Funding Awarded to Study STEM Master's Completion

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Association, has selected five U.S. universities to take part in a study on completion and attrition in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) master's programs. Each institution will receive $30,000 for their participation. Further information can be found here.

Student Diversity in Higher Education: Conflicting Realities

This week I am in Amsterdam for the European Access Network's 20th Anniversary Conference. I am looking forward to the paper sessions; in particular a presentation about widening assess and opportunities for graduate students, and plenary panel speaker Dr. Michael Nettles of Educational Testing Services in the U.S.

Advice for Grad Students

Today's Career Advice column at Inside Higher Ed offers the following recommendations to graduate students:

1. Always prepare for the worst.

2. Nobody cares about you.

3. You must know why your work is important.

4. Psychological problems are the biggest barrier.

5. Avoid taking lectures. They're usually inefficient.

6. Manage your advisors.

Congress 2011

I am currently in Fredericton, New Brunswick attending Congress, the annual gathering of scholars affiliated with the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. I presented yesterday for the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education on behalf of my research team that included Dr. Dale Kirby, Dr. Dennis Sharpe, and fellow graduate research assistants, Nicholas Morine, Jonathan Ricketts and Monique Bourgeois. The title of my talk was "Matriculating Eastward: An Examination of Factors Influencing the Inter-Provincial Migration of Maritime Students to Newfoundland and Labrador." There is a good graduate student presence here and I have attended a number of interesting talks on doctoral student transitions and development.

I would also like to extend my congratulations to Dale Kirby and Morgan Gardner, who have won the Canadian Educational Researchers' Association's R. W. B. Jackson Award for their paper, entitled "The schooling they need: Voicing student perspectives on their fourth year in senior high school". I am accepting the award today on their behalf.

Graduate Awards

Today I will be attending Memorial University's School of Graduate Studies' Graduate Awards Ceremony. This annual event honours graduate student recipients of scholarships, fellowships, and other awards. I will be receiving the Dr. Austin J. Harte Memorial Graduate Scholarship.

Student Retention

Today I will be presenting with my research colleagues at First Year in Focus: Maximizing Student Retention- Everyones Responsibility, McGraw Hill Ryerson's 38th National Teaching and Learning Conference, hosted by Memorial University's and College of the North Atlantic. The title of our talk is "Participation and Retention of High School Online Learners in Post-Secondary Education." Dr. Vincent Tinto of Syracuse University, who has written extensively on student persistence at the undergraduate and doctoral levels, will be speaking on student success. More info can be found here.

Graduate Student Teaching and Skills Development

This week I am traveling to the University of Toronto for a conference entitled, "Navigating your PATH: Teaching Assistant and Graduate Student Development." This is the first national conference focusing on teaching assistant and skills development in graduate students to take place in Canada. More information can be found here.