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
Klein Broo-ha-ha For those that are wondering what my opinion is on the whole issue of Premier Klein’s essay on the internet, I’ll simply say that Klein’s demonstrated academic rigour doesn’t really surprise me. I wish the man had a little more political acumen than to submit such an obvious target piece to the legislature,… Read more »
Once for a Millennium The federal government’s Millennium Bursary may be undergoing some changes and the federal government is attempting to consult with Canadians on what they want to do with this $285 million dollars that is awarded each year. If you want your say on where that money can go, you can start by… Read more »
Research Chair for E-Business Created The Government of Canada is putting $700,000 into creating a research chair (http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/news/2004/p040427.htm) for e-business activities. While I’m normally in favour of more money going toward education, even if it is on the research side of things, this one strikes me as not necessarily the best move. The reason is… Read more »
Prime Minister Speaks, but Doesn’t Say Much The Prime Minister recently delivered a speech (http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news.asp?id=177) to the Empire Club and the Canadian Club in Toronto, Ontario. In it, he speaks of looking for transformative change in key aspects of Canadian life, notably health, learning, aboriginal peoples, communities and Canada’s place in the larger world. Unfortunately… Read more »
Northern Education in the West The Provincial Governments of Alberta and British Columbia are getting together (http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/nrm_news_releases/2004MAE0014-000265.htm), along with university and college presidents and board-chairs, to have a round-table discussion about increased co-operation between the two provinces for post-secondary education. Given that both Alberta and BC now have some distance education strategies forming in the… Read more »
Freezing in Ontario The Provincial Government of Ontario is following through (http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2004/04/08/c9562.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html) on a campaign promise to freeze tuition and post-secondary institutions in Ontario. For the next two years, tuitions at Ontario colleges and universities will be frozen. This year, the Ontario government will be giving Ontario universities 48.1 million dollars to make up the… Read more »
A Tale of Two Provinces “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Well, perhaps that’s exaggerating a little bit. For post-secondary students in Newfoundland and Labrador, however, this certainly is one of the better times to be going to school. The latest provincial budget (http://www.gov.nf.ca/releases/2004/edu/0330n05.htm) reflects their announcements of a… Read more »
Federal Budget – Business As Usual For those who follow this kind of thing, there are already a lot of comments out there about what the new federal budget does for post-secondary education, so I’ll be brief and give just a quick list (http://www.fin.gc.ca/news04/04-021e.html). On the good side, students born after 2003 will get a… Read more »
AU and Alberta: Damned if you Do, Damned if you Don’t The Alberta Government was recently pleased to announce (http://www.gov.ab.ca/acn/200403/16132.html) that it is providing over 10 million dollars to post-secondary institutions as a way to recognize outstanding performance. The money is apparently distributed on factors such as “outstanding performance in achieving goals in areas such… Read more »
AU Scores in New Brunswick New Brunswick, the Province that I’ve most often reported as doing good things for post-secondary education students, continues to impress me. This time by establishing a partnership (http://www.gnb.ca/cnb/news/ted/2004e0275te.htm) with AU for Athabasca University’s Bachelor of Professional Arts. Under this program, Athabasca University will recognize graduates from the New Brunswick Community… Read more »