Born and (mostly) raised in Calgary, Karl has been taking courses on and off at AU since 1999. At one point, he changed his major from Computing Science to Computing Science because the new program requirements fit what he’d already taken better. Since then, he switched to English and graduated (w/Great Distinction he likes to add) proving along the way that it is entirely possible to complete an entire AU course within a three week period. If only he had done this at the beginning of the course instead of in the last extension.
This is not something he advises unless you are desperate, masochistic, or, ideally, both.
He is currently the managing editor of The Voice Magazine, where he tries to put his education to use helping other students as they provide content for The Voice
On the Rise If you recently started with Athabasca University, sometimes it’s easy to feel like you’re alone in your program. However, Statistics Canada recently issued a report (http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040730/d040730b.htm) showing that you are anything but alone. According to the report, university enrolment was at a record high in 2001/2002, and had its strongest increase in… Read more »
Ontario on the Right Track The Provincial government of Ontario has announced (http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2004/07/20/c4322.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html) a number of changes to the student financial assistance programs in the province. At an estimated cost of 20.9 million, the Ontario government is taking some steps to make post-secondary actually accessible. One of the changes put through is that the amount… Read more »
Bankrupting the Student Loan There has been a change (http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inbsf-osb.nsf/en/br01439e.html) to what happens when you declare bankruptcy while on student loans. Currently, your student loan will not be written off if you declare bankruptcy within ten years of receiving financing. For those who took student loans and then found they were unable to graduate this… Read more »
Alberta’s Shuffled off the Debt On June 12, the Alberta Provincial government was proud to announce (http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/index.cfm?Page=852) that it will be the first province to completely eliminate its debt. By March of next year, a debt servicing account will have the funds required to pay off all Alberta’s debt as it comes due, and legislation… Read more »
It Is Finished… Almost So the results from the 2004 General Election have now been announced, and those of us who care already know the basics, right? The Liberal Party managed to gain a minority government with the Conservative Party acting as the official opposition. Except it’s not quite over. While the general results (http://enr.elections.ca/National_e.aspx)… Read more »
CANADA ELECTION 2004 THE RUNDOWN ON POST-SECONDARY POLICY Elect the Best I thought it might be interesting to compare the stances of the federal parties and what they’re saying with their provincial counterparts, especially on their records with post-secondary education. Unfortunately, I hit a problem early on when looking at the performance of the Liberals…. Read more »
Summer Fun! The Province of Alberta has put together a list of things (http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/index.cfm?Page=829) you can do with your free time in the summer. One of the joys of distanced education is that we can actually take advantage of a lot of these things by simply putting off our study time until later in the… Read more »
Alberta Pays the Privileged Student The Learning Ministry recently announced (http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/200406/16576.html) the recipients of the Grant MacEwan United World College Scholarships. These scholarships have a value of approximately $28,000 for each of the eight recipients. What is interesting about these awards is that nearly half of the recipients are from the Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School located just… Read more »
Klein Broo-Ha-Ha Part Two The Provincial Government of Alberta has released a statement (http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/200405/16523.html) showing that Athabasca University has cleared Premier Ralph Klein of any plagiarism charges. In the release they include a letter from Athabasca University sent to Klein from Ken Collier. The letter says that upon reviewing the work with the tutor comments,… Read more »
Voting for the Masses Every election year it happens. Among all the campaigning and hoopla, there’s always a group of those who refuse to vote. Most of them are fairly quiet about it, but there always seems to be a few who loudly claim that their refusal to vote isn’t just laziness, it’s a valid… Read more »