Using two conceptual frameworks from political science—Kingdon’s (2003) multiple streams model and the advocacy coalition framework (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1993)—this case study examines the detailed history of a major tuition policy change in Ontario in 2004: a tuition freeze. The paper explores the social, political, and economic factors that influenced policymakers on this particular change to shed light on the broader questions of the dynamics of postsecondary policymaking. The study found that the Liberal Party’s decision to freeze postsecondary tuition fees was a function of stakeholder relations, public opinion, and brokerage politics, designed for electoral success. The policy implementation strategy was intended to facilitate the cooperation and interests of the major institutions. Within the broader policy community, student-organized interest groups and other policy advocates were aligned in a policy preference, a critical component for successful change.
À l’aide de deux cadres conceptuels en science politique, le modèle à volets multiples de Kingdon (2003) et le cadre de coalitions de défense de Sabatier et Jenkins-Smith (1993), la présente étude de cas examine l’histoire détaillée d’un changement majeur en matière de politique de frais de scolarité qui a eu lieu en Ontario en 2004 : le gel des frais de scolarité. Le présent article examine les facteurs sociaux, politiques et économiques qui ont dirigé certains responsables
politiques vers ce changement particulier, afin de faire la lumière sur les questions plus générales portant sur la dynamique de
l’élaboration de politiques en matière d’enseignement postsecondaire. L’étude conclut que la décision du parti Libéral de geler les frais de scolarité des études postsecondaires relevait de relations avec les intervenants, d’opinion publique et de politique de médiation, dans le but de remporter les élections. La stratégie de mise en œuvre de la politique visait à faciliter la coopération et les intérêts entre institutions d’envergure. Au sein d’une communauté politique plus large, des groupes d’intérêt étudiants et d’autres défenseurs de la politique partageaient la même préférence politique, un élément essentiel
à la réussite de ce changement.
In response to what the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities has outlined as a need for increasing capacity, affordability, and access through collaboration, technology, and innovation, for new and flexible approaches to learning and teaching, and for a renewed focus on productivity and sustainability, each college and university has submitted a proposed strategic mandate agreement comprising a differentiated mandate statement, an institutional vision, and three priority objectives.
In recent years, college attendance for first-gen-eration students has had a high profile in Texas. First-generation students—students whose parents did not attend college—have increasingly been the target of ef-forts to increase college-going and completion rates in the state. Such efforts demonstrate a growing recogni-tion by state policymakers and educators that expand-ing postsecondary opportunity to students who have previously lacked college access—namely the state’s large and increasing low-income, minority, and first-generation populations—is critical to the future social and economic well-being of Texas.
THE ENVIRONICS INSTITUTE FOR SURVEY RESEARCH was established by Michael Adams in 2006 to promote relevant and original public opinion and social research on important issues of public policy and social change. It is through such research that organizations and individuals can better understand Canada today, how it has been changing, and where it may be heading.
Aboriginal women living off-reserve have bucked national trends, with employment rates rising since
2007 alongside labour force participation.
Collège Boréal has a dual mandate: to be a postsecondary college institution and a vital community development organization. Collège Boréal is a hub of education, innovation, culture, and community serving a diverse francophone clientele: Franco-Ontarians, French immersion students, immigrants, French-speaking First Nations and Métis persons, and international students, among others. Its purpose is to produce a highly skilled bilingual workforce that is active in French-speaking communities and contributes to the economic, social, and cultural vitality of the province and country.
The following statements are part of the College’s 2010-15 Strategic Plan:
Vision
To foster knowledge and stimulate culture.
Mission
Collège Boréal provides a high-calibre personalized education to a diverse clientele and practises community leadership to foster the sustainable development of the francophone community of Ontario.
Students today come from all walks of life. Traditional students, straight from a high school setting, now represent only a portion of the student population in colleges and universities. This is largely due to students fulfilling needs around work, family, and obligations outside of the traditional educational setting. These students bring with them wonderful personal and professional experiences that not only enhance the classroom experience, but also shape and contribute to their educational goals and aspirations. Many students feel they should be able to utilize their life experiences as part of their educational journey. This document will examine offering credit for life experiences, and how it can be mutually beneficial for students and institutions.
