Balsillie School: Balsillie School Of International Affairs

Balsillie School Dept: Like all new endeavours, the Balsillie School has struggled through its share of growing pains, not least of which has been how to manage relations between the partners, including two very different university systems. Six years into this effort, the school is beginning to flourish and students are key evidence of success. Supported by talented faculty, my colleagues are some of the most intelligent, thoughtful and innovative scholars in Canada and globally. Many of them win prestigious external academic awards and they leave here to embark in impressive careers in the academy and the public and private sectors. This is a community of which I am proud to be a part, according to The Star. I believe that the future of post-secondary education in Canada needs to be carefully considered as the world around us changes. Part of this discussion must include financing, as the student strike in Quebec and the criticism of public-private partnerships make clear. But more important, we need to consider the value of education to both students and society. Goar suggests a dichotomy between academics and the skills that are valued by the private sector. The Balsillie School is not evidence that skills trump academics, but rather that academic skills are in fact valued by the private sector. If this is not the case, then we need to re-evaluate why Canadian universities are training so many academics. But censure is not a productive way to engage in either of these discussions and as Carol Goar noted in her recent column on the ongoing saga of Jim Balsillie, the Centre for International Governance Innovation CIGI , and the Canadian Association of University Teachers CAUT , the student voice has been missing. Accordingly, I will take this opportunity to share my personal experience as a PhD Candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, which is composed of academic programs at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. This growth has included a new governance arrangement that has recently been approved by the senate at each university. In light of this process, it is not clear to me why the school is now being threatened with censure by CAUT. I have spent several years working in the not-for-profit sector, and I am aware of the strings that often come attached from would-be donors. And I hope to pursue an academic career, and recognize the value of CAUT in protecting the freedom of scholars to pursue research with integrity. From my experience, there is both freedom and integrity at the Balsillie School. This testimony is based on my involvement as a student representative in the drafting of the governance document, a process made purposefully tedious by the rigorous requirement of academic freedom for the universities and their faculty and students. I also participate in the school s regular council meetings, at which members get together to advise on everything to do with the school, from the monumental to the minute. And I am currently a member of the academic body that governs the PhD program, and have witnessed the process by which the universities exercise exclusive authority over academic issues. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.