Adventures in Canadian Post-Secondary Education: March 2011

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Completion behaviour of registered apprentices

A new study from Statistics Canada uses data from the 2007 National Apprenticeship Survey to investigate factors related program completion amongst registered apprentices.

The results indicate that program completion is positively related to a number of demographic characteristics, including being married, having fewer children, and having completed at least a high school education prior to beginning an apprenticeship. Divorced and single individuals, Aboriginal people, visible minorities, individuals with an activity limitation, and those with low education levels are all less likely to complete their apprenticeships. The report also looks at the impact of a variety of other factors including the type of training completed, trade group, time in the apprenticeship program, number of employers during training, and the apprentice's province of residence.

The full report, The Completion Behaviour of Registered Apprentices: Who Continues, Who Quits, and Who Completes Programs?, may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Monday, 28 March, 2011

Rick's Rant - Voting 101

As we head into the first week of a 5-week federal election campaign, I offer up Rick Mercer's Voting 101 rant to post-secondary students (from the last federal election in 2008):

Friday, 25 March, 2011

Weekend music blogging: KMAG YOYO

KMAG YOYO ("kiss my ass guys, you're on your own" in military slang) is the title track on the fourth album from Texas troubadour Hayes Carll.

Building the case for apprenticeships

An article in the latest issue of the Canadian Apprenticeship Journal compares the labour market outcomes of apprentices with outcomes for graduates of other college programs and other individuals who did not pursue post-secondary education. Here's the abstract:

Secondary provincial and national data sources were used to assess and analyze key labour market outcomes of apprenticeship completers. The key outcomes analyzed include employment status, relatedness of job to training, wages earned, job satisfaction and job security. Outcomes of apprenticeship completers were compared with outcomes of individuals who pursued other postsecondary program options (excluding university graduates) and those who did not pursue any postsecondary education. A comparison of data from secondary sources provides insight into key labour market outcomes of the following groups: apprenticeship completers, individuals who took a postsecondary trades-related program, individuals who took a postsecondary technical/applied program, and individuals who did not complete any postsecondary training. Based on available and comparable data, short-, medium- and long-term outcomes of apprentices are presented in this paper, and demonstrate that their labour market outcomes are more positive than those of the other groups identified, thus supporting the case for pursuing and completing an apprenticeship.

Reference: Malatest, R., Rose, A., & McCann, A. (2011). Building a case for pursuing and completing apprenticeship. Canadian Apprenticeship Journal, 4(Spring 2011), 1–17.

Thursday, 24 March, 2011

Student engagement and persistence: Reconsidering the relationship

An article in current print issue of Innovative Higher Education examines the relationship between post-secondary student persistence and academic and social engagement. The abstract:

Using data from two rounds of surveys on students in the Washington State Achievers (WSA) program, this study examined the relationship between student engagement in college activities and student persistence in college. Different approaches using student engagement measures in the persistence models were compared. The results indicated that the relationship between student engagement and the probability of persisting was not linear. Even though a higher level of social engagement was related to an increased probability of persisting, a higher level of academic engagement was negatively related to such probability. The findings have strong implications for educational research, policy, and practice.

Reference: Hu, S. (2011). Reconsidering the relationship between student
engagement and persistence in college. Innovative Higher Education, 36(2), 97–106.

Saskatchewan budget caps tuition hikes at 3%

From the Regina Leader-Post:

In the budget released on Wednesday, the Government of Saskatchewan committed to providing $24.6 million to limit tuition increases to about three per cent for Saskatchewan universities, SIAST and the regional colleges.

The budget provides more than $125 million in total to post-secondary studies.
. . .

Also allocated is $97.8 million to support students through loans, scholarships, grants, bursaries, the Provincial Training Allowance, the Apprenticeship Training Allowance, the Skills Training Benefit and the Graduate Retention Program. An additional $3 million will be for the new Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship, but details on the scholarship are not yet known.

