This paper exploits longitudinal tax-filer data to provide new empirical evidence for Ontario on i)
overall PSE participation rates on an annual basis over the last decade, ii) how access is related to a number of important individual and family characteristics, including sex, family income, area size of residence and family type, andiii) how these relationships have changed over time. This is done for Ontario as a whole, in comparison to the rest of Canada, and then broken down by region within Ontario. The findings are informative, in some cases surprising, and highly relevant to public policy regarding access to postsecondary education.
The findings are many, and there is room to mention only a few of the most important ones here. Our focus here was on access to university – although we do present results for college attendance as well. We do this for two main reasons. The first is that the PSE-related tax credit information available in the Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD) dataset which we employ to identify participation in PSE do not do as good a job of finding college students, simply because the credits available are not generally worth as much to college students as they are to university students. Secondly, the effects of individual and family background characteristics on PSE ttendance – a principal focus of our study – tend to come out much more strongly in
(net) effects on college attendance are more unambiguous and are almost always found to be much smaller from an empirical perspective.
One of the most dramatic changes at Ontario's universities over the last quarter century has been a shift in the nature of academic work away from full-time tenure-stream positions towards insecure, contract positions. OCUFA estimates that the number of courses taught by contract faculty at Ontario universities had nearly doubled - increasing by 97 per cent - betweem 2000-1 adn 2013-14.
This commentary discusses the problem of bullying as it relates to Muslim students. The authors posit that teacher education programs can impact how Muslim students are treated in schools. In doing so, they provide practical avenues teacher educators can use to prepare pre-service teachers to address the problem.
In early 2014, two incidents engulfed the University of Ottawa in the debate over sexual violence
that has affected many postsecondary institutions in recent years. In February, members of the University of Ottawa men’s varsity hockey team were involved in an alleged sexual assault, resulting in the suspension of the men’s hockey program for the 2014-15 season. Following this incident, a Facebook conversation involving five male students that included sexually derogatory and violent comments about the female President of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) was made public.
OCUFA’s 2015-16 pre-budget recommendations are directed toward enhancing the quality and affordability of university education in Ontario through increased government investment. We are sensitive to the province’s fiscal circumstances, but believe that investment – at any level – will help build a thriving university sector and a more prosperous Ontario. When the provincial government invests in higher education, the entire province will enjoy the benefits.
The Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) is the international organization for counseling center directors comprised of universities and colleges from the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, comprised of 737 members as of this survey period. The mission of AUCCCD is to assist directors in providing effective leadership and management of campus counseling centers. The organization promotes college student mental health awareness through research, dissemination of key campus mental health issues and trends, and related training and education, with special attention to issues of changing demographics including diversity and multiculturalism. In 2006, AUCCCD developed and administered the Annual Survey to its membership as a means to increase the objective understanding of those factors critical to the functioning of college and university counseling centers.
In December, 2014 all college and university counseling center administrators, identified in the Higher Education Directory, were invited to participate in the Annual Survey. The survey was administered to 1708 verified email accounts via a secure internet interface. The reporting period for the 2014 Annual Survey varies among administrators, reflecting variations in organization specific annual reporting periods. All participants had reporting periods ranging from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 to September 1, 2013 through August 31, 2014. This monograph serves to provide a summary of data trends reported in the AUCCCD Annual Survey. Participants have access to the online reporting features of the survey including data filtering and export. Additionally, AUCCCD members have access to a separate comparable salary table and items that access ethical dilemmas and legal issues. A total of 499 counseling center administrators completed the 2014 survey, of which 389 were AUCCCD members.
The potential impacts and implications of technology on the professional lives of instructors in higher education, and the role of leadership in integrating educational technology, present a variety of complexities and challenges. The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons why faculty members are not fully embracing technology and what leadership exists in those institutions to help instructors adapt to technology in the teaching and learning process. The authors examine instructor’s perceptions and attitudes related to educational technology as it applies to the learning process and investigated the organization-wide view of leadership in the education institutions. The authors also developed a theoretical model for how leadership can be applied in the use of educational technology in higher education. The model contains five major blocks. In addition to the concerns of higher education faculty, this paper also considers the impact educational technologies have on instruction itself and why many faculty members view the technology as being too difficult to apply to existing technology infrastructure.
