MAKING THE GLOBAL LOCAL
Cultural and global events are reflected in popular courses offered at some universities
Cultural and world events are reflected in popular courses offered at some local universities.
With the world feeling rather weighty these days, it’s nice to know there’s evidence that some of our future leaders are eager to make a positive impact as they head into their career-formative years.
Although statistics are not readily shared by Canadian post-secondary institutions, some of those that responded to the Star’s query pointed to an uptick of interest in a wide variety of academic and trade pursuits that may have positive impacts for humans, society and the planet.
“I feel like every student I talked to at Victoria University in the last year was working on something to make the world a better place,” says Nick Saul, chancellor of Victoria University at the University of Toronto.
Not that students entering many of the most historically popular streams — such as business, law, engineering, medicine and economics — might not also have their eye on effecting positive change in their careers.
These areas of study, according to the Top Universities website, are still the most popular globally, with art and design and, especially, architecture, enjoying recent spikes in popularity. Top Universities ranks post-secondary institutions around the world and tracks trends in post-secondary education.
Computer science and information systems is ranked as the most popular field of study and “one of the fastestgrowing subjects around the world.”
The site notes: “If you want to work on technology that has the potential to change the world, from artificial intelligence to big data, then this is the subject for you.”
Student interests can naturally be shaped by cultural and global events, and these are reflected in the courses offered at some post-secondary institutions, whether such courses play a foundational role in a student’s education or fill the need for a broader and widereaching perspective.
The registrar at the University of Toronto reported a 25 per cent increase in applications to undergraduate nursing this fall, noting “notable increases in first choice applications by Ontario high school students to nursing and other health-related programs.”
The high visibility of social activism movements such as the Black Lives Matter and issues around reconciliation and the abuses perpetrated at residential schools seem to be driving a renewed interest in the study of history, reversing a recent downward trend at some Canadian universities.
A course called Indigenous Canada, offered by the University of Alberta through its faculty of native studies via the online portal Coursera, counted 388,157 enrolments as of this month. The course takes about 21 hours to complete and is subtitled in Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English and Spanish.
A course added to the curriculum at Victoria University (U of T) in the last year includes the colourfully named “Fake S--- in History: Misinformation, Unreal Authentics, Hidden Figures, and the Telling of Histories.” Other new additions include “Decentering Canada and Calls to Action: The TRC and Residential Schools in Canadian History.”
Student clubs are playing a role in contextualizing (or re-contextualizing) some of the more conventional streams of study, such as a club called Sustainable STEM, which focuses on environmental and social sustainability in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
“It aims to alleviate sustainability issues in health care, engineering, chemical industry (and) scientific research in all disciplines by involving the Victoria and U of T communities, as well as the wider community,” says Yvette Ali, registrar for Victoria University.
There also appears to be growing interest in the intersection of environmental issues and science and engineering. “We have seen an increase in the building, civil and environmental engineering programs such as the MEng in Environmental Engineering,” says Concordia University spokesperson Vannina Maestracci.
Also at Concordia, a BA in First Peoples studies, which explores the world of First Nations, Inuit and Métis within the Quebec and Canadian context, has seen a rise in interest. So has a program started in 2018, which offers a certificate or minor in Immigration Studies, exploring the politics, sociology, geography and anthropology of migration.
“In this program, students gain practical experience in how these dynamics play out in Quebec and Canada through community engagement opportunities,” says Maestracci.