Irrespective of their income status, parents who lack a higher education are not likely to see their children pursue post-secondary studies, observes a University of Saskatchewan report that examined the accessibility of a university education in Canada and Saskatchewan. Much of the conversation about PSE accessibility has focused on tuition rates and other costs, but the report notes that non-financial barriers are key to understanding why some youth choose not to pursue PSE. Despite continuing increases in tuition and other education-related expenses, the overall cost incurred by the average student remains relatively unchanged as a result of increased tax credits, scholarships, bursaries, and other government initiatives, states the report. The study notes that while the financial-aid system is an important aspect of accessibility, there must be a focus on the 10- to 15-year-olds who demonstrate an academic aptitude and who do not come from a culture of PSE. uSask News Release | Accessibility and Affordability Report 2011 (Academicagroup)

According to a new report, total state support for higher education in the US fell by 7.6% from the 2011 to the 2012 fiscal years. As a whole, state spending on PSE is now nearly 4% lower than it was in the 2007 fiscal year, with 29 states appropriating less for PSE institutions this year than they did 5 years ago. The current year’s large decline was due partly to the expiration of approximately $40 billion in federal funding given to states to prop up education spending. Factoring out the federal stimulus funding, state support for institutions fell a little more than 4% from 2011 to 2012. The overall decline is also a result of the big drop in PSE spending in California, accounting for over a quarter of the total decrease in state support. The Chronicle of Higher Education (free access) (Academicagroup)

…More than two million Canadian students rely on loans to help fund their education, and nearly a quarter of that group struggles to pay them back after graduation.

A high interest rate on both federal and provincial loans, as much as 8%, is one problem beyond student control. One recent graduate said repaying these loans can be crippling.

“I know several people who haven’t even been able to pay back their loans until after they have been married — imagine what a burden that must be. Not only are you dealing with supporting yourself, but also your new family and trying to pay back a loan that keeps getting bigger because of the interest. It is a huge disadvantage coming right out of university.”

With collective nationwide student loan debt at a whopping $15-billion, Mr. Schwartz and other non-profit credit counselling services are keeping their doors wide open to debt-ridden students who need a whirlwind education in financial management. Or if students are too shy to venture into an office, they can access quick tips online to help them control their spending

“We want to see students get through the educational process,” Mr. Shwartz says, explaining he encourages young people to continue with their schooling despite their growing debts.

About 60% of students borrowing money study in Ontario, he says. These students are saddled with the highest fees, forking out close to $6,640 per year. In response to recent 5.1% tuition hikes, Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty introduced a 30% tuition rebate or the equivalent of $1,600, this January.

Even though undergraduate tuition fees in schools throughout the country have more than doubled from 1985-2005, rising from 14% to 30% and continuing to increase dramatically, Mr. Schwartz believes students have plenty of options for financial assistance.

What students need to master, Mr. Schwartz says, is the art of budgeting. Many young people are used to having a support system, and are shocked when they have to start managing their own money after they graduate…

(Source: business.financialpost.com)

(Source: oncampus.macleans.ca)

Getting accepted as an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver is going to take more than good grades from now on.

The school is shifting to what it calls “broad-based admissions” - an application process that assesses grades and personal experiences of potential students. The process will include everyone applying directly to all of UBC’s undergraduate programs at the Vancouver campus beginning with the 2012-13 academic year.

The new process requires applicants to answer between four and six “personal profile” questions in addition to providing secondary school grades.

The questions are designed to provoke responses from students about their ability to overcome challenges, take advantage of opportunities and get involved in their community, said UBC’s associate vice-president and registrar, James Ridge. He said an open-ended question will also let potential students share further details about themselves that would have gone unnoticed under the previous system. The school already uses broad-based criteria for some pro-grams, Ridge said, noting that the Sauder School of Business at UBC has used broad-based admissions since 2004.

In 2011, 25 per cent of all new first-year UBC students on the Vancouver campus were admitted with broad-based admissions.

UBC wants more students who volunteer, take part in extracurricular activities and are willing to take advantage of study abroad programs, he said. “We really want to select students who we think are going to be more inclined to engage in those things.” …

(Source: vancouversun.com)

A new book argues for substantial reform to Ontario’s higher-education system, including the introduction of a rare breed of institution in Canada: the teaching-oriented university.

“By several measures, Ontario currently has a good higher education system,” say Ian Clark, David Trick and Richard Van Loon in their new book, Academic Reform: Policy Options for Improving the Quality and Cost-Effectiveness of Undergraduate Education in Ontario. The authors likely did not mean, with that particular declaration, to damn with faint praise, although they do foresee serious trouble ahead. “There is now,” they write, “sufficient evidence about worrisome trends in the quality of learning and in the cost-effectiveness of the undergraduate teaching model in Ontario to warrant substantial reform.”

