Adventures in Canadian Post-Secondary Education: November 2009

Monday, 30 November, 2009

Increasing PSE participation of low-income youth

Future to Discover was created in Manitoba and New Brunswick several years ago with funding from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. This program was designed to evaluate interventions that address two key barriers to post-secondary attendance for youth from lower-income, lower-education families: 1) lack of information about the benefits of PSE and 2) perceived inability to pay for it.

Using an experimental design, the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) assessed the effectiveness of the following two Future to Discover interventions (both individually and in combination):

Explore Your Horizons addresses the information barrier by offering students enhanced career education planning through a series of workshops from grades 10 through 12. It aims to facilitate participants’ development of their post-secondary plans based on their passions and interests. The program engaged parents and guardians as allies and existing post-secondary students as role models.

Learning Accounts tackles the financial barrier by promising Grade 10 students from lower-income families a bursary of up to $8,000 for PSE once they finish high school. Payouts for this intervention continue until 2011, as participants may still be in transition to post-secondary studies. Learning Accounts is unlike other programs that make early commitments of aid in that the bursary does not have to be repaid and is available regardless of students’ academic achievement in high school, other than successful graduation.

In a report released today, SRDC provides a detailed account of the impacts of these interventions, including the following:

In New Brunswick Francophone schools, the proportion of students planning to apply to university increased from 32% to 47%.

In Manitoba, the proportion of students seeing finances as a barrier to post-secondary studies reduced from 22% to 10%

In New Brunswick Anglophone schools, the promise of an $8,000 post-secondary bursary increased the proportion of students with post-secondary plans from 87% to 96%.

The full SRDC report is available for download here in .pdf format.

Ontario needs "academic transformation": Authors

From The Globe and Mail:

Large classes and part-time faculty - that's the make-do solution Ontario universities increasingly are using to make ends meet. But there is a better answer, say the authors of a new book on education reform, which calls on the province to follow the lead of others in Canada and create new universities devoted to undergraduate education.

Ontario's current model - where 19 universities all divide their energies between research and teaching - is simply unsustainable, say the authors of the book, to be released today. The decades-old system is based on the belief that the best undergraduate education comes from professors who are active researchers. The reality, the authors say, is that universities cannot afford to put tenured professors at the front of all their classes.

As well, growing pressures for universities to produce cutting-edge research means that many full-time faculty are spending more time in the lab than the lecture hall. And all this is happening at a time when the province is facing a record deficit and tens of thousands of new students are expected to arrive at Ontario campuses.

See here for more on the book Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario.

Sunday, 29 November, 2009

Swedish universities urge foreign student fee delay

From University World News:

Top university academics have called on the Swedish government to delay plans to introduce fees for foreign students. The pro-rectors said making students pay fees would affect their internationalisation work and erode international masters degrees taught in English.

The pro-rectors of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Lunds University and Gothenburg University made the call in an article in the Swedish newspaper Göteborgsposten. Introduction of fees would put universities at risk of losing out in their international networks and worldwide contacts which had taken years to establish, they wrote.

Saturday, 28 November, 2009

UBC student union president facing censure over complaint to United Nations

From The Straight:

The president of a student union at the University of British Columbia is facing calls for his resignation after he filed a complaint to the United Nations on behalf of the organization.

Blake Frederick announced [Thursday] that the Alma Mater Society is asking the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to appoint an independent expert or special rapporteur to investigate human-rights violations in Canada’s postsecondary education system.
. . .

The November 25 complaint . . . argues that Canada is violating the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which it signed in 1976, by not ensuring postsecondary education is accessible to all.

Thursday, 26 November, 2009

B.C. Budget committee recommends PSE reforms

From Academica's Top Ten:

In a recent report on budget consultations, BC's Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services recommends the province consider reducing the interest rate charged on student loans, as well as extend the no-payment, interest-free period on the loans. The committee also suggests BC investigate the merits of using the Higher Education Price Index, rather than the Consumer Price Index, in regards to PSE funding allocation adjustments. Other recommendations include assisting schools in their efforts to expand their distance/online curriculum offerings, enhancing apprenticeship opportunities, and working with transit authorities and institutions to develop U-Pass programs where feasible.

The full report can be accessed on-line here in .pdf format.

