OCUFA

Data Check: Ontario universities perform well in terms of graduation rates

Graeme — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:00:47 +0000

Critics of the productivity of Ontario’s universities need to check their facts.

Ontario universities are doing much better than their American peers when it comes to graduation rates. Over the last decade, the overall graduation rate amongst undergraduates in Ontario has been steadily improving. The latest data show it at 81 per cent. Once first professional subjects such as law and medicine are taken out of the mix to ensure comparability with US data, the province-wide graduation rate for 2010 is 80 per cent.

The US National Center for Education Statistics recently released data on 2011 retention and graduation rates. The national average amongst students seeking a bachelor’s degree was 59 per cent. Private, non-profit institutions rate of 65 per cent was the best US average by institution type. The average graduation rate across public institutions was 57 per cent. Private, for-profit universities fared even worse, graduating just 42 per cent of its first-time undergraduates within the same time frame.

More to the point, Ontario is doing this with considerably less per-student funding than their American peers. In 2011, average per-student public funding at US public four-year institutions was $9,416 and only $8,372 in Ontario. How’s that for productivity?

Sources:
National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education
Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, Graduation, Job And OSAP Default Rates

OCUFA announces winner of Mandelbaum Fellowship

Graeme — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:00:12 +0000

OCUFA is pleased to announce this year’s winner of the Mandelabum Fellowship: Sara Pavan, a doctoral candidate in political studies at Queen’s University.

Sara is an outstanding student, receiving high marks throughout her coursework and a “Distinction” for her comprehensive exams, a rare honour. In addition to her first-class academics, the fellowship jury was particularly struck by Sara’s strong community and volunteer service. While studying in Rome for her bachelor’s degree, Sara additionally received training and spent two years working as a social worker and counselor in women’s shelters. She also spent eight-months in San Salvador as a volunteer promoting sustainable development and community building in the aftermath of the civil war. She is also active in supporting international students at Queen’s in both formal and informal roles.

One professor described Sara as, “one of the best two PhD students I have worked with in my career, which now spans three decades.” Another remarked that, “I have great confidence that her dissertation will be an important contribution to the field of comparative politics, as well as work on ethnicity, diversity, representation, and political behaviour.”

The Mandelbaum Fellowship was establish to honor Henry Mandelbaum, Executive Director of OCUFA from 1995-2011. The fellowship is awarded to a graduate student “who has demonstrated academic excellence, shows exceptional academic promise, and has provided significant community service in his/her university career.” For more information, please visit http://ocufa.on.ca/ocufa-awards/

Government of Ontario cuts funding to teacher education programs

Graeme — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:04:07 +0000

On Wednesday, June 5, 2013, the Government of Ontario announced significant changes to teacher education in Ontario. Unfortunately, they chose to accompany their curriculum changes with a 33 per cent cut to per-student funding for teacher colleges.

Some of the structural changes – doubling the length of teacher education from one year to two years – were expected, and will help bring Ontario in line with programs elsewhere in Canada. Other changes –such as halving enrolment from 9,000 to 4,500 places – were a surprise. Most troubling was the decision to cut per-student funding by 33 per cent, a change made without any consultation with the sector, according to university sources. As Bonnie Patterson, President of COU notes, “reducing government funding for teacher education when Ontario universities are providing top-notch education, despite the country’s lowest rate of per student funding, disadvantages students, and threatens quality.”

The government’s changes echo cuts to medical education programs in the early 1990s, which left Ontario chronically short of qualified family doctors. The government has a poor record of predicting labour market needs, and their changes to teacher education may have significant, and unforeseen, negative downstream effects.

It is important for the Government of Ontario to recognize that its primary role in the university sector is the provision of public funding that allows for high quality and affordable education. Wednesday’s announcement is the latest example of the government’s slow retreat from adequate funding and increased willingness to interfere in academic planning.

OCUFA writes letter regarding troubling labour developments at Saint Paul University

Graeme — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:52:08 +0000

On May 27, 2013, OCUFA President Constance Adamson wrote a letter to Rector Chantal Beauvais of Saint Paul University, regarding troubling labour developments at the university. Here is the full text of the letter.

Dear Rector Beauvais;

I am writing this letter to urge the administration of Saint Paul University to reverse its threat to terminate faculty members within the Faculty of Theology. These actions are extreme, and will result in serious harm to the Faculty, those who work within it, and its students.

