President John Davies has high hopes for theprovincial budget. (Andrew Ardizzi)
Andrew Ardizzi
News Reporter
The new federal budget could significantly benefit Humber students that do research programs for various companies, said Humber president John Davies.
The budget proposes to increase federal funding for its college and community innovation programs, nearly doubling its initial $18-million investment in 2008 to $30 million.
Some of that money could be funneled to applied research programs which partner Humber students with industry, Davies said.
“Our basic motivation is to get people jobs,” he said. “Our students get to be more innovative and become more employable, and they get employed by the companies they do applied research in.”
He cited a partnership between Humber and Toronto-based Darcor, which manufactures casters for everything from hospital beds to office chairs.
“There’s a successful business who has benefitted by contacts with our industrial design degree students who helped them with a design for a braking system for casters,” said Davies.
These programs offer students opportunities to work with companies on new research and development projects, gaining invaluable hands-on work experience, said Davies.
Dean of the School of Applied Technology Denise Devlin-Li said such endeavours keep Humber linked to industries, so companies know what Humber students are capable of, and may eventually hire them.
“I think it’s important for colleges to be seen as able to work with industry to solve issues and problems,” she said. “The closer partnerships we have with industry means our students will have skills to match what industries need.”
Director of finance Sanjay Puri,said it’s difficult to project the logistics of Ottawa’s pledge to increase applied research funding until the Ontario government’s budget is unveiled later this month.
“We have to wait for the provincial government and their guidelines to come through before we know exactly how much money they are committing to post-secondary education,” he said. “The devil is in the details, but from a concept point of view it means great things if it materializes.”
[...] Davies positive about fed budget [...]