Why doesn’t this site use bylines for the author of each story … this one comes off like a public relations submission from UNBC … could have as easily been written with a totally negative slant like the categories where UNBC was last in BC and in the bottom few schools in the country (City Satisfaction, Career Preparation) … journalism is supposed to be objective and balanced … no problem with swelling community pride and egos but please post it as an op-ed or editorial.

Does this meet you satisfaction, anotherside?

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UNBC achieves a mixed report card .. by Gus

While not achieving high scores in eight of the categories, most of the scores registered improvements over last year: instructors’ teaching style, research opportunities, career preparation, reputation with employers, ease of course registration, student residence, work-play balance and city satisfaction.

Despite those low scores, high scores of “A” or “A-“ were achieved in the five categories: most satisfied students, class size, student-faculty interaction, campus atmosphere and quality of teaching and learning.

It was the only post secondary institution in BC to receive an “A” from students for environmental commitment.
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City satisfaction …..

Does that mean that the students are not satisfied with the city? Obviously they are fast learners. And UNBC has what control over that?

“quality of teaching and learning”

Learning? Are the students assessing themselves as to their ability to learn, or are the profs doing that assessment?

What kind of nonsense does the Globe print anyway?

Anyway, back to the “quality of teaching” part. UNBC gets high marks for that. However, for “instructors’ teaching style” they get low marks ….. anyone see a problem with this. I could swear that teaching style and quality of teaching are closely linked.

Then again, I have not seen the descriptions of the categories.

As with all such report cards prepared by questionable sources such as staff of various special interest groups, media outlets wishing to outdo each other, etc. I am highly suspicious of their abilities, their motives and their biases.

It would be much more helpful if media would stay away from generic popularity determination and provide some guidelines for potential students to go about determining which University would actually meet their needs.

I would not be interested in any of those categories. Of course, I did not know what to look for when I made a decision. Then again, it was very simple since I had limited funds and programs I was interested in were only available at selected schools.

First thing that comes to mind is that those categories are all universally applied instead of applied by program/school/faculty. Typically Universities have strengths in some programs, but not in others. There is not indication of that in the above information from the Globe.

For that reason, I find the information useless.

“journalism is supposed to be objective and balanced”

It is. So here goes my attempt at being objective and balanced.

For those students who hope to go on to advanced degrees, or are actually coming with an undergraduate degree, they would be interested in “research opportunities”.

In the above article, it looks like UNBC does not do very well at that.

Here is the way that category actually looks when reviewing the Globe and Mail report in more detail.

The report groups the Universities in categories of Large, MEDium, Small, and Very Small. I have chosen to ignore that and determined that research opportunities deals with access to participating in research which is a quality which transcends the size of an institution. It does not deal with variety, it does not deal with quality, it deals with access.

Here is the list. Notice that UNBC received a B+. Only 6 of 58 universities polled received an a score higher than B+. All were Very Small Universities. The next 10 all received B+. That included UNBC. The only other university which received a mark equal or higher in BC is Trinity Western.

Not shabby at all. Especially when one notes that UBC is at the bottom of the list and the only university that received a C.

1VSAcadia UniversityA-
2VSMount Allison UniversityA-
3VSRedeemer University CollegeA-
4VSThe King’s University CollegeA-
5VSTrinity Western UniversityA-
6VSUniversity of Western Ontario — Huron A-
7MEDUniversity of GuelphB+
8MEDUniversite de SherbrookeB+
9SNipissing UniversityB+
10SSaint Francis Xavier UniversityB+
11STrent UniversityB+
12VSBishop’s UniversityB+
13VSCape Breton UniversityB+
14VSConcordia University College of AlbertaB+
15VSUniversity of Northern British ColumbiaB+
16VSUniversity of Western Ontario — King’s B+
17LMcMaster UniversityB
18LUniversity of Western OntarioB
19MEDDalhousie UniversityB
20MEDQueen’s UniversityB
21SGrant MacEwan UniversityB
22SUniversity of LethbridgeB
23SMount Royal UniversityB
24SUniversity of Ontario Institute of TechnologyB
25SUniversity of Prince Edward IslandB
26SSaint Mary’s UniversityB
27SThompson Rivers UniversityB
28SVancouver Island UniversityB
29VSGlendon CollegeB
30VSMount Saint Vincent UniversityB
31VSSt. Thomas UniversityB
32LUniversity of AlbertaB-
33LCarleton UniversityB-
34LConcordia UniversityB-
35LUniversity of ManitobaB-
36LMcGill UniversityB-
37LRyerson UniversityB-
38LUniversity of WaterlooB-
39MEDBrock UniversityB-
40MEDMemorial University of NewfoundlandB-
41MEDUniversity of ReginaB-
42MEDUniversity of SaskatchewanB-
43MEDSimon Fraser UniversityB-
44MEDUniversity of Toronto – MississaugaB-
45MEDUniversity of VictoriaB-
46MEDUniversity of WindsorB-
47MEDWilfrid Laurier UniversityB-
48SLakehead UniversityB-
49SLaurentian UniversityB-
50SUniversity of New Brunswick – Fredericton B-
51SUniversity of WinnipegB-
52VSBrandon UniversityB-
53LUniversity of CalgaryC+
54LUniversity of OttawaC+
55LUniversity of Toronto — St. George C+
56LYork UniversityC+
57SUniversity of Toronto – ScarboroughC+
58LUniversity of British ColumbiaC

So, anotherside ….. did you go to university at all?