Factors that can be controlled
• Factors that can be influenced
• Factors that cannot be controlled or influenced
Revenues and expenses
• In 2012-13, college system revenues totaled almost $3.7 billion. Grant revenue from all sources accounts for half of college system revenue.
• College system expenses amounted to about $3.5 billion. Like other organizations in both the public and private sectors, salaries and benefits are by far the largest expense item for colleges.
Trends in college funding
• In 2013-14, real operating funding per student (FTE) was about five per cent higher than in 1998-99 – but 16 per cent lower than during the peak in 2007-08.
• Per student revenue from operating grants and tuition fees for Ontario colleges continues to be the lowest among the provinces. Funding per student for Ontario colleges continues to be significantly lower than that for secondary schools and universities.
• Space per student is much lower for Ontario colleges (90 square feet per student) in comparison to universities and secondary schools.
• In current dollars, the apprenticeship per diem has decreased slightly since 1998-99. However, after inflation is taken into account, the per diem has decreased by 28 per cent. The student in-school fee, which was implemented in 2002-03, has not been increased since its introduction.
Human resources
• Colleges employ more than 43,000 people. From 1997-98 to 2012-13, the number of full-time staff employed at colleges increased by 28 per cent, while enrolment increased by 31 per cent.
Student financial aid
• In 2012-13, almost 125,000 college students were OSAP recipients. This represents about two-thirds of the total full-time post-secondary enrolment.
• The default rate for student loans for all post-secondary institutions in 2012 was 9.8 per cent. For the college system, it was 13.4 per cent.
In recent years, students have been paying more to attend college and earning less upon graduation—trends that have led many observers to question whether a college education remains a good investment. However, an analysis of the economic returns to college since the 1970s demonstrates that the benefits of both a bachelor’s degree and an associate’s degree still tend to outweigh the costs, with both degrees earning a return of about 15 percent over the past decade. The return has remained high in spite of rising tuition and falling earnings because the wages of those without a college degree have also been falling, keeping the college wage premium near an all-time high while reducing the opportunity cost of going to school.
Participants will learn:
▪ How collegiality is deliberately cultivated
▪ How learning is the work
▪ How to turn accountability to your advantage
▪ How to tackle complexity with confidence and humility
▪ Which leadership qualities and strategies are crucial
Interested in becoming a scientific adviser? Here are some points to keep in mind from Quebec’s chief scientist.
For researchers, seeing that their work and expertise have contributed to the development of society is a source of immense satisfaction. To obtain such results, the research community needs to step up its efforts to ensure that the voice of science is indeed heard by the decision-makers who formulate public policy. But for some researchers,
operating in the political sphere would seem to require a quantum leap into an environment that does not obey the
laws of physics. And yet, many researchers today manage to provide scientific advice in parallel with their research
activities. Here are 10 points whose importance has been brought home to me in my six years as Quebec’s chief
scientist.
Working while learning is now the accepted pathway to education and training for both young and mature working learners.
When working with aggregate data, it’s easy to lose sight of the voices and experiences of the people being studied. As part of the research for this report, the authors interviewed a number of actual working learners — some of whom were part of ACT’s working learner advisory council — and utilized their personal experiences and stories to illuminate the report and to develop policy proposals that would satisfy their needs. The following are some of the individuals who helped to provide insight into the lives of today’s working learners:
In 2011, HEQCO issued a call for research projects related to technology-enhanced instruction. Part of a broader effort to identify and evaluate innovative practices in teaching and learning, HEQCO’s purpose in commissioning these projects was both to inform best practices at the classroom, institution and policy levels, as well as to encourage institutions and faculty members to assess the effectiveness of what they were doing in the classroom.