The book, a sequel to Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario (published in 2009), sets out the contours of the reform that the authors see as necessary. It was generating buzz within academic circles even before its official launch and will no doubt prove to be controversial. Aiming their book at policy makers, the authors state firmly that “this is a policy problem – requiring comprehensive action by the government – and not just a pedagogical challenge to be addressed within the academy.” Because many of the province’s higher education challenges are shared by other jurisdictions in North America and other OECD countries, much of their analysis, they say, also should be relevant to higher education policy outside Ontario… Read More

Yesterday Stanford University unveiled a set of 55 recommendations to put a priority on teaching undergraduate students a set of skills on top of requiring them to take courses in specific fields. The proposed changes, described as emphasizing “ways of thinking, ways of doing,” are in keeping with a growing emphasis among PSE institutions on core skills rather than on specific disciplinary content. The Stanford committee that drafted the report identified 7 skills areas as important for students: aesthetic and interpretive inquiry; scientific analysis; formal and quantitative reasoning (2 courses in each); as well as one course in engaging difference, one in moral and ethical reasoning, and one in creative expression. The recommendations also support the idea that first-year students be exposed to a range of learning environments, including lectures, discussion sessions, and intimate seminars. The recommendations would require freshmen to take seminar courses with senior faculty members, which is currently optional. Stanford News Release | The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) (Academicagroup)

In the high-octane world of oil-patch philanthropy, the entrepreneurs who built Calgary’s ARC Resources Ltd. (ARX-T24.04-0.02-0.08%) have operated much like the company they created – quietly active, with a disdain for grandstanding publicity.

But that low profile is being shed today as the ARC team, led by co-founder Mac Van Wielingen, make a game-changing gift to the University of Calgary – a $9.5-million donation to the university’s business school to embed ethical leadership in its curriculum, research and culture… Read More

For many grade 12 students, spring is university application season. In Western Canada, youth living in families with an annual income over $100,000 are still more than twice as likely to attend university than youth with family income under $25,000.

This is hardly surprising, given average tuition fees run over $4,800 a year these days, but it’s fundamentally inequitable. It undermines social cohesion and there are real economic costs to all of us when we don’t fully utilize the skills and capabilities of all our citizens.

Reducing upfront costs for students would improve access to higher education and ensure that B.C. can reap the benefits of a well-educated work-force. And it’s more affordable than you think.

Conventional wisdom has it that higher education in B.C. is heavily subsidized because tuition fees don’t cover the full cost of education. But this common misconception ignores a second way in which students pay for their education: through higher taxes after graduation.

When these tax payments are added up over the course of graduates’ careers, it turns out that university students fully repay the cost of their degrees and then some.

Despite the pervasive stereotype of arts majors serving lattes at Starbucks, the reality is that higher education remains a great investment in today’s economy. University graduates experience shorter periods of unemployment, are more likely to work full-time and earn higher salaries than their peers with high school diplomas.

Census data shows that B.C. women in their 30s working full-time earned $56,000 if they had a bachelor’s degree, $40,000 with a college degree and only $33,000 with a high school diploma. For men, the corresponding figures are $74,000 for a bachelor’s degree, $58,000 for a college diploma and $50,000 for high school.

With higher earnings come higher income taxes and less need for government cash transfers like welfare and employment insurance. A new study I’ve authored for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculates the value of the extra income taxes (net of transfers) paid by female university graduates over their careers at $98,400, and $155,400 for men. This at least than twice the actual cost to the province of a four-year under-graduate degree in one of B.C.’s public universities, $50,630, and tuition fees already cover 40 per cent of that… Read More

Millions of dollars are still up for grabs in Ontario’s tuition rebate program as about 90,000 eligible students have yet to claim the credit for their college or university fees.

Colleges and Universities Minister Glen Murray said the government is approving about 30,000 students a week for the program, but many students still don’t know it’s an option.

“You’d think everybody would know about this, this is the thing that’s surprising me,” Murray said Wednesday.

“We’re going to be putting a lot more resources into raising the profile of the program, lots of students, we know, don’t know about it.”

That includes advertising through social media and having people on the ground so students can sign up on the spot.

“We have these street teams, we have sign-up booths in most of the colleges and universities right now where students are actually signing up for it and go right to a laptop, so that’s working very well.”

The program applies to more than 300,000 students, but excludes mature and part-time students, as well as those who are out of high school for more than four years. Students working on professional degrees like law and medicine are also excluded.

New Democrat Teresa Armstrong said the current program isn’t fair because it pits students against each other instead of lowering tuition for all.

“The face of students certainly has changed and it’s mature students with families who are struggling, people who are going to school part-time to try to better their careers,” Armstrong said… Read More

College graduates who showed paltry gains in critical thinking and little academic engagement while in college have a harder time than their more accomplished peers as they start their careers, according to a report released today.

The report, “Documenting Uncertain Times: Postgraduate Transitions of the Academically Adrift Cohort,” follows up on the highly influential and controversial book Academically Adrift, which was published one year ago. The report is being released at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and it expands upon many of the themes that the book explored by following a subset of students from the book into early adulthood.

Like the book, the new study was written by Richard Arum, professor of sociology and education at New York University, and Josipa Roksa, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. They were joined by Esther Cho, program coordinator at the Social Science Research Council, and Jeannie Kim, a doctoral candidate in sociology at NYU.

In the spring of 2011, the authors surveyed more than 900 of the students that they studied in Academically Adrift to learn about their progress since graduation: whether they were employed, enrolled in graduate school, what their living arrangements were, and how civically engaged they were.

It has proven to be difficult for researchers to link data on students’ academic performance to what happens to them when they enter the labor market, said Mr. Arum. The results that he and his colleagues found were so arresting, he said, that they chose to release them earlier than the follow-up book that they are planning to publish in the next year or two… Read More

Also see: Inside Higher Ed