Wednesday, 25 November, 2009

Post-secondary finances of Canadians aged 18 to 24

Statistics Canada has released a new report which provides results from the first Access and Support to Education and Training Survey. This is a comprehensive survey of Canadians' education and training activities.

In addition to participation in education/training, Lifelong Learning Among Canadians Aged 18 to 64 Years: First Results from the 2008 Access and Support to Education and Training Survey also summarizes data on unmet education needs, education financing, and sources of funding.

Some notable findings among the 18 to 24 year-olds surveyed include the following:

The top three reasons why young Canadians aged 18 to 24 did not pursue further education or training included cost (30%), needing to work (30%), and work schedule (22%);

The proportion of 18 to 24 year-old students using government student loans decreased from 24% in 2002 to 22% in 2008;

The proportion of 18 to 24 year-old students using non-government student loans decreased from 28% in 2002 to 16% in 2008;

The proportion of students aged 18 to 24 who relied on money from parents, spouse or partner, family, or other people decreased from 60% in 2002 to 54% in 2008; and

The proportion using grants, bursaries, scholarships, or other sources increased from 26% in 2002 to 32% in 2008.

The full report may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

News items about the report from Statistics Canada:

More adults getting job training (Globe and Mail)
More cash stashed for students: StatsCan (CanWest News)

Report author questions Grenfell autonomy delay

From The Western Star:

A co-author of the report which recommended Sir Wilfred Grenfell College be given university status is frustrated at the lack of progress on the file.

The report written by John Kelly, professor emeritus at University College Dublin and executive director of the Ireland Canada University Foundation, and fellow Irish academic John Davies, was submitted to the provincial government in 2006.

Since then, Kelly has been monitoring the situation, but said it’s been a lot of talk and little action.

“I am very surprised and very disappointed that after three years, nothing seems to be happening,” Kelly told The Western Star via telephone from Ireland. “We keep hearing government is preparing legislation and all that, but there’s been no movement at all. All (Premier) Danny Williams has to do is sign it, call it a university and let’s get on with advertising for a president.”

Tuesday, 24 November, 2009

The Price of Knowledge

The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation released the fourth edition of The Price of Knowledge today. The report includes sections on the employment and earnings of post-secondary graduates as well as trends and research findings related to post-secondary education participation, persistence, costs, student debt, and financial aid.

Drawing on recent research in these areas, the report concludes that, despite increases in public expenditures, a large segment of the Canadian population, particularly Aboriginal peoples, individuals from lower-income backgrounds, and children whose parents who have little or no post-secondary education, continue to be disadvantaged and underrepresented in post-secondary education across the country.

The full Price of Knowledge report can be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Hot off the OECD press: Globalization in Higher Ed, Innovation in VET

The OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation has recently released a couple of publications that report on recent post-secondary/higher education research. These publications are available to read free of charge on-line courtesy of the OECD on-line bookshop's "Browse-it" service (or alternatively via Google Books).

Higher Education to 2030, Volume 2: Globalisation

This is the second volume in the Higher Education to 2030 series, which takes a forward-looking approach to analysing the impact of various contemporary trends on tertiary education systems. Volume 1 examines the effects of demography, while volume 3 explores the effects of technology. This volume examines what challenges and opportunities globalisation is bringing to higher education, and as a consequence, how education might look in the future. The fourth and final volume will present scenarios illustrating the main trends and driving forces for the future of higher education. Read this publication on-line here in .pdf format.

Working Out Change: Systemic Innovation in Vocational Education and Training

What can education systems do to become more innovative? This book analyses systemic innovation in education by looking at the ways in which educational systems encourage innovation, the knowledge base and processes used, and the procedures and criteria used to assess progress and evaluate outcomes. It draws on findings from 14 case studies in Vocational Education and Training in six OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Mexico and Switzerland. The resulting analysis helps us understand how we can support and sustain innovation in educational systems in the VET sector. Read this publication on-line here in .pdf format.

Monday, 23 November, 2009

Reviewing art schools

Rankings and reviews of post-secondary institutions and programs have become popular gimmicks for a number of well-known news outlets and magazines. These annual rankings have been variously described in many other ways: useful tool, waste of paper, bane of some college and university leaders' existences, and so on.

