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Late last week Algoma University hosted a 2-day conference on president Richard Myers' proposed adoption of the "Block Plan," a course delivery format developed by Colorado College and used by BC-based Quest University. (Under the Block Plan, students take one course at a time, with 3 to 4 hours of instruction per day for about 3 weeks, after which they write an exam and move on to the next block.) Algoma U's board of governors chair says "the focus is to grow the institution, becoming larger and more viable." Myers is confident that the Block Plan would actually provide faculty with blocks of research time in each semester, and that it could be implemented within the funding constraints of public universities in Ontario. Sault This Week

The New Brunswick government announced Friday it will work with public university presidents to establish a 4-year funding model. The province's PSE minister says this commitment to create a 4-year funding model will provide the institutions with a predictable funding base to plan their activities over a longer period of time. The PSE department states financial predictability will allow the public universities to communicate a 4-year tuition schedule to students so they can plan for the full cost of their education. A similar process will be initiated for the province's English and French community college networks. NB News Release | CBC

Friday marked the official opening of Seneca College's newest community campus in Vaughan, Ontario, offering residents a range of services, such as academic upgrading, employment services, and workplace essential skills training for professionals, including a centre for entrepreneurship. Vaughan's mayor congratulated Seneca and the provincial Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for choosing the city as the location for this new campus. "By investing in people and allowing them to learn and train close to home we are helping them pursue a new career while at the same time supporting our local economy." Seneca News Release

More students than ever before are choosing the University of Ontario Institute of Technology as one of their top 3 PSE destination choices. Applications figures show that UOIT has received 1,256 first-choice applications from Ontario high school students, an increase of 7.4% over last year, and above the provincial average of 2.4%. The Oshawa-based university has received more than 7,000 applications for the next academic year, representing a 7.3% increase compared to this time last year, and above the Ontario-wide university application pool increase of 2.2%. A UOIT official says the growth can be attributed to a number of factors, such as UOIT's wide range of market-driven undergraduate programs and state-of-the-art facilities. UOIT News Release

In a survey of nearly 1,200 McGill University undergraduate students, 6% of responding first-year students and 9% of third-year students considered themselves very well prepared to enter the workforce, while 20% of first-year and 33% of third-year students felt well prepared. 15% of first-year students and 8% of students in their graduating year agreed that they were satisfied with the academic advising they had received. According to the report, many students stated that the advising they received was often "revealed to be unhelpful over time and in many cases prevented them from reaching their academic and personal goals." McGill Daily (student newspaper)

In what's billed as the first formal partnership between public schools and an MBA program, the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management will begin teaching an MBA-style leadership course next month at Sir Sandford Fleming Academy, a Toronto secondary school, in a bid to help students learn the creative approach to solving problems that has become Rotman's trademark. The Toronto District School Board wants to expand the joint venture to several other high schools and even some elementary schools, as early as Grade 1. Fleming's principal hopes the Rotman brand will draw new students to his under-enrolled school. Nearly 100 students will learn the "integrative thinking" concept this year. ParentCentral.ca

On Friday, the CRTC revoked the license of CKLN-FM, a community-based campus radio station located at Ryerson University, after the license holder was found to have been in breach of numerous regulations and conditions of license. The CRTC started investigating the station in July 2009 after receiving many complaints about the station's governance structure, day-to-day management and operations, programming, and ability to remain on air. At the time, the CRTC says, the station experienced "significant infighting" and volunteers, staff, and management were locked out of the studio premises by the building manager for 7 months. Once it resumed normal operations, the licensee, CKLN Radio Inc., "lacked any significant quality-control mechanism for its programming and there was little involvement from the Ryerson University student body despite its status as a campus radio station. CRTC News Release

The University of Guelph has launched a contest in which it is looking for 3-minute videos about why it is so great to take classes in the summer. The contest is open to anyone and the deadline for submissions is February 28. The top videos will be posted to YouTube, where viewers can vote for their favourites between March 4 and 14. The video with the most "likes" wins. The winning entrant will receive either an iPad or a $500 Future Shop gift card. The second-place winner will receive either a Kobo eReader along with a $50 Chapters gift card, or a $250 Chapters gift card. The winners will be announced March 16. UoGuelph Campus Bulletin | Summer Semester Video Contest

In a national survey by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, more first-year students in the US than ever reported having above-average academic ability and "drive to achieve," but fewer than ever reported high levels of emotional health, with the percentage of students reporting good or above-average emotional health dropping from 55.3% in 2009 to 51.9% in 2010. College counsellors say the high marks for ambition and low marks for emotional health are clearly related, as students put more pressure on themselves to excel. 62.1% of students polled said the current economic climate has significantly affected their college choice. Compared to students who reported no effect, those who felt the pinch were nearly as likely to have been accepted by their first-choice college, but notably less likely to have enrolled there. The Chronicle of Higher Education (survey) | The Chronicle of Higher Education (emotional health) | Inside Higher Ed

As of Friday afternoon, over 10,300 signatures have been added to an online petition calling on the chairman of the Washington Post Company to freeze all admissions to Kaplan University until the online institution changes how it attracts its students. "More and more former Kaplan students are coming forward with horror stories about the bogus classes, surprise fees and deceptive policies they encountered as they struggled to achieve the American dream," the petition on Change.org states. The petition was instigated by a group of 25 people who describe themselves as disaffected former Kaplan students. The Chronicle of Higher Education (free access) | Inside Higher Ed | Read the petition