There are a number of studies that classify governing boards into different types. Some classifications are based on management form. Some are based on the form in which authority is exercised. Some are based on the form of institution that the board serves. Most of these classifications include "working boards" but few offer a clear definition of them. Even those that
do attempt to define this type of board acknowledge that little is known about how they actually function. This study examines a small public not-for-profit institution with a "working board" to determine how that type of board functions, where it succeeds and where it fails, and how it is different from other types of boards.
The present system of academic credentials awarded by Ontario’s colleges was established nearly a half century ago. It is thus appropriate to consider how well some of those credential titles fit in the global lexicon of academic credentials as it has evolved over the last half century and whether they are still appropriate today.
Presently the term for the credential that is awarded by colleges in Ontario upon completion of a program of two years’ duration is diploma. In 1995, noted community college scholar John Dennison of the University of British Columbia observed that “there is not a clear appreciation of what a diploma means”, and this “results in an undervaluation of the diploma from a CAAT” (Dennison, 1995, p. 13).
cientists who attain a PhD are rightly proud — they have gained entry to an academic elite. But it is not as elite as it once was. The number of science doctorates earned each year grew by nearly 40% between 1998 and 2008, to some 34,000, in countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-opera-tion and Development (OECD). The growth shows no sign of slowing: most countries are building up their higher-education systems because they see educated workers as a key to economic growth (see ‘The rise of doctor-ates’). But in much of the world, science PhD graduates may never get a chance to take full advantage of their qualifications.
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) (“the Agencies”) are federal granting agencies that promote and support research, research training and innovation within Canada. As publicly funded organizations, the Agencies have a fundamental interest in promoting the availability of findings that result from the research they fund, including research publications and data, to the widest possible audience, and at the earliest possible opportunity. Societal advancement is made possible through widespread and barrier-free access to cutting-edge research and knowledge, enabling researchers, scholars, clinicians, policymakers, private sector and not-for-profit organizations and
the public to use and build on this knowledge.
While conditions vary across First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, as well as urban and rural contexts, the well-being gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations is significant across most of the country. Population aging and emerging labour shortages in Canada present an opportunity for Aboriginal youth, as the fastest growing demographic, to make a significant contribution to the country’s long-term prosperity. As the Aboriginal population is projected to rise above 1.5 million by 2026, there is an urgency to act now to enable, support, and empower Aboriginal youth to achieve their potential and participate fully in Canada’s social and economic future.
Academics are collaborating more as their research questions are becoming more complex, often reaching beyond the capacity of any one person. How- ever, in many parts of the campus, teamwork is not a traditional work pat- tern, and team members may not understand the best ways to work together to the benefit of the project. Challenges are particularly possible when there are differences among the disciplines represented on a team and when there are variations in academic control over decision making and research direction setting. Disparities in these two dimensions create potential for miscommunication, conflict, and other negative consequences, which may mean that a collaboration is not successful. This paper explores these dimensions and suggests a space for collaboration; it also describes some benefits and challenges associated within various
positions within the framework. Academ- ic teams can use this tool to determine the place they
would like to occupy within the collaboration space and structure themselves accordingly before
undertaking research.
Teaching and assessment in higher education institutions are increasingly supported by digital tools and services. Students, however, perceive and value the importance of such e-learning offerings in very diverse ways. The goal of this article
is to examine which predictors significantly influence students’ perceptions of the value of digital learning formats. Based onKu¨pper’s acceptance model, we generate hypotheses that are subsequently tested using data from a German student survey.
The results show that individual-related characteristics, especially motivation and orientation patterns of students, have a high impact on the perceived importance of digital learning formats. Our analyses indicate that besides individual performance
and motivation, the practical orientation of a student is also a key predictor for a high rating of the importance of digital learning formats. An analysis of characteristics regarding the field of study shows that students who major in economic sciences, especially those who frequently work with digital learning formats in their classes, find them significantly more important than students who major in social science. Regarding innovation-based characteristics, students who express a need for flexible course offerings rate the use of digital learning formats as particularly important. The discussion provides an evaluation of the results of the student study based on the hypotheses and presents further implications.
