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Thursday, 30 September, 2010
Population trends to challenge Atlantic institutions
Following 16 consecutive years of population decline, Newfoundland and Labrador's population grew slightly in 2009. According to Statistics Canada's second quarter population statistics for 2010, the province's population has declined slightly.
While the end of year numbers will give a clear sense of the overall annual trend, long-term population projections point to an overall decline for Newfoundland and Labrador, and for the neighboring Maritime provinces as well. The decline amongst the key cohort of 17–29 year-olds, in particular, will present enrollment challenges for post-secondary institutions in the Atlantic region.
According to projections provided by Statistics Canada in 2007, if post-secondary participation rates were to remain at the average level that existed between 2003/2004 and 2005/2006, university enrollments in the Atlantic provinces would be expected to decline following the trend I have plotted below.
Source: Statistics Canada. (2007). Post-secondary Enrolment Trends to 2031, Three Scenarios.
Wednesday, 29 September, 2010
Understanding post-secondary decision-making
A story posted on the Globe and Mail website picks up on the results of a study recently carried out under the auspices of the Measuring the Effectiveness of Student Aid Project.
The story, titled Students decide about higher education earlier than thought, study shows, notes that many young people "set their sights on university or college" before Grade 9 which is, apparently, "earlier than once believed". The results of the study are indeed interesting, but they are, in fact, not at all surprising.
Conceptual models of post-secondary choice, which incorporate early decision-making, have been in use for quite some time. For example, the conceptual model developed by Hossler and Gallagher (1987) identifies 3 key stages of post-secondary choice decisions: predisposition, search, and choice. This model acknowledges that students begin to see post-secondary education as an important step in achieving their personal and occupational goals by Grade 7 or earlier.
As per Figure 1 below, the Hossler and Gallagher model can be extended to a 5-stage model to incorporate the post-enrollment retention and graduation decisions of college and university students (click on image to enlarge).
Tuesday, 28 September, 2010
Report on price sensitivity and loan debt aversion
The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario has released a new report, Willingness to Pay for Post-secondary Education Among Under-represented Groups, which reviews the role that costs and borrowing play in post-secondary education planning and decision-making.
The study outlined in the report focused on the impact of price sensitivity and student loan debt aversion on the participation of groups that have been historically under-represented in post-secondary programs. The researchers noted a higher level of price sensitivity amongst individuals from low-income backgrounds, those with high school-educated parents, Aboriginal students, and boys. Thirty percent of the entire sample of students in the study displayed debt-averse behavior.
The report makes a number of recommendations, including the introduction of "policy levers that reduce price, such as targeted grants". Download the full report here in .pdf format.
Friday, 24 September, 2010
A new approach for post-secondary education
Yesterday a student in one of my courses raised an important point about industry and co-op programs in post-secondary education, and I was reminded of the following op-ed piece I wrote to the local papers back in November 2003, shortly after Premier Danny Williams first took office. These ideas are as relevant, and perhaps controversial, as they were back then:
A New Approach for Post-secondary Education
The past decade has been a challenging one for post-secondary education. Faculty and administrators at the College of the North Atlantic and Memorial University must feel as though they have been living amid almost perpetual financial challenges. Tuition and student debt are at historically high levels, leading to financial hardship for students and families.
The new Williams government has been elected on a broad commitment to A New Approach to governance. Here are some suggestions for A New Approach to post-secondary education.
Loans and Grants
Although the current student loans system is intended to ensure that there are post-secondary opportunities for individuals from all backgrounds, our society is becoming not only more unequal, but more predictable in terms of the intergenerational transmission of higher levels of educational attainment. Children of well-educated, well-off parents generally achieve and persist in post-secondary education, and those of the poor, unless very bright and lucky, generally do not.
Considering this, and the province’s budgetary pressures, any new grants for post-secondary students, including repayment forgiveness or other loan subsidies, should be spent minimally, if at all, on those students who would attend college or university as effectively in the absence of such grants.
While the tuition reductions implemented by the previous government were popular, subsidizing post-secondary education for those who do not need such assistance, at the expense of educational opportunities for others who do, is hard to justify. It would be more equitable to minimize politically popular universal subsidies and direct scarce funds toward helping those who need it the most.
