Friday, November 22, 2019

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• Waterloo makes an impact
• Looking beyond International Education Week at Waterloo
• Graduate student supervisors: share your thoughts!
• Sock wave: ToastyToes campaign a success

Waterloo makes an impact

A major new report has quantified the economic impact that the University of Waterloo has had locally, regionally, and beyond.

The report, authored by Deloitte Canada, was released this morning at the President's Community Breakfast at the head offices of Vidyard in downtown Kitchener. President Feridun Hamdullahpur shared the findings with the attendees, who make up business, government, and community leaders.

In the 2017/18 fiscal year alone, the University’s operations contributed $1.16 billion to the region's GDP. Out-of-town student expendiutes contributed $303 million, co-op earnings contributed $251 million, and entrepreneurship programs contributed $80 million annually to Waterloo’s GDP, on top of the University’s direct, indirect and induced operating expenditures. On a provincial level, the University’s operating expenditures contributed $1.4 billion to Ontario’s overall GDP, as well as $458 million from Waterloo’s research activities. On the national level, the University’s operational impact contribution to Canada’s GDP was $1.52 billion in 2017/18.

The first third-party study to measure the dollar value of contributions made by the University’s entrepreneurship and co-operative education programs also shows companies that hired Waterloo co-op students realized an additional $525-million in returns in 2018 alone. This total employer gain is based on outputs from co-op students during their work terms and subsidies for hiring co-op students, after subtracting the salaries paid and training costs. 

Startup companies at the University of Waterloo's flagship entrepreneurship programs have generated more than $2 billion in revenue and around 7,500 jobs over about a decade.

Those conclusions are among the key findings of Deloitte’s 94-page report, which examined the University’s economic contributions using internal and Statistics Canada data, as well as consultations with business, research, entrepreneurship and government stakeholders.

The analysis found that the University, one of the region of Waterloo’s largest employers, contributes billions of dollars annually to the region’s gross domestic product, through operations, as well as its ability to support entrepreneurs, its one-of-a-kind co-op program, and world-leading research activities. To better quantify the University's status as a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship in Canada, Deloitte examined incubators and accelerators that support startups along several stages of the commercialization process.

“We’ve long been aware of the significant impact that Waterloo’s co-op and entrepreneurship programs are having beyond our campus,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur. “What this report demonstrates is that our focus on experiential education and entrepreneurship are not only good for students; they’re good for the local and national economy.”

Looking beyond International Education Week at Waterloo

Waterloo student Amrit Kaur places a sticker on her home country India, at the Interactive Map display at the Dana Porter Library for IEW2019.

By Ian Rowlands, Associate Vice-President, International.

This week has seen International Education Week (IEW) celebrated across campus, and, indeed, around the world. 

It has been wonderful to hear of events led by campus partners across the University of Waterloo. One of the highlights of the week was the presentation by Alexandre Trudeau as he talked about the value of multilingualism and intercultural understanding in our globalized world today.  Hundreds—including many ‘prospective Waterloo students’ (aka high school students)—enjoyed Mr. Trudeau’s talk and the panel featuring many different perspectives that followed it.

And IEW continues today and tomorrow with food tastings, photo contest, and music. As we near its completion, let me send congratulations to, and express my appreciation for the hard work of, the various organizers – within Waterloo International and beyond – who have worked together to make this week a success.

The end of IEW, however, does not mean that internationalization at Waterloo slows down—not at all! A range of international activities continue, including a number of trips abroad by Waterloo members:  for instance, President Hamdullahpur will be delivering a keynote address at a major higher education conference in Japan next week; and the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change will be sending a delegation to the Climate Change Summit in Spain in early December. And there are many more.

Finally, the implementation of our just-approved Strategic Plan will also ensure that internationalization remains high on the agenda at Waterloo. As a central focus that runs across all themes, internationalization has the potential to infuse all parts of the Plan. Examples include:

• intercultural experiences are invaluable as we develop talent for a complex future;
• cross-border collaboration helps multiple bright minds pool knowledge, methods, resources, and networks in order to advance research for global impact; and 
• advancing intercultural and interjurisdictional understanding strengthens sustainable and diverse communities – at home and abroad.

So let us continue to celebrate all that a comprehensive internationalization programme can do to advance the mission of the University of Waterloo.

Graduate student supervisors: share your thoughts!

A message from the Task force on Graduate Student Supervision.

The Task Force on Graduate Student Supervision is seeking feedback from faculty members who supervise doctoral or research master’s students. The mandate of the Task Force is to investigate the mechanisms by which the quality of graduate supervision at both the master's and doctoral levels are assessed at the University. The survey is designed to gather your experience with and opinions about supervisory expectations or standards, evidence of effective supervision, strategies for communicating supervisor/student expectations, and what kinds of support/training you believe will be effective.

The survey will take approximately 3 to 5 minutes to complete and remain open until midnight on December 6^th 2019. This survey is anonymous; participation is confidential and voluntary.

Follow this link to participate in the survey: Faculty Survey on Graduate Supervision.

If you have any questions about the survey or the work of the Task Force on Graduate Student Supervision, please contact Angela Rooke (a2rooke@uwaterloo.ca), Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Sock wave: ToastyToes campaign a success

The University of Waterloo has contributed 1,190 pairs of socks to Waterloo Region's ToastyToes campaign. Across the region, 40,500 pairs of socks were collected as part of the campaign to supply homeless shelters with socks. Socks are one of the most requested, yet least donated items to homeless shelters. For those experiencing or at-risk of homelessness in the community, having clean, dry socks can mean so much, especially in the cold, winter months.

Central Stores has been a ToastyToes partner for a number of years. This year, the Office of the President and Central Stores partnered to collect socks on the main University campus. The University had three community drop-off locations with the following collection totals:

• School of Pharmacy - 100
• Velocity - 227
• University of Waterloo main campus - 863

Collection for ToastyToes ran from October 10 to November 10.