In this paper, we describe our approach to mentoring Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) as teaching and learning protégés within the context of a challenging undergraduate honours thesis course. An approach to mentoring GTAs in this multifaceted course is outlined, while providing practical strategies that expose GTAs to various aspects of the…

The diversity of grade reporting systems at the undergraduate level was studied at 24 of Canada's largest universities. The survey included English-speaking universities in all provinces. The grade reporting systems were divided into two main groups: those that report percentage equivalents of various grades (9 universities); and those that report…

The workshop was convened by the Social Science Research Council of Canada as part of its annual meeting. Its purpose was to explore the possible usefulness of a large-scale conference on the same topic. The three papers presented are included in the final report: (1) social science research needs of smaller Canadian universities (John T. Sears);…

This volume contains the text of six speeches selected from approximately 125 plenary talks that have been given over the past few years at more than 40 Freshman Year Experience Conferences by leading educators concerned about improving the first year undergraduate experience. In the first speech, "The Undergraduate Experience: Critical…

This paper advocates the community college bachelor's degree (BA). The author presents the Canadian system as a possible model for the emerging United States trend toward community college BA programs. He argues that the U.S. binary educational system is vertical, separating institutions according to levels of learning, while the European and…

This project explored university science students' career and educational plans and looked for causes of defection from science, with particular interest in possible sources of gender difference in defection rates. A survey of 164 Canadian undergraduate students in mathematics and basic sciences found that: (1) over three fourths of the students…

This publication presents the text of a speech on Canadian higher education's response to anticipated science and engineering personnel shortages. The talk opens by reviewing the statistics about current and anticipated labor force needs in sciences and engineering, data on students' study interests, and changes in the demographics of higher…

This document provides an overview of the 17 universities in the Province of Ontario, describing undergraduate and graduate program offerings, sources of operating income and research funding, and linkages between the universities and the private sector. The first section includes a discussion of the appraisal process used to assess both graduate…