In my opinion
BY SUSAN PORTER & LISA YOUNG | September 24 2018
A new taskforce report by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies says it’s time to rethink the PhD.
dissertation. But, faced with unprecedented change in the academy and the world, academics are struggling with unresolved questions about the broader purposes of the degree.
Universities are increasingly engaged with society, changing the way we think about doing and communicating research; innov...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-dissertations-form-and-content-need-to-evolve/
Career Advice
BY REBECCA PERO | October 24 2017
A few tips that can help PhD mothers complete some of the major dissertation milestones.
dissertation is a done dissertation,” but how does one complete a dissertation post-baby? As a parent, caring for a child or children can sometimes feel all-consuming, making it difficult to achieve substantial progress on major writing milestones. This can add significant pressure in an environme...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/guide-birthing-dissertation-post-baby/
News
BY VÉRONIQUE MORIN | January 06 2017
UQAM’s Jean-Hugues Roy analyzed theses and dissertations from the past 25 years to answer the age-old question: How long should it be?
dissertation or master’s thesis is: How long should it be?
Not finding a definitive answer, Jean-Hugues Roy, a former reporter for Radio-Canada and now a professor at Université du Québec à Montréal, decided to wade into the issue using data analysis. Inspired by University of Minnesota res...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/researcher-determines-average-length-theses-dissertations-quebec/
It’s never just academic
BY ALEXANDRE BEAUPRÉ-LAVALLÉE | May 04 2022
His recent death reminded me of the crucial role that The Consenting University and the Dissenting Academy: Binary Friction played in my academic and intellectual journey. This is a tribute to a man I never met and to a paper he wrote.
dissertation would be about university governance. Fresh from a term as full-time vice-president for academic affairs in a student union, I was obviously going to take a critical perspective on university relations. In this case, “critical” was going to mean a thorough denunciation of the transf...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/its-never-just-academic/a-personal-tribute-to-james-downey/
In my opinion
BY KEVIN SHAW | March 28 2022
If the academy truly desires greater representation in its ranks, it would provide robust postdoctoral support and dismantle the exploitative adjunct system.
dissertation before my funding ran out, but without a postdoctoral scholarship or part-time teaching opportunities lined up, and no parental home to return to, I had to take a full-time office job to begin making loan payments (and pay the cost of living, of course). The position was entry level bec...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-humanities-still-have-a-class-problem/
In my opinion
BY JOHANNA LEWIS | August 26 2021
The lack of any structural acknowledgement about the toll that COVID is taking on parents and caregivers is a grave failing at the institutional level.
dissertation.
Needless to say, progress has been slow. I have been stretched beyond capacity and, of course, deeply limited in my ability to engage in research or contribute my perspectives to the conversations happening in my field. I had hoped for and relied upon a return to school and childcar...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/juggling-academia-and-parenting-in-the-fourth-wave/
Features
BY KELLY BOUTSALIS | April 27 2021
How Indigenous researchers and communities are working in partnership with universities and non-Indigenous researchers to shape the future of environmental sciences.
dissertation of one of the ISTS hub students on the incorporation of traditional knowledge into the management of chronic wasting disease (CWD), an often fatal and very contagious neurological condition that affects deer and elk. If wildlife management agencies were amenable to cultural knowledge, t...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/weaving-indigenous-and-western-knowledge/
In my opinion
BY BRAD NELSON | February 16 2021
It’s crucial that we restructure our PhD programs from beginning to end to reflect the actual – as opposed to imagined – career outcomes of our students.
dissertation – for example, the CAGS consultation document “Reimagining the PhD: Doctoral Comprehensive Exam,” from September 2017. Here at Concordia, we have recently undertaken an environmental scan of practices and perceptions around the comps, which haven’t changed very much since their ...
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/we-need-an-outcomes-based-approach-to-doctoral-education/