Skilled Trades
Aging baby-boomers and increasing rates of retirement have the potential to lead to skills shortages in the near future. This does not bode well for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians if our intention is to maximize employment opportunities for ourselves in oil, mineral, hydro and other resource industries where skilled trades are a prerequisite.
Compounding this problem, many youths and their key influencers have misperceptions of the nature of skilled trades professions. Government should act quickly, and in concert with labour and industry, to dispel the myth of skilled trades as a ‘last resort’ destination and make the necessary financial investments in skilled trades training.
Lifelong Learning = Economic Growth
Lifelong learning has to be more than a catch phrase during elections. As has been the Irish experience, lifelong learning has the potential to fuel and maintain significant economic growth. We must do much more to accommodate this type of education and we must be strategic in our approach.
Our post-secondary institutions have to play a greater role at the regional level in providing for recurrent educational needs by way of part-time day and evening programmes and short-term industry-specific training programs in response to labour market demands.
Lifelong learning should be used to promote and assist rural communities, business enterprises and entrepreneurs through research, consultancy, mentoring and development work. This effort should be targeted toward applied fields (engineering, information technology, business studies); cultural industries (film, art and music); and it should also provide opportunities for postgraduate studies.
The value of lifelong learning
This video from the Canadian Council on Learning explores the social and economic benefits of lifelong learning:
Thursday, 23 September, 2010
Canadians believe PSE costs too much: BMO survey
From the BMO Financial Group:
With school now in session, BMO Financial Group today announced the results of a national survey revealing that almost two-thirds of Canadians (64 per cent) believe the cost of a post-secondary education is too expensive. With a four-year program at a Canadian university currently costing up to $60,000, only 21 per cent of parents with children under the age of 18 feel confident they would be able to pay-off such costs.
The survey, conducted for BMO Financial Group by Leger Marketing, also examines the confidence level of students in relation to education costs. Three-fifths of students aged 18 to 24 share similar concerns as their parents, with 28 per cent believing they will struggle to pay off post-secondary costs and 32 per cent expecting to be in debt for years to come.
Wednesday, 22 September, 2010
Managing student loan debt in Canada
The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) has released a new monograph on student finances titled Tallying the Costs of Post-secondary Education: The Challenge of Managing Student Debt and Loan Repayment in Canada.
The student debt issues highlighted in the report have been repeatedly raised by the country's student advocacy groups and are well-documented in the Price of Knowledge reports compiled by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. This new paper from the CCL also outlines some of the key points of contention in the (for the most part settled) debate over income contingent loan repayment (ICLR) as well as recent changes to the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP).
The paper suggests that the recently adopted Repayment Assistance Plan changes have significantly improved the CSLP. Its recommendations include the adoption of a more simplified and integrated "one student, one loan” system across the provinces. There is not much in the way of advocacy for new investments in student financial aid; however, the paper emphasizes the need to "promote equitable access to [post-secondary education], particularly for students from lower-income families".
The full document may be downloaded here in .pdf format.
Monday, 20 September, 2010
Report on international students in Atlantic Canada
According to a study released last week by the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training, international post-secondary students contributed $565 million to the economy of Atlantic Canada in 2009-10. The provincial estimates are as follows: New Brunswick ($170.7M), Newfoundland and Labrador ($70.1M), Nova Scotia ($286.6M), and Prince Edward Island ($37.5M).
In addition to reporting on the economic impact of international students, the authors of the report included a summary of unprompted survey comments provided by students (see pages 38-42). This includes international students' feedback on a diversity of issues including tuition and funding, cultural issues, and, unfortunately, discrimination based on race/ethnicity.
The full report, The Economic Impact of Post-secondary International Students in Atlantic Canada: An Expenditure Analysis, is available for download here in .pdf format.
Sunday, 19 September, 2010
Reviewing tuition fee policy in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is the latest Canadian province to complete a major review of post-secondary education policy. Six other Canadian provinces, Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, have completed some form of post-secondary system review since 2004. These exercises have varied much in their comprehensiveness. In Nova Scotia's case, the policy review was limited to the province's 'system' of 11 universities.
The Nova Scotia review was carried out by Dr. Tim O'Neill, who is an economist by trade and a noted expert on the North American economy. As with the post-secondary reviews carried out elsewhere in the country in recent years, O'Neill tackles one of the more political and divisive questions in post-secondary education policy. That is, what level of tuition fees is most appropriate?