Tuesday, 22 March, 2011

PSE in the 2011 federal budget

The Harper minority Conservatives have delivered their sixth budget since coming to power in 2006. Here are some of the more notable post-secondary-related bits and pieces I've picked out of the 2011 Budget in Brief:

$9 million a year for student-loan forgiveness for doctors and nurses working in rural and remote areas;
$9 million over 2 years to increase adult basic education and opportunities in the North;
making occupational, trade, and professional examination fees eligible for the Tuition Tax Credit;
$34 million a year to expand eligibility for Canada Student Loans and Grants;
$10 million in tax relief to Canadian students pursuing post-secondary education abroad;
$60 million to promote student enrollment in disciplines related to the "digital economy";
$10 million over 2 years to develop an "international education strategy" for Canada;
$12 million over 5 years toward the Canada-India Research Centre of Excellence;
$53.5 million over 5 years to create 10 new Canada Excellence Research Chairs;
$47 million a year for the 3 federal research granting councils;
30 new Industrial Research Chairs at colleges with $3 million in 2011–12 and $5 million a year on a permanent basis starting in 2012–13;
$12 million over 5 years, starting in 2011–12, through the Idea to Innovation program to support joint college-university commercialization projects;
$100 million for a Canada Brain Research Fund to support research in the areas related to neuroscience and brain disorders;
$35 million over 5 years to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to support climate and atmospheric research; and
$50 million over 5 years to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

None of this is likely to matter, however, since none of the opposition parties are planning to support the budget.

New Brunswick ends tuition fee freeze

From CBC News:

New Brunswick's post-secondary students will be digging deeper into their wallets to pay for their education, Finance Minister Blaine Higgs announced on Tuesday.

Tuition fees are set to go up at universities and colleges across the province and the provincial government is retooling how it distributes student aid.

Higgs announced an annual $200 tuition increase for all post-secondary students during his budget speech Tuesday.

A tuition freeze was put in place under Shawn Graham's former Liberal government.

Monday, 21 March, 2011

Two tuition fee developments in Europe

In the lead-up to their recent national election, politicians in Ireland were debating a increase in post-secondary or "third-level" user fees. The options considered included a return to tuition fees and a new "graduate tax". University World News notes that Ireland's newly-elected government has opted to continue to study the matter for the time being. Nonetheless, students will still see an increase of 33% or €500 in the "student service charge" during the upcoming academic year.

University World News also notes that the German city-state of Hamburg has confirmed that it will eliminate university tuition fee charges. With this policy change, only 3 of Germany's 16 federal states will continue to charge tuition fees.

Sunday, 20 March, 2011

Danny Williams’ post-secondary education legacy

The current issue of Academic Matters, a publication of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, features an article about the post-secondary education policies implemented by the government of former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams. The piece highlights the following implications for the rest of the country:

First, government investment in making post-secondary education more affordable can yield tangible results. Indeed, while some cynics might dismiss the Danny Williams approach as “throwing money at the problem,” Williams has shown that investing in the right places results in meaningful outcomes, such as higher student enrollment (particularly for those from lower-income households) and lower student debt.

Second, the Danny Williams experience casts serious doubt on the notion that the cost to students of a post-secondary education has a negligible impact on behaviour.

Third, in an era when many politicians have convinced themselves that the fastest way to a voter’s heart is through tax cuts, Newfoundland and Labrador’s experience demonstrates that substantially increasing funding for post-secondary education can also be politically popular.

Saturday, 19 March, 2011

Weekend music blogging: St. John's

St. John's, Newfoundland, as seen in the TV series Republic of Doyle. "St. John's" performed by The Fables.

Friday, 18 March, 2011

Quebec announces five years of tuition hikes

From The National Post:

The Quebec government moved to stave off funding crises in its universities and provincial pension plan Thursday with a budget that will leave students, workers and employers paying more.

After decades of frozen tuition fees left Quebec’s rates the lowest in Canada — and less than half the average in other provinces — students will have to dig deeper beginning in the fall of 2012.

Finance Minister Raymond Bachand announced that university tuition, currently $2,168 a year, will rise by $325 a year over five years. By 2016, undergraduate students will be paying $3,793, an increase of 75% but still below the current national average.

Wednesday, 16 March, 2011

Educational attainment & employment in the U.S.

The charted data below, from a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (via Huffington Post), show that individuals with higher levels of education in the United States continue to experience much higher levels of employment.

However, unlike the relationship illustrated in the figure above, the duration of periods of unemployment that U.S. workers have experienced during the economic downturn is similar for workers at all levels of educational attainment.

Monday, 14 March, 2011

McGillU fined $2 million for 900% MBA tuition hike

From The Canadian Press:

Montreal's McGill University will be fined more than $2 million for having raised tuition fees in its MBA program by nearly 900 per cent.

The Quebec government announced today that the top-ranked university will see its government subsidy cut by roughly $2.1 million this year.

In a place with the lowest tuition rates in Canada and a decade-long freeze on fee hikes, McGill has been pushing back.

Last September, McGill began charging $29,500 in annual tuition for its two-year MBA program, well above provincial limits that cap tuition at around $3,400 per year.

