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Graduate student gap holding back Laurentian

For Laurentian University to be able to “fulfil its aspirations,” the province needs to allocate the university at least 300 more graduate student spaces by 2017-18, said Laurentian's president.
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Laurentian University said it has a gap of about 300 graduate student spaces, a situation which is holding it back from fulfilling its aspirations. File photo.

For Laurentian University to be able to “fulfil its aspirations,” the province needs to allocate the university at least 300 more graduate student spaces by 2017-18, said Laurentian's president.

Dominic Giroux said the university currently has 378 graduate student spaces.


“So what's challenging for us, is we're expected as a university to drive innovation and creativity in the region,” he said.

“We have plans to do so, but currently our graduate space allocation does not allow us to fulfil our role to the extent we could or should.”

Other Ontario universities, that actually generate less research income than Laurentian, have far more research spaces, Giroux said.

This includes Lakehead University, which has 596 graduate student spaces, Brock University, which has 676, Wilfred Laurier University, which has 877, and Ryerson University, which has 1,615.

In addition, there were about 2,000 unused graduate student spaces at 11 of the province's universities last year.

During the 2011 provincial election, the Liberals promised 6,000 more graduate student spaces for Ontario universities, 600 of which were handed out in the past year.

Giroux said he'd like to see the province correct what he sees as an “anomaly” when it comes to the number of graduate spaces allocated to Laurentian University.

He said he expects the province will make decisions “about the allocation of the remaining graduate spaces between now and 2017-18.”

The lack of graduate student spaces is interfering with the university's plans for expansion, Giroux said.

For example, in four years' time, the Laurentian University School of Architecture alone will need 120 graduate student spaces.

That's because the first class of undergraduate architecture students will have graduated, and they need to get their master's degree in architecture to be certified in their field.

Giroux said the university also plans to introduce a new master's program in sustainable northern economic development, something which complements the new Northern Policy Institute.

It also wants to expand its existing graduate programs, mostly at the PhD level, especially relating to engineering and earth sciences, as there's a demand for high-level training in the mining industry.

Given that these students are the future of northeastern Ontario's workforce, this issue is a critical one for the region, Giroux said.

“So for northeastern Ontario to be successful, Laurentian needs to be successful with its research enterprise, and that relies on a strong offering at the graduate level,” he said.

Graduate students are also important to Laurentian's success as a university, Giroux said.

“For universities to be competitive and address research needs and address knowledge, you need to recruit top faculty,” he said.

“And to recruit top faculty, top candidates will be looking for the kind of support and the kind of environment that's available to them to join the university and bring their own research team.

“The broader the graduate program offering is, the more attractive a university can be to attract top talent for faculty.”


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Heidi Ulrichsen

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