In his thoughtful section on access, tuition fees, and student financial aid (see pages 79-91), O'Neill notes that "tuition fees are the most visible (if not the most significant) costs to students of university attendance" (p. 79), and in the end summarizes the issue(s) as follows:
Public discussion of tuition fees often focuses on the impact of tuition levels on accessibility to post-secondary education for low-income individuals, on affordability generally, and on the levels of debt that students carry after graduation. However, this focus on accessibility and affordability ignores four significant issues: the interests of universities and taxpayers; the long-term benefits to graduates of post-secondary education (which are many); the actual impacts of tuition fee levels on accessibility (which are modest); and equity within a system in which lower-income taxpayers now heavily subsidize university education for students from better-off families.
Friday, 17 September, 2010
University mergers, fee increases suggested for NS
From the CBC News:
Two small Nova Scotia universities should consider merging with Dalhousie University as a cost-cutting measure, but there's no need to merge all 11 into a single provincial university, a consultant says.
Tim O'Neill's report into the province's post-secondary system was released Friday in Halifax.
O'Neill said change is necessary, but he rejected closing any campuses or creating a single University of Nova Scotia. He said that may save money in the long run, but the up-front costs would be too high.
. . .
O'Neill said the cash-strapped province has to allow tuition to rise because it cannot afford to pay for all of the programs.
But at the same time, he added, the province has to increase the level of student loans and bursaries it provides to the poorest students.
Podcast on access, graduation, and attainment
The Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice at the University of Southern California has kicked off its monthly podcasts for this academic year with an interview with Dr. Matt Chingos, co-author of the award-winning book Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities. Chingos discusses graduation rates and completion trends at 4-year public universities in the U.S., the notable vast disparities that exist in educational attainment between races and socioeconomic classes in the U.S., and strategies for improving access and completion rates. Click here to listen (podcast runs 27:48).
Thursday, 16 September, 2010
Atlantic provinces university tuition this decade
Statistics Canada has released the results of its annual tuition survey. Ontario remains on top with the highest fees ($6,307) in Canada, followed by New Brunswick $5,516. Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are at the other end of the scale with the lowest ($2,415) and second lowest ($2,624) fees in the country.
Between 2001-02 and the current academic year, tuition fees, in raw unadjusted dollars, rose across the Maritime provinces from a high of 43.8% in New Brunswick to a low of 13% in Nova Scotia. In PEI, the increase was 38%. In Newfoundland and Labrador (i.e., at Memorial University of Newfoundland), fees declined by 14%. These figures are plotted below.
Over this same period, 2001-02 to 2010-11, inflation-adjusted (i.e., in September 2010 dollars) tuition fees rose in only New Brunswick (19%) and PEI (15%). Adjusted fees declined in both Nova Scotia (-6%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-28%). The inflation-adjusted figures are plotted in the figure below.
Wednesday, 15 September, 2010
Abstracted: The transfer function and Ontario's community colleges
The current issue of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education includes an article by OISE/UT professor emeritus Michael Skolnik titled A Look Back at the Decision on the Transfer Function at the Founding of Ontario’s Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology. In the article, Dr. Skolnik reflects on the consequences of the decision to exclude the community college transfer function from the mandate of Ontario’s college system. The abstract:
Community college systems were established across North America from the early 1960s through the early 1970s. The new systems had two principal models: in one model, the college combined lower-division, university-level general education with technical education programs; in the other, most or all of the colleges were intended to concentrate on technical education. Ontario was the largest of the provinces and states in North America that opted for the second model. Many of the issues that planners confronted when designing these college systems have either persisted or re-emerged in recent years. This article re-examines the debate on the design of Ontario’s colleges that took place when they were founded and considers its implications for the present.The full article is available for download here in .pdf format.
Tuesday, 14 September, 2010
Can you pay students to get better grades?
This clip is from the recently released Freakonomics movie which explores, among other things, incentivized education. In other words, can you pay students to get better grades?
The Freakonomics movie, which is in theaters on October 1, is currently available for download before its theatrical release via iTunes .