If you are considering art school, you may want to peruse Art School Reviews. This website provides an opportunity for current students and alumni to share their perspectives and voice their opinions about arts programs they have first-hand experience with. The website, "created to help aspiring artists and designers find the program which suits them best", is relatively new and already features reviews of dozens of programs across Canada.

The Business of Higher Education

The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) has released a commentary titled The Business of Higher Education .

This commentary discusses various aspects of the increased emphasis we've seen on the economic role of higher education. It explores policies that "encourage an instrumentalist approach to higher education and bolster a market-oriented university research strategy" and reviews their impact on research, curriculum, faculty, administration, and students. In concluding, the paper advocates for greater equilibrium between the traditional values of liberal arts education and emergent market-oriented profit-based objectives.

The full document may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Sunday, 22 November, 2009

German students protest Bologna reforms, fees

From University World News:

Thousands of students took to the streets last Tuesday to voice their anger over the way the Bologna reforms are being implemented in Germany. Opposition to tuition fees was also clearly reflected in the motto "Education is not for sale". The student protest has met with at least a partial response by government officials who are now considering restructuring of new courses and better financial support. All sides involved stress, however, they are not opposed in principle to the Bologna process.

More than 80,000 students took part in the protests, including 6,000 who joined a demonstration in Berlin. Similar demonstrations were held in other large university cities and there have been sit-ins in lecture halls at around 20 universities throughout the country.

Saturday, 21 November, 2009

Some UK academics calling for tuition fee hike

From Cherwell:

Senior academics have been calling for a rise in tuition fees to counter-act the academic "brain drain" in the wake of the government's announcement of a Higher Education funding review.

The senior academics from a wide range of British universities claim that higher wages in countries such as the USA are causing many top academics to move abroad, leading to a lower standard of education in the UK. A study last year from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that Britain was suffering the worst "brain drain" of any developed country. The academics believe the only way of stemming the flow of the best and the brightest is to up fees in order to improve standards.

Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics at Warwick University, argued the tuition fee cap should be removed altogether, allowing universities to charge their own fees. He said ministers would have to be much stronger to stop a "systematic move" of top scholars from the UK.

Friday, 20 November, 2009

End of "golden age" for English universities?

From the BBC News:

English universities are in danger of falling behind those in other countries for want of investment, the head of the funding council has said.

Sir Alan Langlands, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), said a "golden age" may be over.

The recently launched review of student finance might result in a "rebalancing" of the sources of money.

Maintaining current public funding would be "extremely difficult".

Shifting to electronic textbooks

From Bloomberg News:

As Sony Corp.’s e-book devices vie with the Kindle to win over readers, the real showdown may come later: when a shift to electronic textbooks at schools threatens to eclipse the current market for the products.

Sony and Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle are both expanding into the academic world. Students at Blyth Academy in Toronto do all their reading on Sony devices, and five U.S. universities are testing the Kindle. The days of students lugging around heavy textbooks may be numbered.

Thursday, 19 November, 2009

Overcoming the post-secondary cost deterrent

This Times Higher Education article notes recent research showing that cost is a major deterrent for some people who apply to but do not enter post-secondary education.

. . .among students who applied to but did not enter higher education, cost was the biggest factor. Almost 40 per cent were put off by the cost, and 32 per cent were put off by the prospect of incurring debt.

The results coincide with a second study, by the Institute of Employment Studies for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which found that about a third of young people intending to apply to higher education are so concerned about costs that they have questioned their plans, and that many of these are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

How can policymakers help these individuals overcome their apprehensiveness and convince them to enroll? Surely not by directing greater public subsidies to those who are already enrolled and clearly not deterred by the current cost.

It's World Philosophy Day!

Today is World Philosophy Day, an annual celebration of philosophy initiated by UNESCO in 2005. Here's a list of some of the events taking place around the world to mark the international celebration of the Day.

Alberta college planning 40% tuition increase

From The Edmonton Journal:

NAIT students could face a 40-percent tuition hike over the next three years, pending approval by the province and the institution's senate.

The increase, equivalent to about $1,700 per student per year, was proposed in the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology's latest business plan and would bring the average annual tuition to $5,424.