The reason I am asking is because if you did, it looks to me that you were not enrolled in studies which allowed you to actually do what it is that you are asking journalists to do. ;-)

BTW, here are the last 9 universities based on the rating of City Satisfaction

L McMaster University B-
L York University B-
S Laurentian University B-
S University of Ontario Institute of Technology B-
S Vancouver Island University B-
VS Cape Breton University B-
VS University of Northern British Columbia B-
MED University of Windsor C+
S University of Toronto – Scarborough C+

Notice that Nanaimo and PG have the same problems.

What can we learn from this? One of the things we can learn from this is that even university students expect a certain kind of lifestyle, not only on campus, but also in the community where the university is located.

So, what is the City doing about it? Building a palace for the RCMP for one and denying people to open up new nightclubs …..

Once again, it’s the “Gus for Gus” show . . . yawn . . .

Gus … I am happy you spent the night writing trying to provide me with my morning chuckle

my point was simple … actually not anything to do with UNBC … reread my original post … all about objectivity in reporting and identifying the writer for accountability … the UNBC article was only the example for the day … and suggesting that News 250 may want to distinguish between an editorial, an op-ed and a piece of objective, balanced journalism … all three are valid forms of writing and belong in a good news provider …

LOL … nothing to do with UNBC …. the topic was UNBC ….. you chose to suggest the article about UNBC was not objective journalism …..

So tell me this

1. why is it that you decided that this is the article that was not balanced journalism?

2. why is it that you think media these days has the time and the ability to write balanced journalism?

3. is there such a thing as balanced journalism?

4. if you think there is, give me an example of balanced journalism?

Gus … a number of months back, another poster suggested that you might be an employee of UNBC posting om this site to promote the local institution … while you claim you are not, you sure are sensitive to any type of critical comment (intended or not) regarding UNBC … might want to take a look at that issue … spending a whole night posting to phantoms … curious

Gus

Answers to your questions:

1. Because it only points out the “good” and doesn’t identify the ongoing challenges or problems.

2. Why don’t they?

3. Probably not … however, we used to have some pretty decent investigative reporters in the community … including Ben, the editor of this site … sure Ben has his strong views but he always takes personal responsibility for what he writes or says … Gordon Hoekstra also comes to mind as a decent investigative journalist who tries to write objectively. Gordon has been fairly recognized over the years for his submissions.

It is my view that if a news site chooses to recirculate a modified version of a public relations press release, that they should identify the source of the public relations release. If the news site wants to go to the original source of the information and write an original objective piece, then the site is free to claim it as their own piece of journalism.

Now that I have responded to Gus’s trolling, I sign off on this topic …. my apologies to those of you who got the point on the original post ;-)

And you seem to be from CNC with the traditional CNC anti UNBC bias dating back from the struggle with the infamous Charles M.

All night posting …. since when are the sleeping habits of posters a criteria for judging postings?

The reason why I am sensitive about UNBC is

1. I find it amazing that we even have a university here, let alone a research university, be it ever so humble. Given the lousy post secondary education environment in BC when I came here, I was not expecting one and most certainly not one with a medical program, albeit a UBC led program, unlike the Ontario model which appears to have better success at reaching out to small communities.

2. I find it amazing that UNBC is doing so well in such a short period of time.

As far as the question of why it does not have more students, I attribute that more to the city it is located in as well as its remoteness from where the action in the province is.

The other factor is that people in BC still do not value education as much as the rest of the country.

If someone wants to write an investigative (and perhaps balanced) piece of journalism, they might want to tackle some of the issues rarely, if ever, discussed about education in BC. Remember, Ontario has a major head start at developing universities in the hinterlands …. Lakehead, for instance, has more than a 20 year head start and it is located in a province which has higher university attendance than we have in BC.

1. Because it only points out the “good” and doesn’t identify the ongoing challenges or problems.

If you would have read the evaluations under some of the criteria selected by the G&M with a bit more of an analytical mindset, you may have reached the conclusion that grades such as A are really not all that representative of superlative performance.

You may also have realized that being blindsided by criteria such as size of university really restricts a much more objective look at what is going on.

Why is UBC last, for instance in research opportunities in the entire country while UNBC is second only to Trinity Western?

The original story on 250NEWS was not prepared with a closer look at the report, especially the appendices attached to the checklist report. If it had been, the author may have found some other headline which would be more eye-catching.

“UNBC provides superior opportunities for research than UBC and all other public BC universities.”

;-)

2. why don’t they? (why is it that you think media these days has the time and the ability to write balanced journalism?)

Easy, there is no money to provide such journalism in a small community such as PG. It does not sell advertising. Why is Gordon in Vancouver?