Monday, 13 September, 2010
Conservative think tank pans "cheap tuition"
The following two paragraphs are drawn from a Frontier Centre for Public Policy op-ed piece which appeared in the The Montreal Gazette:
Arguments for low tuition rates on the grounds that they benefit young people from low-income families are misguided. In fact, the benefits of low tuition levels flow disproportionately to economically comfortable members of society. University students are much more likely to have grown up in affluent families, and have, on average, higher lifetime earnings themselves than people who do not advance beyond high school. Those who do not pursue post-secondary education receive none of the benefits of low tuitions - but they are required to pay some of the costs, through higher taxes on their earnings. Low tuition rates are therefore a regressive subsidy that force a less affluent group of people - those who do not pursue postsecondary education - to bear some of the costs associated with educating a much more affluent group- those who do.
The cut-rate tuition levels in Manitoba and Quebec do little or nothing to boost university participation and are an inefficient strategy for ensuring access to higher education. The real effect of rock-bottom tuition in Manitoba and Quebec is to transfer public funds into the pockets of society's wealthier and better educated. A smarter and fairer policy is to require students to pay similar tuition to that paid in the other provinces, while using scarce public funds where they are really needed.
Friday, 10 September, 2010
Summer labour market challenging for students
From Statistics Canada's August Labour Force Survey:
From May to August, the Labour Force Survey collects labour market information about young people aged 15 to 24 who were attending school full time in March and intend to return to school in the fall. The published estimates are not seasonally adjusted; therefore, comparisons can only be made on a year-over-year basis.
The 2010 summer labour market was challenging for students aged 15 to 24, with an average unemployment rate of 16.8% from May to August. Although an improvement from the summer of 2009, when the unemployment rate was 19.2%, it remains high compared with that of the summer of 2008, when the rate was 13.6%.
Older students fared better than their younger counterparts during the summer of 2010. The percentage of 20 to 24 year-olds employed averaged 66.5% in the summer of 2010, compared with 63.0% in the summer of 2009. In contrast, the percentage of 15 to 19 year-olds working declined slightly, from 42.8% to 42.5%.
The average number of hours worked during the summer of 2010 by students was 23.6 hours per week, among the lowest since data were first collected in 1977.
Thursday, 9 September, 2010
Marking International Literacy Day
Yesterday was International Literacy Day. Newfoundland and Labrador's Minister of Education marked the day by presenting this year’s Council of the Federation Literacy Award to Robin Grant, who is the director and founder of the St. John's-based not-for-profit For the Love of Learning.
The federal minister for Human Resources and Skills Development seized the occasion to point out that "low literacy is a big issue in Canada . . . an issue our government is addressing, as we take action to prepare our workforce for the jobs of tomorrow". Perhaps the minister might begin addressing the issue by restoring the $17.7 million her government cut from adult literacy programs not so long ago.
For its part, the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) released a new report to coincide with International Literacy Day. The report, The Future of Literacy in Canada’s Largest Cities, offers adult literacy projections from 2001 to 2031 for Canada’s largest cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Ottawa. The CCL predicts that all four cities will see increased numbers of adults with low literacy skills. It also projects that Canada as a whole can "expect to see the number of adults living with low literacy increase by more than three million to 15 million within one generation".
Wednesday, 8 September, 2010
Participation in adult education in Canada
As it did last year, the Canadian Education Statistics Council, a partnership between Statistics Canada and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, has released a set of Canadian education indicators to coincide with the release of the OECD's annual Education at a Glance report.
Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, 2010 notes that 42% of Canadian adults aged 25-64 participated in some form of formal or non-formal education or training in 2008. This was similar to the OECD average level of participation in adult education (41%).
Adult education participation rates were above the Canadian and OECD averages in Alberta (49%), Saskatchewan (47%), PEI (47%), Ontario (45%), and Manitoba (44%). They were close to the national average in Nova Scotia (43%) and BC (42%), and below it in Newfoundland and Labrador (38%), New Brunswick (37%), and Quebec (36%).
Across the country, adults with the highest levels of educational attainment were, as has been the trend, much more likely to participate in education and training -- 54% for those with post-secondary education vs. 18% for those with less than a high school diploma (or equivalent).
The full report may be downloaded here in .pdf format.