The institution would need approval to circumvent the current tuition cap, but the increase would bring NAIT tuition in line with what students pay at the Southern Alberta Institute for Technology in Calgary for the same programs.

Wednesday, 18 November, 2009

New Memorial University president named

From the Memorial University website:

The Board of Regents of Memorial University of Newfoundland announced today the appointment of internationally-renowned academic and scholar Dr. Gary Kachanoski as the next president and vice-chancellor of Newfoundland and Labrador’s only university.

The announcement was made on behalf of the Board by Robert Simmonds, chair of the Board and chair of the university’s Presidential Search Committee.

Tuesday, 17 November, 2009

Alberta re-considers tuition fee increase cap

From The Calgary Herald:

Three years after the province announced it was capping tuition rates at post-secondary institutions for up to a decade to ease the burden on students, the Stelmach government is allowing cash-strapped schools to apply for increases in their base tuition amounts for professional programs.

Advanced Education Minister Doug Horner said Monday the province will accept and review requests from post-secondary schools to increase their base tuition rates to address anticipated shortfalls for the 2010-11 academic year . . .

NL Auditor General vs NL Department of Education

Last week, Newfoundland and Labrador's Auditor General released a follow-up report on the status of the implementation of recommendations made to government by the AG's office between 2004 and 2007.

In the past, I have blogged about a couple of issues raised by the AG involving certain policies and practices of the Department of Education with respect to student financial assistance.

In 2008, the AG noted his concern about the administration of Newfoundland and Labrador's Debt Reduction Grant Program. At the time, the AG's office concluded that these grants were not being made available to all eligible students. The latest update from the AG suggests that the Department has since addressed these concerns and implemented the recommended changes.

The AG also noted in 2008 that the Department of Education did not have suitable policies and procedures in place to ensure that post-secondary institutions comply with student loan designation requirements. According to the AG's update last week, the recommendations regarding this issue have not been sufficiently addressed to date. The AG's recent observations include the following:

The Department of Education has not developed the policies and procedures necessary to ensure educational institutions comply with the designation requirements under the Student Financial Assistance Act and Regulations.

Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province in Canada that has not adopted the National Designation Policy Framework.

The Department has only partially implemented our recommendation by advising educational institutions of their student loan repayment rate performance. In order to fully implement our recommendation, the Department must also advise, assist and monitor educational institutions in taking the appropriate action to improve upon the student loan repayment rates, where required.

£2M in bonuses for Student Loans Company staff

From the BBC News:

Staff at the [UK's public sector] Student Loans Company received almost £2m in bonuses last year, figures revealed.

The payouts, some of them five figure sums, were made while a system that has left thousands of students waiting for grants and loans was being developed.

Monday, 16 November, 2009

Music blogging: Congrats to 4x MUSICNL award winners "The Once"

From the CBC News:

The Newfoundland folk group The Once took home four awards at the MUSICNL gala on Sunday night in St. John's.

The band, which includes Phil Churchill, Geraldine Hollett and Andrew Dale, won in the rising star, album of the year, folk roots group, and group of the year categories. The awards are presented annually to recognize performers from the province.

Lower tuition fees: What is it good for?

As I have noted periodically in the past, the notion that across-the-board college or university tuition fee reductions (or fee freezes) lead to across-the-board improved access (let alone greater social equity) needs to be subjected to greater critical scrutiny.

That is not to say that there are no legitimate arguments to be made in favour of tuition fee reductions or freezes. There are at least two that I have often noted.

First, it is absolutely appropriate for student groups to advocate for reduced fees as an advocacy service to their members, much in the same way that it's fair game for any union to advocate/bargain in favour of membership benefits. That what unions do.

The other area, which is really a combination of two arguments, is the student recruitment/economic development argument in favour of keeping fees low in comparison to higher-fee jurisdictions in order to attract students to comparatively lower fee jurisdictions/institutions. If the economic contribution of in-migrating students exceeds that of the public subsidy required to provide a post-secondary seat for them, then a fair argument may be made for keeping tuition fees low.

Regarding the latter case, consider the jump we have seen in Maritime student enrollment at Memorial University of Newfoundland in recent years. While we have no research-based evidence at this point, it is reasonable to suggest that Maritime students could be favouring Memorial because of the university's comparatively lower fees.

