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How is academic work accomplished within a curriculum that has been established through a digital education infrastructure, and what, exactly, does an academic member of staff do within this digital context? Reflecting on the empirical findings of a three-year ethnography of a distributed medical education curriculum delivered across two university campuses in Canada, this paper demonstrates that the ways in which work that has typically been characterized as academic is enacted within this curriculum, positioned as a socio-technological network, through a heterogeneous network of people and materials. Drawing on the philosophical anthropology of Bruno Latour, An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, this paper positions the individual academic member of staff as one amongst many network elements within the digital platform across which academic work is generated and circulated. The paper argues that studies of digitally-mediated higher education can equally rest on small and localized instances of practice as well as on cross-boundary or institutional explorations, and offers ways of thinking that are informed by Latour's philosophical anthropology.

Universities, both in Canada and throughout the global North, are predicated on empiricist and positivist understandings of knowledge and knowledge production which are communicated and strengthened through research practices and protocols. Drawn from a larger study exploring research leadership among accomplished academic staff, this paper examines interviews with eight racialised female academic staff who focus on social justice research predicated on co-producing knowledge with marginalised communities. Building on the rich scholarship which conveys the consequences of systemic discrimination for racialised and Indigenous scholars working in Canadian universities, we explore how participants navigate systems that fail to understand their epistemological and methodological orientation towards research and consider what it reveals about research culture and claims of inclusiveness in the Canadian academy. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's work on performative diversity in academia, we consider how academic structures, protocols and policies associated with research influence the social production of knowledge and resist change toward greater equity and Reconciliation demanded of Canadian higher education.

This paper critically examines two policy responses related to Canadian study permit processes that were adopted during two crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and the displacement of Ukrainian nationals due to war. We look at the expansion of the Student Direct Stream (SDS) to the Americas in 2021 and the creation of the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) in 2022 to discuss the effects of these crisis responses on the access to higher education (HE) in Canada for international students and forcibly displaced people. In this study, we conduct a policy analysis that draws on Bacchi's post-structural approach named 'What's the problem represented to be?' (WPR). We use the WPR approach to answer the question: how are students constituted as policy subjects in policy responses to crisis? Findings indicate that the two responses are accompanied by power imbalances that deepen barriers to equity in the access to HE in Canada.

A key capacity for engagement in the emerging field of ecohealth is the ability to work collaboratively. Between 2008 and 2010, the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health collectively designed and delivered three foundational, intensive, field courses. This paper presents findings derived from both quantitative and qualitative student course evaluation survey data. New insights arise around: the diverse opportunities for learning collaboratively in order to tackle complex socio-ecological issues, the social dynamics of collaborative relationships and learning, and the learning challenges that arise during intensive field courses. The lessons learned from these foundational years have enhanced understanding of the interrelated contributions to collaborative learning and relationship building and their relevance to addressing issues spanning ecosystems, health and society. [This paper was written with the assistance of the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health Team.]

The global growth in postgraduate (PG) study since the mid-1990s has been attributed to the expansion in Masters by Coursework participation (Bekhradnia, B. (2005). Postgraduate education in the UK: Trends and challenges higher education policy institute. Paper presented at a conference "The future of postgraduate education supporting the students of today and tomorrow," London, 17 March). However, unlike at undergraduate level, research into understanding PG growth has been under-researched. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge gap by identifying and comparing the growth in PG study in Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK. It explores the possible drivers behind the growth and concludes by highlighting potential challenges facing the future of PG study across the sector.

This paper draws on Bourdieu's concepts of "field," "capital" and "habitus" to examine the learning and enculturation of alumni of a Canadian PhD programme in the discipline of Education. We introduce the concept of "doctoral capital" to help explain how and why some PhD graduates go on to secure faculty positions and others do not. Our research suggests that certain existing and acquired academic practices, attributes, dispositions and behaviours collectively form a type of doctoral capital that alumni can then use in the academic marketplace.

Summative and benchmarking surveys to measure the postgraduate student research experience are well reported in the literature. While useful, we argue that local instruments that provide formative resources with an academic development focus are also required. If higher education institutions are to move beyond the identification of issues and benchmarking practices, the scope of survey results and their reporting need to enable and foster appropriate changes in disciplinary practices. Robust, locally developed instruments can provide detailed, programme-specific information and foster timely changes in practice with direct benefits for postgraduate respondents. Unlike benchmarked surveys, local tools can adapt to explore and examine specific concerns of students, supervisors and academic developers. Coupling high-response rates and follow-on engagement with participant feedback, well-designed local instruments provide clear and irrefutable indicators to programme and university administrators of specific disciplinary strengths and weaknesses in postgraduate pathways. In this paper, we discuss the development of a research student survey specifically designed to support academic development purposes in strengthening and enhancing the postgraduate experience.

Discourses around Study Abroad (SA) consistently portray a transformational experience for participants who return home forever changed. This article investigates how such change is inscribed in texts addressed to Australian tertiary students considering SA. Acknowledging the significant role of the non-study component of SA in triggering change, this paper focuses on the non-academic domain of food, recurrent in the corpus, 102 SA testimonials from returnees from French-speaking environments of Canada, France and Switzerland, posted on an Australian Group of Eight university website. It investigates the templates provided to shape the imaginary of the readers as to their ideal selves and to legitimize and ascribe value to particular foods and related practices. Are students guided towards the perpetuation of their habits, or in these "foreign fields", is there an opportunity to shift habitus, with food contributing to the reconstructed self? Drawing on Bourdieu and on theories of motivation and of the ideal self, the article proposes a reading that resolves the tension between the integrative use of food, and the future exploitation of the SA experience as a mark of distinction.

Doing a "postdoc" following a doctorate is becoming more and more common worldwide as the pre-tenure job market continues shrinking in relation to the number of PhD graduates. Yet, behind statistics and descriptions of collective experience, how individuals experience the postdoctoral period is largely unknown, especially how they use this phase as preparation for future employment. Drawing on longitudinal data, this paper provides a close look at how seven postdoctoral scholars in life sciences from two Canadian universities intentionally prepared for their desired careers through day-to-day activities. The participants' daily activities were situated in three ways: intellectual, networking and institutional. It was found that they were all agentive in preparing for the future; yet, agency was exercised differently due to different institutional and personal contexts. The personal was found to be a significant factor that influenced their career preparations and decisions. This study addresses the gap in the literature regarding postdoctoral experiences and enriches our understanding about postdoctoral experience and training.

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted on stakeholders' perception of who influences the decision-making processes in Ontario's public postsecondary education institutions. The study identified and interviewed representatives of those stakeholder groups that are frequently written about as the main forces behind decision making in colleges and universities. This is a qualitative research study in which four institutions were selected for case studies. The findings suggest that administrations are the most influential, and faculty unions/associations are the least influential in Ontario's (Canada's second largest and most populated province) public colleges and universities. It is concluded that those in central positions with access to information from all levels, and who are in close proximity to the gatekeepers of the institutions, will dominate the decision-making processes in postsecondary education institutions. They will be the generators and harvesters of ideas and implementers of decisions. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper analyses changing approaches to system-level governance in Canadian post-secondary education from 1995-2006. A review of major policy initiatives reveals a shift in provincial and federal government roles in and approaches to the coordination of post-secondary education. The federal government has strategically invested in post-secondary education, increasing its direct and indirect support for research and development and, at the same time, retreating from other areas of support. Provincial governments have expanded post-secondary systems and increased institutional diversity and the role of the market in post-secondary education while simultaneously developing more mechanisms of coordination. (Contains 1 note.)