university of waterloo

PSE Must Encourage Experiential Learning, Failure

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Source: Globe & Mail via Academica

Canada’s future success will depend heavily on how well we encourage students to develop innovation skills, say members of a Globe and Mail panel. One of the best ways to do this, they add, is to provide students with the ability to try new things and to risk failure through experiential learning. Ryerson University President Sheldon Levy highlights the University of Waterloo as a strong example of a school with an effective co-op education program. “Our strategies, policies and resources have got to put young people more in the centre of the innovation agenda rather than being peripheral to it,” Levy adds. “Therefore our education systems have got to start looking at innovation as a core competency.”

CCAE Announces Winners of Annual Prix d’Excellence

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Source: CCAE via Academica

The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) has announced the winners of its annual Prix d’Excellence, which recognizes Canada’s postsecondary institutions for excellence across 24 categories, including marketing, development, and student recruitment.  This year, uAlberta led the group with seven awards, followed by uCalgary and MUN with five awards each. uToronto, uSask, UBC, and Trent each received four nods, with uWaterloo, UoGuelph, Sheridan, Queen’s, McMaster, and McGill each garnering three. 15 other PSE institutions across Canada received one or two awards.

uWaterloo’s Velocity startups raise more than $100 million

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Source: uWaterloo News Release | January 29, 2014

Start-ups in the the University of Waterloo’s Velocity entrepreneurship incubator program have raised more than $100 million in funding in the 5 years since the initiative was launched. The investments received include funding from venture capitalists, angel investors, government programs, grants from the Velocity Fund, and crowd-funding website Kickstarter. Velocity’s Pebble, the makers of a “smart watch,” raised $10 million on Kickstarter in 2012. Velocity’s milestone announcement follows the launch of the provincial government’s new Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund, which aims to drive private-sector investment in Canadian companies in the early to middle stages of growth.

TCS Insights: Students with small businesses participating in the uWaterloo Velocity program are being provided with opportunities to reach their entrepreneurial goals through the aid of a variety of sources.  Both the university and the Ontario provincial government continue to display a commitment to developing entrepreneurs.