The student view
2008 July 18
Jay Rawding, UNBSJ student and recipient of the Sir Howard Douglas Medal (2008) for scholastic achievement (Dean’s List) and extra-curricular activities, suggests that the real problem for students is a lack of opportunity for meaningful careers in New Brunswick, not the quality of education received at our universities. See “N.B. Must Offer Students Careers,” (Telegraph Journal 18 July 2008).
Hope I didn’t misspeak or speak out of turn in the article!
I have worked at call centres in Saint John for 10 years now and counting (2 years at IBM, 8 years at Xerox). And while both corporations have provided me with gainful employment, I would like to think that there is more out there for me. You would think the accomplishments that some New Brunswick students have achieved while in university would allow them access to professions beyond the world of call centres, or the impending energy hubs. But in the past 7 months, I know of at least 8 close and dear friends who have either left New Brunswick or are about to in the next couple of months.
Surely we can find careers for university-educated graduates in this province beyond what currently exists. At the risk of sounding like a suck-up (I’m not trying to be one, honest!), having done “the university thing” once before (at King’s College and at Dalhousie), I still maintain the quality of education at UNBSJ is second-to-none.
Always good to get feedback on UNBSJ — especially glowing comments like yours!
I think your experience may be more representative than you recognize. After all we have a 3M Teaching Fellow on campus, for example, and the small campus environment really brings out the best in many students.
As for the disconnect between education and opportunity, I think the government would be doing New Brunswickers a favour if it actually looked into where PSE grads (both university and community college, for starters) are now. It seems to me that their data is flawed, but then we’ve not actually been presented with much beyond anecdotes in the way of documentation.