The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) recognizes the importance of attracting more international students to study in Ontario, as articulated by the Ontario government in its Open Ontario Plan. In a competitive global environment, international students enable the province to train and retain highly skilled individuals, provide access to a greater pool of talent, diversity and ideas, and contribute to the economy. This paper provides an overview of six areas of significant importance to undergraduate domestic and international studen are in need of greater attention by institutions and the provincial government.
Abstract
This study examines the lived experiences of students as expressed in their reflections on their experiences of learning at Ambrose University in Calgary. It uses quantitative outcomes-related data from the National Survey of Stu- dent Engagement and the Theological School Survey of Student Engagement to illuminate qualitative data obtained through student focus groups. The analysis of the qualitative data was conducted using the constant comparative method developed by Glaser and
Strauss. The study concludes with recom- mendations for improving student engagement.
Résumé
Cette étude examine les expériences vécues par des élèves telles qu’exprimées dans leurs réflexions sur leurs expériences d’apprentissage à l’Université Ambrose, à Calgary. Afin d’éclairer les données qualitatives obtenues par le truchement de groupes de discussion d’étudiants, l’étude utilise les données liées aux r��sultats quantitatifs de l’Enquête nationale sur la participation étudiante (NSSE) et de l’Enquête de l’école de théologie sur l’engagement des étudiants (TSSSE). L’analyse des données qualitatives a été réalisée selon la méthode comparative constante développée par Glaser et Strauss. L’étude se conclut par des recommandations afin d’améliorer l’engagement des élèves.
The skills that individuals develop play a pivotal role in determining their labour-market opportunities and life chances in general, and are of vital importance to a country’s economic performance and many social outcomes. Post-secondary education (PSE) is a primary means by which Canadians obtain the skills that they need.
It is therefore essential to have accurate, up-to-date, and relevant learning and labour market information (LLMI) that is widely available so that all players in the PSE system – students making their PSE choices, PSE institutions deciding which programs to offer, policy makers, and the general public – can make informed decisions.
Ontario firms and organizations are being challenged to increase productivity through innovation in order to compete on the fiercely competitive world stage and improve the quality of life of Ontarians. Yet, Ontario suffers from innovation gaps
that place its productivity and prosperity goals at risk.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has linked data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) of teachers of 15-year-old students with school-level data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a survey of 15-year-old students. The purpose of this study is to present an exploratory analysis of the combined TALIS-PISA data by examining the relationship of school-level student measures to teacher outcomes. In other words, this paper examines how student factors in a school may influence teachers’ work, their attitudes, and their perceived needs for support. Survey responses were collected from teachers and students in eight countries. Data from 26 610 teachers were combined with student measures, aggregated by school, from 103 077 students.
The clearest and most consistent message received by the Steering Committee through its working group reports and submissions from the wider community is that, as the University of Toronto seeks to respond fully and faithfully to the challenges issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (“TRC”), our focus must be on concrete action. The Steering Committee (the “Committee”) is of the same mind. Therefore, this report will be framed around a series of ‘calls to action,’ mirroring the work of the TRC itself.
In the latest edition of our blog, we hear from Dr. Adam Gaudry. In this piece, Adam explores the historical and contemporary tensions that exist between units like Indigenous Studies and the academy. Perfectly timed, Adam’s piece draws our attention to the calls to Action in the recently released Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Ontarians are most likely to identify the province’s financial situation as the most important issue currently facing the Ontario
government.
The leadership literature suffers from a lack of theoretical integration (Avolio, 2007, American Psychologist, 62, 25–33). This article addresses that lack of integration by developing an integrative trait-behavioral model of leadership effectiveness and then examining the relative validity of leader traits (gender, intelligence,
personality) and behaviors (transformational-transactional, initiating structure-consideration) across 4 leadership effectiveness criteria (leader effectiveness, group performance, follower job satisfaction, satisfaction with leader). Combined, leader traits and behaviors explain a minimum of 31% of the variance in leadership effectiveness
criteria. Leader behaviors tend to explain more variance in leadership effectiveness than leader traits, but results indicate that an integrative model where leader behaviors mediate the relationship between leader traits and effectiveness is warranted.
Abstract
Through the use of mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, the current study explored the impact of postsecondary study on the intimate relationships and school experiences of partnered mature students. Quantitative regression analyses indicated that parental status, family support, partner support, and sexual desire significantly predicted relationship satisfaction, while family support and partner support significantly predicted sexual satisfaction. Age and sexual desire predicted school satisfaction for women only. Through qualitative thematic analysis it was determined that not having enough time, feeling
too tired, and being stressed negatively impacted sexual satisfaction, while experiencing personal growth was described as both beneficial and problematic. Some participants reported using sex to aid in their academic success by way
of offering a distraction or reducing stress. We discuss possible ways that postsecondary institutions, through their campus programs, can better address the impact school may have on mature students’ intimate relationships.
