The second Town Hall meeting of the academic year held last Monday discussed announcements from the provincial government to post-secondary education institutions, as well as some collaborations happening between the University of Toronto Mississauga and multiple organizations.
The provincial government has recently specified experiential learning as a needed aspect of post-secondary education. Such examples of experiential learning include performance and artistic productions, clinical placements, co-op programs, internships, work-place simulations, and work-study programs.
The government also ruled that the number of undergraduate enrolment be limited. In regards to the University of Toronto’s population, there will be a reduction of undergraduate students allocated to the university, as UTM’s Principal Ulrich Krull stated. “We’ve been told that [high enrolment rates] can’t be allowed. Given that the University of Toronto has over 80 000 students, the reduction numbers, which total around 2,000, is of not great consequence.”
Krull said that UTM will slow down the amount of undergraduate students that will be accepted in the coming years, as well.
In an attempt to attract the tech giant Amazon, the provincial government intends on funding at least 1,000 more graduate-level jobs that relate to the fields of data analytics and technology.
According to Krull, “We can attract Amazon to southern Ontario by demonstrating that we are prepared to create a highly educated workforce.”
UTM will also be building a relationship with Trillium health partners, who will work with the Institute for Management and Innovation and the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry to work on a patient care system.
Krull stated: “[Trillium] would like to work with the Institute of Management and Innovation to be able to revise and refine patient care. This will be through the management of patient care, the efficiency of the hospital.”
The university also received a visit from the president of the National Research Council, which is the premier research department of Canada. The organization has multiple laboratories across Canada, except in the GTA. The NRC would like to invest on “building a new NRC centre close to the campus and invited UTM to be the institution to partner with them.”
When asked if there are any plans on building a hockey rink on campus, Krull responded by saying that the university has “a plan to build outdoor, but not indoor ice,” and also suggested that the university could pay to rent a bus for fans to transport them to and from one of their hockey games.
The next Town Hall will be on November 27 in the Student Centre from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