Now that the technology studies have concluded and that most have been published, this report draws some broader conclusions from their methods and findings. First, it reflects on how certain key terms related to technology-enhanced instruction, such as ‘blended’ and ‘hybrid’, have fluid and contextual definitions that can create confusion by disrupting terms of reference that are assumed to be common. Then, it identifies common pitfalls in the implementation of technology in the
classroom to consider how new tools might be introduced and integrated more effectively. Finally, it highlights methodological lessons about the challenges of blending research and practice in the classroom.
This article summarizes some significant insights of articles in this issue from the perspective of public policy, emphasizing their potential resonance in today's policy environment in using data for program improvement as well as accountability purposes.
The suite of papers in this special Teachers College Record volume on data-driven decision making in education reflects a burgeoning subdiscipline of scholarship on the topic that has been stimulated by the constantly evolving educational policy landscape. For at least two decades, policy makers have resonated to the importance of data in education as an accountability tool and have advocated policies for the collection and reporting of such data to fulfill accountability objectives. Early examples of this at the federal level include the creation of the National Education Goals Panel in 1990 (National Education Goals Panel, 1999) to annually report on national and state educational progress toward the National Education Goals adopted by president and the nation’s governors, as well as requirements by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for data documenting the effectiveness of federal programs both in and outside of education under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1994.
An Leadership PowerPoint Presentation
Brock University envisions itself as a dynamic postsecondary educational institution that:
1) Makes a difference in the lives of individuals in our Brock community, the Niagara Region,
Canada, and the world;
2) Demonstrates leadership and innovation in teaching and learning across disciplines; and 3) Extends knowledge through excellence in research, scholarship, and creativity.
Both the higher education sector and the healthcare sector require people who do not identify with a formal role of leader to engage in leadership. In both sectors, leadership must be exercised on a continuous basis. Leadership development in higher education is influenced by an increase in managerial control, market competition, organisational restructuring and government scrutiny. Tensions between the need to meet requirements of industry versus academic requirements will continue as long as universities face these dual challenges in a competitive global economy. Universities are expected to be efficient and cost effective, flexible in their offerings, while being increasingly responsive to student expectations and needs. These tensions have resulted in some resentment from academic staff members who perceive that their autonomy is being reduced. This chapter presents current debates about leadership with a particular focus on higher education and leadership development of academic staff. Academic leadership is understood to incorporate the core academic functions of teaching/learning, and research and scholarship together with a broader focus on academic values and identity. The changing nature of this sector provides a background for current thinking about academic leadership. This chapter will draw on a recent case study from the healthcare sector which we argue contributes to the thinking on leadership not only
in the healthcare sector, but also in higher education context. The chapter concludes with key messages for academic staff making a case for building capacity of leaders in education at all levels.
Attraction and retention of apprentices and completion of apprenticeships are issues of concern to all stakeholders involved in training, economic development and workforce planning. The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (CAF) has forecast that by 2017 there will be a need to train 316,000 workers to replace the retiring workforce in the construction industry alone (CAF, 2011a). In the automotive sector, shortages are expected to reach between 43,700 and 77,150 by 2021. However, shortages are already widespread across the sector, and CAF survey data show that almost half (48.1%) of employers reported that there was a limited number of qualified staff in 2011 (CAF, 2011a). Given this, retention of qualified individuals in apprenticeship training and supporting them through to completion is a serious issue. There is some indication that registration in apprenticeship programs has been increasing steadily over the past few years, but the number of apprentices completing their program has not kept pace (Kallio, 2013; Laporte & Mueller, 2011). Increasing the number of completions would result in a net benefit to both apprentices and
employers, minimizing joblessness and skills shortages.
A brash tech entrepreneur thinks he can reinvent higher education by stripping it down to its essence, eliminating lectures and tenure along with football games, ivy-covered buildings, and research libraries. What if he's right?