percentage points if you’ve finished high school. The probability of finding work again increases as education levels rise. Every additional year of school increases the chance of re-employment by 2 to 3 percentage points, the study shows.”

Pickets, lineups greet Mac students

“The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3906 called the strike after talks broke off Saturday. Pickets greeted students arriving for classes yesterday morning and will greet them again today. Traffic was backed up from the Sterling Street entrance all the way to King Street Monday after pickets let cars through four at a time for two hours.”