On behalf of OCUFA and the 17,000 professors and academic librarians it represents, I would request that the following measures be taken to correct this situation:

Honour the collective agreement with the Professors’ Association of Saint Paul University (PASPU), which does not include an article that defines the procedures under which faculty members may be terminated in a case of financial exigency.
Cease plans to fire tenured professors in the Faculty of Theology (or any other faculty), in an attempt to decrease the deficit. During the consultation and round-tables held this Spring at Saint Paul, the university community expressed strong support for the continuation of the institution’s Catholic mission and identity.
Reinstate Alice Constantinou, the professional librarian who was fired on May 15th. Saint Paul’s current lack of even one professional librarian leaves a significant hole in its reputation as a well-functioning academic institution.
Provide full transparency of the University’s finances, debts, and resources to PASPU and the university community. This will help the broader Saint Paul community determine to what extent the actions that are planned, and have taken place, are justifiable.

OCUFA is aware that, in addition to the termination of Alice Constantinou, three staff members in Theology have been terminated. OCUFA is also aware that other faculty members have been transferred to different Faculties and early retirements have occurred. And yet, your administration believes that the actions taken thus far have not significantly affected the deficit.

Will further terminations and related actions similarly be insignificant with respect to the budget while imposing a heavy cost on those who face losing their current appointments? This is a critical question I urge you to consider.

I welcome any opportunity to discuss these matters with you further. I believe we share the goal of preserving the future of Saint Paul University as a viable academic institution. In the interest of achieving this goal while protecting Saint Paul’s professors and librarians, I again urge you to take the actions I have outlined in this letter.

Sincerely,

Constance Adamson, President, OCUFA

Data Check: Ontario tuition fee increases outstrip the United States

Graeme — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:00:56 +0000

It’s often assumed that Ontario’s tuition fees are a bargain compared to those in the United States. But tuition fees are rising faster in Ontario, and the percentage of university revenue made up of student fees is higher in the province than in American public institutions.

Data from the United States indicate that inflation-adjusted tuition and required fees for “in-state” undergraduate students at public four-year universities rose by almost seven per cent between 2010 and 2012. In Ontario, the comparable increase was nine per cent. Since 2005, when Ontario tuition was last frozen, tuition for full-time domestic students in Ontario rose by 29 per cent – five percentage points more than in the US.

During that time, of course, US states reduced the amount of support they provided to postsecondary institutions not just on a relative per-student basis, but in absolute terms as well. It is therefore no surprise that the latest Condition of Education publication from the US National Center for Education Statistics should report that student tuition and fees represent a larger share of universities’ income than previously.

No reduction in total provincial support for universities has occurred in Ontario. But if we compare the relative share of public universities’ total revenue (including research funding, and excluding additions to endowments and income from ancillary enterprises) coming from students (net of scholarships), we find that the student share in the US rose from 18 to 22 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09. It has since fallen to 19 per cent for 2010-11. In Ontario, it continues steadily upward, from 25 per cent in 2005-06 to 28 per cent in 2010-11 to 29 per cent in 2011-12.

Sources:
Council of Finance Officers, Universities of Ontario, Financial Report of Ontario Universities
National Center for Education Statistics, The Condition of Education; Postsecondary Institutions in the United States: Fall 2005 and Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2004-05; Postsecondary Institutions and Price of Attendance in 2012-13; Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2011-12; and 12-Month Enrollment: 2011-12: First Look (Preliminary Data)
Statistics Canada, University tuition fees, 2012/2013

Examining the “New Austerity” in Ontario higher education

Graeme — Wed, 29 May 2013 13:00:35 +0000

On May 23, 2013, the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) and the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (MTCU) hosted a symposium on education in Ontario featuring several Ontario Research Chairs. Glen Jones, a professor at the University of Toronto and Ontario Research Chair in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement, presented his thoughts on “the new austerity” in Ontario’s higher education system.

Unlike during the mid-1990s – that last major period of restraint in higher education – the new austerity does not feature substantial cuts to public funding and financial aid. It also does not include significant tuition increases. Rather, the new austerity is characterized by small, gradual cuts to public university funding, increased investment in student financial aid, and an effort to control tuition fees. While appearing less drastic and more student friendly than the major cuts of the 1990s, these policies still reduce the resources available to universities. As enrolments rise, declining funding causes per-student revenue to drop. Capping tuition fee increases, without providing compensatory funding to universities, further reduces financial resources.

As Jones and his York University colleague, Theresa Shanahan, observe, this slow decline in per-student funding will inevitably harm the quality of education provided by Ontario’s universities. This echoes a point repeatedly made by OCUFA: our institutions are already the most efficient and productive in Canada, so the government’s plan to offset cuts with “efficiencies” will not succeed.

