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An overview of the services of the First Nations University of Canada, the only aboriginal-run university in Canada, and the development of education tailored to and on the subject of Canada's aboriginal population. While the number of aboriginal students in Canada is booming, problems such as lack of funding and prejudice persist.

An analysis of the strategies developed by McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver in order to meet the challenges of the increasingly competitive global market for students and staff. McGill has managed to recruit 589 professors since 2000, while UBC has increased the proportion of international students in its student body to 9% this year, vs 2.5% in 1996.

Issues relating to stem cell research and the ways in which a number of countries are dealing with the matter are examined. The approaches of the United States, Spain, East Asia, Hungary, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel and Italy are examined in detail.

Negotiations in a dispute over the withdrawal of a job offer at a Canadian university have stalled after David Noble, the academic in question, leaked the contents of an independent report into the case commissioned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers. Noble, professor of history at York University in Toronto, claimed that he had no option but to leak the report into the withdrawal of the job offer at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Noble had been recommended for a prestigious endowed chair at Simon Fraser by the university's humanities department, but this appointment was subsequently rescinded.

Canadian universities using a US service for storing academic research files have decided to relocate their data to a domestic server to escape the US Patriot Act. The move comes amid fears that US surveillance could target academics researching areas considered sensitive by the US government.

The tradition of building on shared research is being compromised by stricter copyright laws and practices in North America, according to academics. Government and corporations are seen by many as suppotring a tendency to restrict access to research and source material.

University heads in Canada may be held accountable for their actions as elected officials after a Supreme Court ruled in favour of a student who claimed he had been arbitrarily suspended. Daniel Freeman-Maloy was suspended in 2004 for hree years by Dr Lorna Marsden, York University president, without a tribunal appearance or the chance for appeal.

Canada has put on hold a flagship Commonwealth scholarship scheme only months before ministers plan to discuss how to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the scheme in 2009. The Treasury Board has decided to suspend its CDlr 13.5 million per year funding in June 2007 and this also applies to the Fulbright Awards.

The national student lobby has called for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) in Canada to investigate a case which appears to have broken copyright laws. The NSERC has failed to investigate and appears to have buried negative research findings in one of its funded projects.

A team from the University of Toronto in Canada has conducted a study which found that many scientists from the developing world who now live in the West and wish to share their technological expertise with their countries of origin are thwarted. The study wants the G8 nations which have gained from the brain drain to create mechanisms to help the scientific diaspora to contribute to innovation in their countries of origin.

An analysis of the ways in which the idea of providing daycare for the children of students is taken by universities and colleges in a number of countries. It is argued that god, affordable childcare services are vital to students who are also parents. Countries examined include Austria, France, Russia, Netherlands, Spain, Canada and Venezuela.