Increased PSE access means inequality
Philip G. Altbach writes in the Fall 2010 issue of International Higher Education quarterly, published by the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College:
The reality of postsecondary education, in an era of access combined with fiscal constraint and ever-increasing costs, is that inequality within higher education systems is here to stay. Most countries have or are creating differentiated systems of higher education that will include different kinds of institutions serving specific needs. This process is inevitable and largely positive. However, the research universities at the top of any system tend to serve an elite clientele and have high status, while institutions lower in the hierarchy cater to students who cannot compete for the limited seats at the top. Major and growing differences exist in funding, quality, and facilities within systems. Given financial and staffing constraints, institutional inequalities will continue.
Students will come from more diverse backgrounds and in many ways will be more difficult to serve effectively. All of these issues constitute a deep contradiction for 21st-century higher education. As access expands, inequalities within the higher education system also grow. Conditions of study for many students deteriorate. More of them fail to obtain degrees. The economic benefits assumed to accrue to persons with a postsecondary qualification probably decline for many. Access remains an important goal -- and an inevitable goal -- of higher education everywhere, but it creates many challenges.
Tuesday, 7 September, 2010
Education at a Glance 2010
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released the 2010 edition of its annual publication Education at a Glance. The full text of the report can be downloaded here.
Canada continues to lead the OECD in terms of educational attainment amongst working age adults, with 49% of the Canadian population aged 25-64 having attained a college- or university-level education.
Across the OECD countries, individuals with a post-secondary education have a greater chance of being employed than others in the workforce. The report notes that the earnings premium for those with post-secondary education has been increasing in most OECD countries over the past decade. In 21 out of 31 countries, the post-secondary earnings premium exceeds 50%.
As noted in an article in today's Globe and Mail, 56.6% of Canada's spending on post-secondary education comes from public sources. The remaining 43.4% comes from private sources, including tuition fees. Households account for 44.5% of the private post-secondary expenditures while the other 55.5% comes from expenditures made by other private entities, such as private companies and not-for-profit organizations.
Thursday, 2 September, 2010
Tenure-track position in Adult Education available
The Faculty of Education at Memorial University is advertising a tenure-track position in the area of Adult Education (application deadline Friday, Oct. 15, 2010). This is the second time the Faculty has advertised for this position.
Here's a snippet from the ad:
The successful candidate for this position should hold a PhD in Adult Education, proven teaching ability within the post-secondary education system or an adult education setting, and research experience in the area of adult education. Previous experience working with community college, vocational and technical instructors would be a definite asset.In addition to research and service responsibilities, the person hired to this position will teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels in Memorial University of Newfoundland's Adult Education and Post-Secondary Studies programs.
The entire advertisement is available here on the University Affairs website. Applicants may also be interested in the terms of the collective agreement between faculty members and Memorial University which is also available on-line.
Wednesday, 1 September, 2010
What is a degree is really worth?
The Canadian Federation of Students has taken issue with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) for the latter's claim that university graduates in Canada earn "on average $1.3 million more than high school graduates". The $1.3 million figure was included in a media release sent out by the AUCC yesterday.
The data backing the AUCC's latest estimate is not provided, but estimating individual rates of returns on investment in education in terms of lifetime earnings premia is a bit of a crap shoot. Consider, for example, that in its 2008 Momentum report the AUCC stated that "the 2006 Census shows that over the course of their careers, individuals with bachelor’s degrees from Canadian universities earn, on average, $1 million more than those with only a high school education". Using the same Census data, a subsequent report from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation estimated that a "bachelor’s degree holder will earn a premium of $745,800 over the course of 40 years". That's quite a difference in estimates.
Aside from differences in the way different individuals choose to estimate earnings premia, there are other problems as well, such as the failure to take into account differences in productivity levels between, for example, those who go to university and those who do not.
The release from the Federation of Students points to a 2004 report, Funding Post-Secondary Education: Beyond the Path of Least Resistance, which "found that for one-quarter of university graduates the net value of a degree is actually negative". The data used to back that assertion (shown in the table below) suggested that "while the median earnings of 25-29 year olds who have a university degree are $36,000 per year, 25% of that group earned less than $25,000 and 25% earned more than $48,000 . . . [meaning] that, relative to the average earnings of high school graduates ($27,000), the “premium” is actually negative for 25% of degree holders".
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