Résumé
Grâce à l’utilisation d’une variété de méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives, l’étude suivante étudie l’effet des études post-secondaires sur les relations intimes et les expériences scolaires des étudiants adultes en couple. La régression des analyses quantitatives indique que le statut parental, le soutien familial, l’appui du partenaire et les désirs sexuels prédisent significativement la satisfaction à l’égard des relations personnelles, tandis que le soutien familial et l’appui du partenaire prédisent de façon significative la satisfaction sexuelle. L’âge prédit aussi la satisfaction académique chez les hommes et
les femmes, de même que le désir sexuel chez les hommes seulement. En utilisant une analyse thématique qualitative, il a été déterminé que le fait de ne pas disposer d’assez de temps, la fatigue et le stress ont des répercussions négatives sur la satisfaction sexuelle. Enfin, une croissance personnelle a été décrite comme étant à la fois bénéfique et problématique. Certains participants ont déclaré avoir utilisé le sexe pour aider à leurs réussites scolaires afin de s’offrir une distraction ou de diminuer leur stress. Nous discutons des moyens possibles pour les institutions post-secondaires de mieux traiter, par
le truchement de leurs programmes, l’effet que peuvent avoir les études sur les relations intimes des étudiants adultes.
National statistics indicate that more than 6.4 million children and youth with disabilities between 3 and 21 years-of-age received special education services during the 20132014 academic school year (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). In addition, 95% of these students received special education services in public schools, with 61% or more of them said to be highly included80% or more of their school dayin general education classroom settings (U.S. Department of Education, 2015). On one hand, these estimates may be quite positive given the high number of students educated in inclusive settings. On the other, they can be disconcerting because inclusion greatly relies on educators who are ill-prepared to meet the needs of all students, and would prefer not to do inclusion (p. 307).
For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and, through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this pol- icy, which can best be described as “cultural genocide.”
Physical genocide is the mass killing of the members of a targeted group, and biological genocide is the destruction of the group’s reproductive capacity. Cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group. States that engage in cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of the
targeted group. Land is seized, and populations are forcibly transferred and their movement is restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual lead- ers are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual value are confiscated and destroyed. And, most significantly to the issue at hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmission of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next.
Reflecting on what’s at play with the Ontario college faculty strike, as Yogi Berra once noted, it’s “déjà vu all over again.”
I was a college president in 1984 when college faculty voted overwhelmingly for a strike because they felt they were treated as lemmings, victims of top-down management styles that eschewed proper faculty involvement in decisionmaking, especially when it came to instructional delivery and workloads.
This clearly defined the majority of colleges at the time. Faculty was right to strike. Each strike has an idiosyncratic ethos — core factors that vary from obvious to vague. In 1984, the issues were clear.
In 1987, not so. The faculty hit the bricks with only a 51.25 per cent strike vote. It remains unclear to this day, why the union leaders at the time took their brothers and sisters to the picket line with an unprecedented low strike mandate and no apparent issues at stake. Was it runaway megalomania? Was there an unrelated personal agenda? Who knows? But the result was a disaster for faculty who were led down a prickly garden path and dealt a financial blow by an arbitrator.
In Ontario, the topic of increasing transferability between colleges and universities has recently attracted the attention of
numerous individuals in the fields of higher education, politics and the local media – many of whom have suggested that increasing the availability of college to university transfer programs, also known as articulation agreements, would facilitate pathways to higher education for a greater number of students from diverse backgrounds. However, there are many issues surrounding the transfer of students from colleges to universities in Ontario, most of which are connected to the historical structure of the system of postsecondary education in the province. Any progress towards a system of greater transferability between community Ontario and universities would require a careful analysis of the success of existing college to university transfer programs as well as a radical reconsideration of the provincial system of postsecondary education as a whole.
These two stories below are quite distant in terms of time and geography, but they share the same sentiment and implication for higher education institutions — that international student recruit-ment shouldn’t just be about revenue.
For a growing number of student, the post-secondary experience invovles a mixed backpack of university courses, college programs, intrships, an online class or two, and even perhaps a few YouTube tutorials. But whatever the mix,it's bound to be unique for each student.
Motivating Students
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivators include fascination with the subject, a sense of its relevance to life and the world, a sense of accomplishment in mastering it, and a sense of calling to it.
The federal government is the single largest source of funding for public financial aid for post-secondary students in Canada. Financial aid policy has a major impact on the areas of accessibility and afford- ability of post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada. This paper aims to examine the impacts of those programs, such as student loans, student grants, tax credits and scholarships on the areas of access and affordability.
Tim Clydesdale’s The Purposeful Graduate: Why Colleges Must Talk to Students About Vocation outlines the results of a multiple campus initiative that encouraged students to critically examine how they might lead meaningful lives. The Lilly Endowment initially supported the initiative. When the Lilly funds came to an end, many campuses continued supporting these so-called pro-exploration programs, encouraged by the enthusiasm of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. This initiative and related programs explored the idea of vocation, defined not as a person’s main employment or occupation, but rather as a sense of purpose that gives meaning to their lives.
The term pro-exploration undoubtedly has religious connotations, a fact that is acknowledged early in the text. The initial Lilly funding targeted institutions with a religious affiliation in keeping with the mission and history of the Lilly Endowment. However, Clydesdale is careful to note that all students possess a vocational identity regardless of their religious identity. In an era
of workforce development, where vocational training correlates with specific skill sets and employment opportunities, the idea of exploring vocation as an individual passion seems to be a luxury. Yet the book positions pro-exploration programs as a nod to the original purpose of higher education: educating globally knowledgeable, capable, and responsive citizens. This goal is too often not realized and pro-exploration programs provide an active path towards this end.
Engagement. . .it’s another one of those words that’s regularly bandied about in higher education. We talk about it like we know what it means and we do, sort of. It’s just that when a word or idea is so widely used, thinking about it often stops and that’s what I think has happened with engagement.