Keywords: digital learning formats; online learning; online learner characteristics;
motivation; perceived benefit
ACT defines readiness for college as acquisition of the knowledge and skills a student needs to enroll and succeed in credit-bearing, first-year courses at a postsecondary institution, such as a two- or four-year college, trade school, or technical school.
Simply stated, readiness for college means not needing to take remedial courses in college.
Today, college readiness also means career readiness. While not every high school graduate plans to attend college, the majority of the fastest-growing jobs that require a high school diploma, pay a salary above the poverty line for a family of four, and provide opportunities for career advancement require knowledge and skills comparable to those expected of
the first-year college student (ACT, 2006b). We must therefore educate all high school students according to a common academic expectation, one that prepares them for both postsecondary education and the workforce. Anything less will not give high school graduates the foundation of academic skills they will need to learn additional skills as their jobs change or
as they change jobs throughout their careers.
What’s working in adult learner recruitment and marketing and which practices are most widely used? To find out, Ruffalo Noel Levitz conducted a 72-item, web-based poll in April 2015 as part of the firm’s continuing series of benchmark polls for higher education. Because undergraduate and graduate programs often employ similar practices to attract adult learners, this report combines its findings across undergraduate and graduate levels. For a profile of the poll respondents, please refer to the Appendix, page 41. Note that all respondents in this study had at least one adult-focused degree program.
Educational Consulting Services (ECS) has supported every college in Ontario in the planning of their campuses and buildings. The focus of this work has been the reconciliation of the colleges’ education and training missions with their infrastructure.
As campus and space planners, ECS has assisted in enhanced space management, transformation of facilities, and improved utilization.
This report is a compendium of observations and a high level commentary on the question of capital funding. It was prepared at the request of ACAATO and draws on ECS’s experience in Ontario and other jurisdictions. The report also draws on
information provided by college administrators for this study.
Today, the colleges’ sustainability is compromised. Reliance on efficiency as a means of overcoming budget shortfalls is an exhausted strategy. The expectation that colleges can still be more efficient has, in fact, become a liability.
Each year, Universum runs the largest global survey on millennial career preferences. In each of our 30+ survey markets,
we partner with top universities to survey the most desirable future talent and find out who they want to work for and
why. The more votes a company receives, the higher they rank on the Ideal Employer list.
The 2014 Canadian student survey was conducted online, between mid-October 2013 and late-February 2014, under
Universum’s student brand, Wetfeet. The results in this report reflect the aggregated perceptions of nearly 30,000
undergraduate students from 107 universities and colleges.*
What is Student Development Theory?
Student development is the way that a student grows, progresses, or increases his or her developmental capabilities as a result of enrollment in an institution of higher education. There are three types of development:
• Change is an altered state, which may be positive or negative and progressive or regressive.
y Growth is an expansion, but may be positive or negative to overall functioning.
i Development is positive growth.
This paper examines the rise in student loan delinquency and default drawing on a unique set of administrative data on federal student borrowing, matched to earnings records from de-identified tax records. Most of the increase in default is associated with the rise in the number of borrowers at for-profit schools and, to a lesser extent, 2-year institutions and certain other non-selective institutions, whose students historically composed only a small share of borrowers. These non-traditional borrowers were drawn from lower income families, attended institutions with relatively weak educational outcomes, and experienced poor labor market outcomes after leaving school. In contrast, default rates among borrowers attending most 4-year public and non-profit private institutions and graduate borrowers—borrowers who represent the vast majority of the federal loan portfolio—have remained low, despite the severe recession and their relatively high loan balances. Their higher earnings, low rates of unemployment, and greater family resources appear to have enabled them to avoid adverse loan outcomes even during times of hardship. Decomposition analysis indicates that changes in characteristics of borrowers and the institutions they attended are associated with much of the doubling in default rates between 2000 and 2011. Changes in the type of schools attended, debt burdens, and labor market outcomes of non-traditional borrowers at for-profit and 2-year colleges explain the
largest share.