Features

B-.

That letter followed by a tiny hyphen scribbled on the front page of your essay is not a welcome sight after you just spent 10 straight hours sitting sleep-deprived on the fourth floor of the library, buried behind piles of musty, puke-coloured hardcovers.

You’re angry, you’re frustrated, but mostly you feel cheated out of a grade you thought you deserved.

Your professor doesn’t sympathize.

But should they?

The key to being a successful student is a lot more straightforward than one might think, according to Carol Miles.

At its core, a university is an educational institute. To really take advantage of their education, students need great professors to engage their minds and guide their academic and personal growth. But what makes a great professor?

As university has changed over the years, Carleton professors have watched both a change in the nature of teaching and the attitudes of their students.

Brian Mortimer, Carleton University vice-president (academic) described the changes in the classroom from when he began teaching in the early 1980s.

“Now when instructors go to a classroom, their first act is to boot the computer,” he said. “When I was teaching, the innovation was that we could have coloured transparencies for the overhead projector.”

It’s no secret that Canada’s population is aging.

Life expectancy has increased over the 20th century, while the birth rate is declining.

A 2006 Canadian Senate report predicted that by 2031, 25 per cent of Canadians will be 65 or older.

After 2040, Canada’s population is projected to begin decreasing gradually.

What isn’t clear is what that will mean for Canadians, and for the generation currently in school.