Latest FPSE News & President's Comments
BC Jobs Plan failing northern communities: Community college layoffs reflect lack of commitment to northern economy
With an unemployment rate in northern BC sitting at 11.5 per cent and layoffs looming at northern colleges, the B.C. government's vaunted BC Jobs Plan is failing northern communities, unions representing post secondary workers said today.
Make Post-Secondary Education More Affordable: FPSE Puts Its Support behind National Day of Action by Students
"We know post-secondary education is a key to building a better BC, so why don't we make it more accessible," said Cindy Oliver, President of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. "Tuition fees in BC have skyrocketed over the last decade and undermined what should be a more accessible and affordable public good; post-secondary education," Oliver added.
Post-Secondary Education: It's worth the investment
Post-secondary education is a key to prosperity, not just for the society that is prepared to provide that education, but also for the students who are prepared to take on the opportunity for learning. For post-secondary educators that statement is more than just common sense; it is a fact that we see play out every day in our classrooms, our lecture halls, our research labs and our trades training centres. We see the transformation that happens to our students as they acquire new skills and expand the boundaries of their current knowledge and insights.
Post-secondary instructors reach 2010 common table settlement
Nearly two years after the expiry of their collective agreement, post-secondary instructors have reached a tentative settlement that concludes the 2010 round of provincial common table negotiations, said the leaders of the two major unions in post-secondary education collective bargaining.
December 6th: Wear white
December 6th marks a tragic anniversary, one in which 14 female students at Quebec's École Polytechnique de Montréal were killed by a lone gunman. Ten other female students were also injured during the shooter's rampage.
Latest fiscal update shows BC Liberals’ economic policies in serious disarray
What happens when a government relentlessly cuts corporate tax rates? The public treasury ends up in the red. That's part of what has happened in BC, but to hear Finance Minster Kevin Falcon talk about it, the obvious math seems strangely mysterious to the Minister. He searches far and wide to try and explain that it wasn't his government's policies that have led to the fiscal problems that he outlined in late November, but rather "other factors" somehow beyond his control.
Proposed Post-Secondary Legislation Will Strip Faculty Rights say Educators
Proposed Amendments Would Disallow Faculty Reps
Hands Up for Fair Employment
This week in post-secondary institutions across Canada faculty and staff are highlighting the problems that non-regular faculty face in their demand for fair employment. It is a struggle that every local in our Federation takes on at the bargaining table and throughout the term of their collective agreements: the struggle to achieve fair and secure employment for every member.
Discrimination case reminds us all how much more needs to be done
Polling Data Shows Growing Gap between Voters and Government on Post-Secondary Education
August has not been a great month for BC's Premier Clark. The results of the HST referendum showed that even in many of the BC Liberal held ridings, the majority voted to get rid of the HST, a troubling outcome for a government that wants to rebuild its approval ratings with voters. Adding to the Premier's troubles was the fact that her plan to call an early Fall election looked increasingly ill-advised. More recently, an Ipsos Reid poll, commissioned by FPSE, showed a majority of those surveyed gave the government a failing grade on their handling of post-secondary education in BC.