Considering Maritime students' economic contributions to Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as their social and academic contributions and their role in stabilizing enrollment levels in the face of declining numbers of high school graduates in the province, a reasonable/believable argument can be made for lower/frozen tuition at MemorialU on that basis.

UK tuition fees review

From University World News:

he long-awaited review to overhaul the student funding system was launched last Tuesday by higher education secretary Lord Mandelson with Conservative support, but the results will not be ready until after the next general election. Former chief executive of BP, Lord Browne, was appointed to chair the review amid fears of soaring fees.

At present, universities can charge a maximum of £3,225 (US$5,334) a year for tuition. Many institutions have lobbied to raise top-up fees to £7,000.

Lord Mandelson said students would be involved in discussions on funding. The review would "examine the balance of contributions to universities by taxpayers, students, graduates and employers".

The review will decide what to charge students while attempting to ensure that higher fees do not deter poorer people from applying; it will look at how student loans are subsidised and how bursaries are awarded. Lord Browne will also see if there should be a more diverse funding and charging system to reflect the more flexible ways that people are studying - part-time, in industry, and online, for example.

Friday, 13 November, 2009

UK adopts baccalaureate standard for nursing

As used to be the case in Canada, most nurses entering the profession in Britain have been completing diploma-level programs. It has been announced that Britain will adopt the baccalaureate standard for nursing, requiring all new nurses there to be qualified at the degree level from 2013 onward. Some are expressing concern that the move could deter talented candidates from entering the nursing profession.

Thursday, 12 November, 2009

3 post-secondary education "access Es"

I managed to make it to Toronto from Mexico City yesterday in spite of the demonstrations by some 200,000 workers which snarled traffic and increased the duration of the airport taxi ride significantly.

This morning I presented my paper at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's conference on post-secondary education in Canada. Robert Clift, Executive Director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of British Columbia, also presented at the session.

Hopefully, the conference papers will be published by the Foundation before long. In the meantime, here's an excerpt from my paper:

The three E’s of post-secondary access, efficiency, equability, and effectiveness should, ideally, be primary considerations in the adoption of any new access policies and programs.

Viewed from these three perspectives, targeted support is more efficient, equitable, and effective in comparison to the provision of further universal subsidies which provide funding to all students regardless of their backgrounds and means.

Universal subsidies are inefficient because many students from higher income groups can afford to attend college or university in the absence of additional public subsidies. A more efficient use of funds would be to direct additional support to those at the lower end of the income spectrum who face the greatest financial barriers.

Universal subsidies are also inequitable because they direct a greater overall proportion of public subsidies, raised through taxation, to higher income students who have the highest of post-secondary participation rates.

Finally, there is the question of effectiveness. While universal subsidies in the form of further tuition subsidies (e.g., freezes, reductions) or universal grants are sometimes proposed as mechanisms that would tend to increase post-secondary participation levels, there is little empirical evidence to support this proposition.

In fact, while it is generally agreed that there is a certain degree of elasticity in the relationship between the cost of tuition fees and the level of participation, the proportionate effect of slight increases in tuition on overall enrollment are relatively modest. Moreover, access to post-secondary education in Canada, as measured by the overall proportion of participants, has increased over the past two decades in spite of consistent, annual, inflation-exceeding increases in the average cost of tuition fees.

Wednesday, 11 November, 2009

Lest we forget

This University was raised by the People of Newfoundland as a Memorial to the fallen in the Great Wars 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, that in freedom of learning their cause and sacrifice would not be forgotten.

-- Plaque inscription, Arts and Administration Building, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Tuesday, 10 November, 2009

Mexico, market mechanisms, and higher education

I have had a busy day here at the International Workshop on Higher Education Reforms in Mexico City. This morning I participated in a panel discussion, themed Shift from State to Market? 20 Years of Higher Education Reforms in a Comparative Perspective, along with representatives from Mexico, China, Ireland, and Japan. This afternoon I presented my paper titled Market Mechanisms and Higher Education Access Reforms in Six Canadian Provinces. I hope to have this paper published in the next while so that it may be subjected to critical scrutiny. In the meantime, here is the abstract of the paper:

Under the Canadian constitution, authority over all levels of education rests with each of the individual provinces. Between 2004 and 2008, governments in six of Canada’s ten provinces, namely Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, carried out comprehensive reviews of their respective higher education systems. This paper provides an overview of the higher education access policy reforms advocated at the conclusion of the reviews as well as the student access reforms subsequently introduced by each of the provincial governments. This analysis provides some insight into the influence that market principles have come to play in Canadian policies on tuition fees, student financial assistance, and access for disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.

