As a current student at uWaterloo, I was actually quite saddened reading the article, and knowing that UW could be so much like this, and yet it's so far away from it.
Not sure when you graduated, but as of a year ago, even buildings that used to be open 24/7 have started to close at nighttime. Sure you can still get around by finding an open one, and then going through the tunnels and passageways, but the friction is there. And there is no access from people who are not students. You can probably get in, but I don't think the university is encouraging it.
It is as hard as ever for students to take courses from other faculties, unless you are in engineering where it becomes somewhat easier. Still have to go through different people a number of times in order to get all the paperwork done.
And now we have a new dean of engineering. She's alright, nothing special. However one point where I am completely at odds with her is regarding Coursera type efforts at UW. When interviewed on her inauguration for the Iron Warrior, she stated that she did not want to get into the whole Coursera type courses, the reason being that there were plenty of other schools doing it, and they all had more resources and that the race was lost. Instead she's going to focus on professional development courses for graduates where she's interested in "upgrading practicing engineers", while later stating that only 30% of engineering graduates go on to engineering roles (the rest going in management). As only 30% work in engineering roles, I'd hazard a guess and say that the percentage of professional engineers is even lower.
I find her reasoning for not wanting to invest effort in open courses completely BS. There would be many more people who would find value in those than the professional engineers who will want to take more PDENG or WatPD courses. All those companies have just started, and they are at the very beginning. And the biggest mistake is the type of thinking where this is a competition between Waterloo and other universities.
I'm glad however that due to the IP rules of Waterloo, researchers and students maintain rights over anything they come up with. If that also applies to course materials developed by professors, it might be worthy to go around the administration and talk to professors directly. Though you would still have to deal with the university in the end, so as to publish the courses as being uWaterloo courses. Need to start looking into this.
To finish up this reply, that's already much longer than it needs to be, I think what the university needs is a President who's willing to cut the fat, and make the whole institution lean. Rumors are David Johnston, previous president of UW, had a plan to do just that before being offered his current role of current Governor General of Canada.
Not sure when you graduated, but as of a year ago, even buildings that used to be open 24/7 have started to close at nighttime. Sure you can still get around by finding an open one, and then going through the tunnels and passageways, but the friction is there. And there is no access from people who are not students. You can probably get in, but I don't think the university is encouraging it.
It is as hard as ever for students to take courses from other faculties, unless you are in engineering where it becomes somewhat easier. Still have to go through different people a number of times in order to get all the paperwork done.
And now we have a new dean of engineering. She's alright, nothing special. However one point where I am completely at odds with her is regarding Coursera type efforts at UW. When interviewed on her inauguration for the Iron Warrior, she stated that she did not want to get into the whole Coursera type courses, the reason being that there were plenty of other schools doing it, and they all had more resources and that the race was lost. Instead she's going to focus on professional development courses for graduates where she's interested in "upgrading practicing engineers", while later stating that only 30% of engineering graduates go on to engineering roles (the rest going in management). As only 30% work in engineering roles, I'd hazard a guess and say that the percentage of professional engineers is even lower.
I find her reasoning for not wanting to invest effort in open courses completely BS. There would be many more people who would find value in those than the professional engineers who will want to take more PDENG or WatPD courses. All those companies have just started, and they are at the very beginning. And the biggest mistake is the type of thinking where this is a competition between Waterloo and other universities.
I'm glad however that due to the IP rules of Waterloo, researchers and students maintain rights over anything they come up with. If that also applies to course materials developed by professors, it might be worthy to go around the administration and talk to professors directly. Though you would still have to deal with the university in the end, so as to publish the courses as being uWaterloo courses. Need to start looking into this.
To finish up this reply, that's already much longer than it needs to be, I think what the university needs is a President who's willing to cut the fat, and make the whole institution lean. Rumors are David Johnston, previous president of UW, had a plan to do just that before being offered his current role of current Governor General of Canada.