À mon avis
From glowing reviews to devastating cruelty, your first teaching assessments can provide useful advice if you know where to look.
There’s a large dusty envelope in my parents’ attic labeled BIOL-2030, and crammed inside there are about seventy five teaching evaluations—my first teaching evaluations—from when I ran a genetics tutorial at Dalhousie University, during my PhD. I cringe when thinking about the contents of t...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/what-to-expect-from-your-first-teaching-assessments/
À mon avis
Pour comprendre un système et résoudre véritablement une question en biologie, il faut étudier la diversité génétique et examiner de multiples génotypes.
À mes débuts en biologie expérimentale, j’ai remarqué que les travaux de recherche portaient excl...
https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/opinion/a-mon-avis/question-de-sexe-la-predominance-des-males-en-laboratoire-nuit-la-recherche/
À mon avis
Le mouvement pour la science ouverte, porté par une nouvelle génération de chercheurs, propose un changement radical dans la manière dont la science se fait.
La scène se passe dans une université près de chez vous. Le professeur Vedette rencontre sa jeune collègue Étoile Montante. Pr. Vedette. – Bonne nouvelle ce matin : mon article a été accepté dans Prestige. Ça a été long, mais on a fini par satisfaire l...
À mon avis
I’m giving my lab’s standard methods away over the next year – making them available to anyone who would like to access them.
This article is republished from Continue reading under a Creative Commons license. Read the Continue reading.
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/to-cure-brain-diseases-neuroscientists-must-collaborate-thats-why-im-giving-my-data-away/
The Black Hole-FR
*** First two quick hits…
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/canary-in-the-coal-mine-2-tying-of-sshrc-funding-to-business-related-research/
- The Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars just released a Continue reading that covers many issues that will be brought up on this blog in one form or another. Please read it, use it, and offer feedback to the...
The Black Hole-FR
Quick hit:
1. The Stem Cell Foundation has been nominated for a Webby – the Oscars of the Internet – in the category of Best Activism Website. It’s quite impressive that they were nominated as these are a big deal, and what’s even more impressive is that when I cast my vote, they had a slim...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/the-council-of-canadian-academies-thriving-surviving-or-doomed-to-fail/
The Black Hole-FR
QUICK HITS:
1. If you were interested in previous posts of mine about how well science information is distributed and received in the UK, then you might also want to have a gander at a recent post that I made on the Stem Cell Network Blog entitled
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/so-you-want-to-be-a-researcher-in-industry/
The Black Hole-FR
Last week, the Easter bunny dropped a sadistically timed present with a Nature special on Continue reading. Just when hordes of students graduate and many trainees leave to take time off with families for Easte...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/nature-special-articles-the-future-of-the-phd/
The Black Hole-FR
With the goal of assessing the state of science and technology in Canada, it seems quite reasonable that the STIC report has identified the development of new knowledge as a key metric for assessing Canada's relative and absolute performance. The difficulty with such a task though is understanding...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/final-notch-in-the-stic-how-should-we-measure-knowledge-development/
The Black Hole-FR
As I’ve mentioned on here before – if you are involved in health research in Canada, you should read the CIHR’s proposed changes to its granting system. This is a chance to assess and give your opinion before things are set in stone. I can appreciate that it is long and somewhat tedious in...
https://universityaffairs.ca/opinion/the-black-hole/more-time-doing-research-less-time-applying-for-money-sounds-great-right/
Conseils carrière
Practise, practise, practise.
I’ve been talking to myself for five nights straight. The kitchen table is covered in cue cards. There’s a laser-pointer blister on my thumb. I’m preparing my job talk, and soon I’ll be taking this show on the road, trying to convince search committees of my academic worth.
Dumb it down, ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/keep-your-job-talk-short-and-simple/
Conseils carrière
Simplicité et concision sont de rigueur.