Help with student aid forms increases PSE entry

From University Affairs:

The key to encouraging more low-income students to go to university may be as simple as helping them complete student financial aid forms, according to a new Canada-U.S. study.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto, Harvard University, Stanford University and the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, in partnership with accounting firm H&R Block. It involved some 26,000 low-income families and individuals in Ohio and North Carolina.

. . .

As part of the study, H&R Block tax professionals helped a group of randomly selected families and individuals earning less than US$45,000 a year to complete student financial aid forms during the 2008 tax season. The families were also given an estimate of how much government aid they were eligible to receive and information about tuition costs at local postsecondary institutions. A second group received information about aid eligibility and tuition costs but no assistance completing the forms. A third group, the control group, received only pamphlets explaining the benefits of higher education and the financial aid process.

The findings showed that individuals who received assistance with the forms were substantially more likely to submit the application and enrol in university or college. Grade 12 students whose families received assistance completing the forms were 7.7 percentage points, or 29 percent, more likely to enrol in college or university than students in the control group who received only pamphlets. The assisted individuals were also more likely to receive financial aid. The assistance program also helped boost the enrolment rate of young adults who had completed high school but had no previous postsecondary experience.

Sunday, 8 November, 2009

Canadian Bureau for International Education conference

The 43rd annual conference of the Canadian Bureau for International Education starts today in Toronto. The CBIE promotes international education activities in a broad sense, so the conference usually attracts a diverse group from all levels of education including teachers, administrators, academics, counselors, program officers, students, and officials from government and business sectors. The theme of this year's conference is Internationalization Effectiveness: Strategies for Success. There's more on the conference here at the University World News site.

Friday, 6 November, 2009

Conferences in Mexico City and Toronto next week

Barring an unexpected bout of H1N1, I'll be setting off early tomorrow morning for "conference-related travel". I am presenting papers at two conferences next week. First up is Mexico City, home of ~19 million or so people, where I am presenting a paper at the International Workshop on Higher Education Reforms. Next stop will be Toronto where I am presenting at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's conference on post-secondary reforms education in Canada, billed as Opportunities-Excellence: Realizing the Promise of Higher Education. If my blogging is lighter than normal next week, this'll be why.

Shooting for the moon in PSE attainment

Following on the subject I blogged about earlier today, the Educational Policy Institute's Watson Scott Swail writes about the necessity of being #1 in the "Higher Education Arms Race":

Do we need to be number one? To me, that’s how we set ourselves up for failure. I truly don’t give a damn about being the best; I care about us doing the best. Semantics, yes, but carefully phrased nonetheless. If we reach higher to our individual and collective potential, we’ve succeeded. It's like the famous quote, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you will land among the stars." If that doesn’t make us number one, so be it. We’re still better than we were. Incremental improvement. That’s the true name of the game. Do we need large targets? That’s arguable. On one hand, yes. On another, no, if it is a number that doesn’t make sense.

Why Canada's ahead of the U.S. in PSE attainment

The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's Noel Baldwin and Andrew Parkin recently presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education in Vancouver.

The presentation, titled Canada: An Easy Target? What American Educators Need to Know to Overtake Canada as the OECD’s Most Educated Country, and What Canadian Educators Need to Know to Prevent It, noted some of the reasons why international comparisons rank Canada ahead of the United States in terms of population educational attainment.

Some of those reasons as noted by InsideHigherEd:

The mix of institutions is different, with much greater proportions of Canadians going to what the country calls "colleges" (which are two-year and career institutions) than to universities. Of the 55 percent of Canadians with degrees, nearly half, 26 percent, have sub-baccalaureate degrees from colleges, while in America, only 5 percent, out of the 39 percent of all those with post-secondary degrees, have the sub-baccalaureate degrees.

Tuitions are lower (in Quebec, college -- as opposed to university -- is free).