Report on tuition fee policy options for Ontario

With the province of Ontario's current tuition policy framework for colleges and universities set to expire in 2012-2013, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) has released a report which outlines a number of options for a new framework for tuition. Four general frameworks are summarized by HEQCO as follows:

The fee cap approach explores several variations including rollback, freeze, tying increases to the Consumer Price Index and the current government policy that allows an annual increase of 5 per cent in average tuition fees. The report acknowledges that each variation will have its impact, detractors and supporters.

The shares approach explores the appropriate balance between the relative cost of PSE that should be borne by tuition versus the government. While the report says that any target ratio is arbitrary, it notes that the student share has increased over time. The share of revenue provided by university tuition, for example, has increased from 19 per cent to 37 percent over the last 20 years - with the lion's share of growth between 1990 and 2000 and accompanied by a series of policy adjustments such as tuition credits.

Constrained deregulation would give institutions more discretion in setting fees within and among programs while retaining an overall fee cap. The Ontario precedent for this approach was set in 1998, when tuition was deregulated for certain programs that were assumed to provide graduates with higher earnings and employment rates.

Full deregulation would allow discretion in setting fees and remove an overall fee cap. While attractive from an institutional revenue standpoint, the approach could have a negative impact on accessibility, although any option that results in higher fees could include a "tax back" scheme where a portion of increases would be set aside for financial aid.

The full report, Tuition Fee Policy Options for Ontario, may be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Friday, 11 March, 2011

Weekend music blogging: Decemberists featuring Gillian Welch

Should we eliminate tuition fees, again?

Yesterday, the elimination of tuition fees at Memorial University of Newfoundland was the subject of discussion on Radio Noon Crosstalk, a CBC Radio call-in show here in St. John’s. The show's guests, federation of students chairperson Daniel Smith and Jessica McCormick of the Memorial University students' union, noted that students once benefited from a tuition-free policy at the university.

Indeed, in March 1965 Newfoundland's then-premier Joey Smallwoood introduced free tuition for first-year students at Memorial University. Later that year, in October, it was announced that all students attending the university would no longer pay tuition beginning in the fall 1966 term. In addition, a system of “salaries” was introduced for students who were residents of the province. During the first year of this grant program, students in their 4th year or beyond received $50 per month if they resided in the St. John’s area or $100 per month if they were from an area beyond commuting distance of the university. All married students also received $100 per month. While the grant program was extended to 3rd year students in 1967, it was not to last. In 1968, the program was replaced with a program comprised of needs-based grants and Canada Student Loans. Likewise, the free tuition policy was phased out beginning with a shift from universal to means-tested eligibility in 1969.

If you are interested in the current debate about a return to tuition-free study at Memorial University, you can listen to the archived Radio Noon Crosstalk show on-line here.

Thursday, 10 March, 2011

Four Canadian universities among 100 most respected

The Times Higher Education has released a ranking of the world's most respected universities based on feedback from 13,388 academics. Universities were ranked on their reputation for teaching and research and four Canadian universities made the top 100 as follows: University of Toronto (ranked #17), McGill University (ranked #29), University of British Columbia (ranked #31), and University of Waterloo (ranked #91).

Wednesday, 9 March, 2011

Turkey's academic 'brain rain'

From Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review:

Little more than a decade ago, the number of foreign academics at Turkish universities would scarcely have been enough to hold a good panel discussion. Today, they could staff an entire major institution in the United States.

The more than 1,300 new faces at Turkish universities – the English-literature professor from Canada, the engineering instructor from Hong Kong, the mathematician from California or the philosophy professor from Greece – have been drawn to the country by a combination of increased opportunities in Turkey, and fewer ones at home.

Hat tip to Not-So-Foreign

Quebec university heads propose increase in fees

Daniel Ziziani, president of the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities, wrote the following in yesterdays' Montreal Gazette:

. . . in terms of operating grants per weighted full-time-equivalent student, Quebec now ranks seventh among all Canadian provinces. In the past, Quebec has been among the leaders in this area, and it must aim to regain that position.

Regarding the student contribution, the result of successive tuition fee-freezes in recent decades is that a university education now costs less, in constant dollars, than it did in 1968. Now that the government has announced its decision to increase tuition fees starting in the fall of 2012, the Conference of Rectors and Principals of Quebec Universities has proposed a means to bring fees back to the equivalent of their 1968 value. A fee increase of $500 a year over three years (starting in 2012-13) would bring in about $300 million (recurring), of which $75 million, or 25 per cent, would be used to increase student financial aid. This would mean a net investment of $225 million in the university system.