While less dramatic than previous periods of cutbacks, the new austerity will have a similarly negative effect on our universities. They will struggle to do more with less. As we know, at some point this equation invariably becomes “less with less.”

Reality Check: Unions build equality for everyone

Graeme — Thu, 23 May 2013 12:30:32 +0000

When a pundit or politician attacks unions, they’re really attacking equality for everyone, and for women in particular.

Unions and the public sector – and public sector unions especially – are no strangers to criticism. In the wake of the Great Recession, perhaps it should be no surprise that attacks are more vociferous than when times are better for everyone. It is important not to lose sight of the contributions unions and the public sector have made to progress, not least for women.

Two recent publications point to the good that unions do. In its report, the Broadbent Institute includes a Canadian version of a chart showing that higher rates of unionization are accompanied by a decline in income inequality. The Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights illustrates the same fact using the Gini coefficient as a measure of inequality. Both studies point to the positive influence unions have beyond the workplace in ensuring fairer wages, social programs, and public services that benefit everyone.

A Statistics Canada examination of wage trends attributed some of the progress in closing the gender pay gap to the relative importance of unionization for women’s wages. Closing the gap may also be due to the role of the public sector as the foremost employer of women. About 70 per cent of employees in the public sector (utilities, education, health and social services, and public administration) are women, compared to 40 per cent across other industries. And about three-quarters of public employees are unionized, compared to less than 20 per cent in the private sector.

It’s not surprising that the Canadian Union of Public Employees found that the marginal, half per cent “premium” in earnings received by public employees is entirely due to more equitable pay for female public servants.

Bargaining Wire: Seven associations in bargaining, two more preparing for negotiations

Graeme — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:39:25 +0000

Collective bargaining continues at Ontario’s universities, with seven faculty associations currently at the table. Two of these associations (Brescia and UOIT Teaching Stream faculty) are negotiating their first contract. Two more associations are preparing to begin bargaining soon.

At UOIT, appropriate permanency/continuing employment provisions for teaching stream faculty remains an issue. At Ottawa, the faculty association was disappointed when the employer introduced unilateral pension reforms and suspended the multi-union/employer working group that had been discussing these issues.

Reality Check: Not enough being done to bridge the gender pay gap

Graeme — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:16 +0000

Two recent reports form the Centre for Policy Alternatives address the gender gap in Canada and Ontario. Both find that not enough is being done to close the distance between men and women in the workplace.

Closing the Gender Gap takes a look at a variety of indicators used by the World Economic Forum to assess the gender gap in education, health, the economy, and politics. Author Kate McInturff found it would take more than 200 years to close the overall gap in Canada If progress were to continue at the current pace.

Some of that score is a result of abysmal scores in the political empowerment of women. Even so, Canada does not perform well on the economic participation and opportunity sub-index, despite having excellent scores in educational attainment for women.

Another study, 10 Ways To Close Ontario’s Gender Pay Gap, points to a 28 per cent gender pay gap in Ontario, taking into account the dependence of so many women on part-time work. Mary Cornish complements McInturff’s recommendations by identifying concrete steps to ensure that real progress is made and maintained. In addition to measures to increase awareness and making pay equity a mainstream concern, she discusses practical matters like affordable and accessible child care, implementing and ensuring compliance with pay equity policies, employment and pay equity laws, and, not least, access to collective bargaining.

Public investment in Ontario universities continues to decline

Graeme — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:50:11 +0000

At first glance, the 2013 Ontario Budget doesn’t say much at all about higher education. This silence obscures the austerity logic still working against the province’s universities.

The 2013 Budget continues the slow cuts announced in 2012. Through so-called “policy levers”, some $121 million is being cut from university budgets in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The government will also begin clawing back operating funds according to international enrolment, essentially imposing a “head tax” on all new international students. Taken together, these measures will continue the ongoing decline in per-student funding.

Overall funding for universities, correcting for inflation, is set to decline by 2.5 per cent over the next four years. If current enrolment trends continue, per-student funding from the government will actually decline by seven per cent over the same period.

The new tuition framework – where average increases cannot exceed 3 per cent – will also harm university revenue. OCUFA believes strongly that Ontario students pay too much in tuition fees, and that the cost of higher education must be controlled. However, we have long argued that any freeze or reduced fee cap should be accompanied by compensatory government investment to replace lost tuition revenue. No such funding has been made available.

Overall, this means that universities in Ontario will be forced to grapple with steadily declining resources, and corresponding threats to educational quality and affordability. With all the social and economic benefits generated by our institutions, the government’s current course is harmful to students, to families, and the province.