There is less income inequality in Canada, and also more equality in the academic preparation of young people by socioeconomic status. So while it's a much-bemoaned fact in the United States that wealthy students with poor academic credentials are more likely to go on to higher education than are high-achieving poor students, that's not true of Canada, Parkin said.]

Significantly greater proportions of second generation immigrants graduate from high school and go on to post-secondary education in Canada than in the United States.

Thursday, 5 November, 2009

Attracting and retaining youth in Newfoundland and Labrador

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has unveiled its Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy. Government's intention to develop this strategy was announced back in the 2008 provincial budget. The background work, some of it facilitated by the Canadian Policy Research Networks, was initiated in June 2008.

This new initiative has a website with lots of social media connections/potential. There's a section on the page pertaining to education but there does not appear to be much new in the way of post-secondary education polices. The Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy has its own accompanying video advertisement (below) featuring music from favorite Newfoundland and Labrador indie rockers Hey Rosetta!

Wednesday, 4 November, 2009

U.S. PSE data called "misleading" and "flawed"

A report released today by the Washington-based Institute for Higher Education Policy takes issue with much of the data used to compare the status of post-secondary education in the United States with other countries.

The report, The Spaces Between Numbers: Getting International Data on Higher Education Straight, argues that many of the U.S. post-secondary statistics frequently cited in reports prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and others are "shallow", "misleading", and "flawed". It refers to data in the OECD's annual Education at a Glance publication, such as those pertaining to graduation rates and population educational attainment, as "negative propaganda". The report argues that a number of new indicators and statistical procedures are needed to enable more accurate comparative analyses.

In response, the head of education indicators at the OECD has said that "There are so many fundamental conceptual flaws in the argumentation that this does not, in my view, warrant a serious response".

The full report may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Tuesday, 3 November, 2009

Hundreds have flu at MemorialU

As reported by the CBC News:

Students and faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador have been hit hard by flu-like symptoms in recent weeks while Canada braces for swine flu outbreaks.

The university's pandemic planning committee says 680 students in St. John's and Corner Brook, in western Newfoundland, have reported such symptoms since September.

The biggest spike in illness was the week of Oct. 26, with more than 250 students and faculty members reportedly sick. More than 17,000 students attend Memorial University.

University officials say the school won't close because of the flu or H1N1 fears.

International students contribute $6.5B to economy

From The Chronicle of Higher Education:

Foreign students contributed 6.5 billion Canadian dollars to the nation's economy in 2008, or about $6-billion in U.S. dollars, more than did either lumber or coal exports, a government minister told university leaders last week.

That figure, which does not include exports of educational services, illustrates why the government has placed a high priority on promoting Canada as a destination for international students.

The financial information comes from a report commissioned by Canada's department for foreign affairs and international trade, which the minister of international trade, Stockwell Day, released on Wednesday at the fall meeting of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

The report, "Economic Impact of International Education in Canada," measured the economic impact of visa students who were in the country longer than six months and found that they spent "in excess of $6.5-billion on tuition, accommodation, and discretionary spending." It compares that figure with two traditionally key segments of Canada's wealth, exports of coal ($6.07-billion) and of coniferous lumber ($5.1-billion).

Monday, 2 November, 2009

Skilled Trades and Technology Week in Canada

This week (November 2 to 8) is Skilled Trades and Technology Week in Canada.

Over the course of the week, Skills/Competences Canada will be promoting and hosting activities across Canada to raise awareness of skilled trades and technology career opportunities.

Of course, even the best laid plans are thwarted by H1N1.

Future of higher education in the UK

A lengthy public debate on the future of the higher education system in the United Kingdom is about to enter a new phase. According to news reports, Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson will release a 15-year framework for higher education tomorrow.

Mandelson, who recently suggested that university students would get a higher quality education if they paid increased fees, is also expected to announce a review of tuition fee levels.

Also making news today is a plan to have institutions adopt to food labeling inspired system for advertising the attributes of individual programs, such as the frequency of classes, numbers of exams, drop-out rates, graduate earnings, and other "ingredients".

Monday, 30 November, 2009

Sunday, 29 November, 2009

Saturday, 28 November, 2009

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Post-Secondary Studies @ Memorial University

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