Tuesday, 8 March, 2011

Saskatchewan university presidents concerned about degree-granting expansion

The Government of Saskatchewan is holding consultations on the question of expanding degree-granting status beyond the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina. The move has the two university presidents in the province raising concerns:

Vianne Timmons, the president of the University of Regina, says the university could stand to lose money if provincial funding for degree programs is spread among more institutions.

"Our funding per student is not the highest in the country by any means," Timmons said. "That will be a concern, unless the envelope becomes bigger."

Timmons says the university is approaching the consultations with an open mind, but also a sense of caution.

For Peter MacKinnon, the president of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, the discussions are welcome, but he's still cautious about making the leap.

"I would ask three questions before we commit. I would say, is it in the public interest, is the quality the same, and who pays?" said MacKinnon. "You can't make a mistake and easily reverse it. Once you add additional degree granting capacity to the province, you're not going to take it away."

Hat tip to Academica's Top Ten

Sunday, 6 March, 2011

German state of North Rhine-Westphalia scraps tuition fees

From University World News:

Tuition fees will be scrapped in North-Rhine Westphalia from the coming winter semester. By then, higher education institutions in just four of Germany's 16 Federal states will still be charging fees.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Social Democrat-Green minority government secured a sound majority with support from the opposition party Die Linke when votes were taken on the controversial issue in the Düsseldorf State Parliament.

Tuition fees were introduced in 2006 by the then ruling Christian Democrat-Free Democrat coalition.

Meanwhile, neighbouring Austria appears to be set to reintroduce tuition fees.

Friday, 4 March, 2011

Women in doctoral programs, faculty positions

Earlier this week, the Canadian Education Statistics Council released a fact sheet on the number of women among doctoral students and university faculty. The fact sheet highlights a number of notable differences between the post-secondary participation of Canadian men and women.

The most recent data show that women account for over half (55%) of all community college enrollments, over half (58%) of all enrollments in university undergraduate programs, and over half (56%) of all enrollments in master’s degree programs. The situation is reversed at the doctoral level, however, with women representing less than half (47%) of students enrolled in doctoral programs and less than half (44%) of all doctoral degree recipients.

While women account for just 33% of Canadian full-time university faculty with doctorates, the fact sheet notes that women have made some important gains in recent years:

While [women's] representation in enrollments and graduations has been stronger in programs at the undergraduate and master’s levels, this pattern has not yet been duplicated among doctoral students and graduates. However, the counts of women at the earned doctorate level have been rising steadily in recent years, and women are gradually closing the gap with their male counterparts in both enrollments and earned doctorates (Chart 5). Although there may be clear gender differences in some disciplines, women have also strengthened their presence in doctoral programs in all fields of study and in all fields of instruction among full-time university educators.

The fact sheet, which includes an overview of changes in female-male doctoral enrollment patterns and changes in the representation of men and women amongst university faculty over time, is available for download in .pdf format here.

Thursday, 3 March, 2011

Video: "Student loans vs. big oil"

Found on the Interwebs:

With reduced funding, U.S. universities seek increased autonomy

New York Times story:

With states providing a dwindling share of money for higher education, many states and public universities are rethinking their ties.

The public universities say that with less money from state coffers, they cannot afford the complicated web of state regulations governing areas like procurement and building, and that they need more flexibility to compete with private institutions.

As a result, the fundamental model for supporting higher education is being reconsidered, with many universities winning greater autonomy — sometimes even in setting tuition.

Wednesday, 2 March, 2011

Destination Budapest

From the Malta Independent:

Europe is experiencing a revolution in student mobility, thanks to the introduction of what is known as the Bologna process, which seeks to create a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) based on international cooperation and academic exchange. Until some years ago, students who wished to continue their studies in a foreign university had very few options, mainly because of the language barrier. Things are changing fast and today students can choose from a wide range of high-standard and long-established universities that offer English language courses that lead to internationally recognised degrees. Among the most sought after European destinations, Hungary is proving to be in the lead, attracting thousands of international students to its long-standing and reputable universities, most of which specialise in medical sciences and technologies.

Budapest, with a population of over two million people, is fast becoming a major destination for international students who wish to pursue their graduate or post-graduate studies, particularly in the fields of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, psychology, while others opt for engineering, architecture and business studies. While the number of foreign students studying in full time higher education programmes was around 12,000 in the 2006/2007 academic year, this number had risen to 15000 in the 2009/2010 academic year.