J’ai passé les cinq dernières soirées à parler tout seul dans ma cuisine. La table est couverte de fiches aide-mémoire. J’ai une ampoule au pouce à force de manipuler mon pointeur laser. Vous l’avez deviné, je prépare mon entretien d’embauche. Je partirai bientôt en tournée pour...
Conseils carrière
Dans trois heures, je dois affronter 600 étudiants au premier cycle sans m’évanouir.
Trois heures du matin et je n’arrive pas à dormir. Je suis en nage et anxieux. Dans trois heures, je dois affronter 600 étudiants au premier cycle sans m’évanouir. Comme un athlète avant une compétition, je revois mentalement une à une les diapositives de mon exposé. Mon rythme cardiaque ...
https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/conseils-carriere/conseils-carriere-article/enseigner-a-des-groupes-nombreux-essais-erreurs-et-jurons/
Conseils carrière
The importance of putting students in the (career) driver’s seat.
The much-talked about skills gap at universities is actually a “skills awareness gap.” Competency mapping was not critical when students were promoted within academic institutions, but these days, those jobs are limited. Non-academic employers do not understand the professional skills students a...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/informational-interviews-can-prepare-students-for-our-hypercompetitive-economy/
Conseils carrière
People use wayfinding techniques to navigate unfamiliar situations, and university students should be no different.
Before there were navigational tools, explorers used the natural surroundings to find their way around. They also communicated with native populations, because this was more efficient than wandering around blindly. These days, people use wayfinding techniques to navigate unfamiliar situations, and u...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/wayfinding-and-research-as-key-work-integrated-learning-strategies/
Conseils carrière
In a competitive job market, strategic planning is a key component of professional development.
Many newly minted physicians face a tough job market. Other than a recent focus on competency development (CANMEDS), medicals schools do not teach students how to prepare their unique value proposition. Students are developed in herds. However, to be successful, an individual needs to stand out. Too...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/10-steps-to-map-out-a-strategic-plan-for-your-career/
Responsabilités potentielles
Exposer les étudiants suffisamment tôt aux divers débouchés professionnels dans leur domaine d’études pourrait les rassurer.
Soixante-dix pour cent des diplômés universitaires occupent un emploi Continue reading (en anglais). Trop nombreux sont ceux qui saisissent la première occasion qui se présente sans chercher à trouver un po...
https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/conseils-carriere/responsabilites-potentielles/explorer-les-possibilites-de-carriere-bien-avant-la-fin-des-etudes/
L’universitaire épanoui
Canadian academics are prolific, but we must reverse a 60-year trend towards progressively less challenging work.
Who knew it? Today’s researchers actually agree more than ever—and too much.
At least that’s what’s been discovered in published literature, step by step, decade by decade, over the last 60 years until 2010. In institutional and peer review meetings – in which being critical, let alone ...
https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/effective-successfull-happy-academic/publish-less-disrupt-more/
L’universitaire épanoui
Les universitaires du Canada sont prolifiques, mais leurs travaux remettent de moins en moins en question les résultats auparavant publiés. Il est temps de renverser cette tendance vieille de 60 ans.
Qui l’aurait cru? Les chercheurs et chercheuses d’aujourd’hui s’entendent plus que jamais. Peut-être même un peu trop.
Du moins, c’est ce qui ressort d’une étude sur les écrits scientifiques publiés entre 1950 et 2010 et rassemblés par décennie. Dans les réunions institutionne...
https://www.affairesuniversitaires.ca/conseils-carriere/luniversitaire-epanoui/publier-moins-pour-plus-dinnovation/
Articles de fond
With support for graduate students at a breaking point, Canadian universities are feeling the impact.
While finishing her PhD last year, Sivani Baskaran was faced with a common dilemma: continue on in academia or move to the private sector. With student loans from her undergraduate degree and very little in savings after six years of graduate school, the financial impli...
https://universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/why-canada-is-losing-the-next-generation-of-researchers/
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