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Reality Check: The CCPA’s Seven Reasons to Support Low Tuition Fees

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According to Statistics Canada, Ontario university students pay the highest average domestic tuition in Canada. Undergraduates pay 13 per cent more than their peers in Nova Scotia, the next most expensive province. Even after accounting for student support paid from university operating budgets, Ontario domestic and international students together pay on average 41 per cent more in fees than in the rest of Canada.
 
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) researcher Iglika Ivanova’s Seven Reasons to Support Low Tuition Fees was produced for the BC context, but could just as easily be written with Ontario in mind. Among other things, she contends that affordable fees are a matter of equity and that there are social benefits to higher education that extend well beyond private returns to individuals. Her piece is well worth a read, but her seven reasons in brief are:
 

1. Making university education more affordable would allow more Canadians to access this key tool for social mobility.
2. Financial barriers to education impact Canada’s economic well-being.
3. Questions of access to education are more important today than ever before because higher education is increasingly becoming a standard job requirement.
4. Student loans don’t make up for high tuition fees.
5. An educated society benefits everybody, not just the people who go to university.
6. The fact that individuals gain from having higher education is not sufficient reason to rely on tuition (i.e. user fees) to finance education.
7. Education is a great investment for our public dollars: students repay the full cost of their education through taxes over their working careers.

 
Sources: Statistics Canada, Statistics Canada Postsecondary Student Information System; Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada Association of Atlantic Universities; Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec; MTCU; British Columbia Higher Education Accountability Dataset
Canadian Association of University Business Officers

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Ontario Government Launches Consultation on University Reform

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On Thursday, June 28, 2012, OCUFA President Constance Adamson and OCUFA staff met with Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities Glen Murray. The purpose of the meeting was for the Minister to present a discussion paper on reform to Ontario’s postsecondary sector, “Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation and Knowledge: A discussion paper on innovation to make our university and college system stronger“. Minister Murray also outlined a consultation process on the discussion paper which will take place throughout the summer of 2012, in which OCUFA will participate.  The proposals contained within the paper roughly correspond to ideas floated by the government over the past few months. These ideas include increased credit transfer, ideas to ‘increase efficiency’ (three-year degrees and year-round programming), online/technology enhanced learning, and experiential education.
 
In addition to being somewhat vague (normal for a discussion paper of this kind), it should be stressed that none of these proposals are active policies for implementation. Rather, they are ideas that the Minister wishes to explore through the consultation process. It appears that the government has backed away from the prescriptive nature of previous reform announcements. For example, instead of “60 per cent of undergraduate education online”, the government seems more interested in expanding online options without forcing institutions or students to use them. Likewise, the proposal to create three-year degrees has been modified to suggest that a renewed three-year option be offered alongside traditional four year programs as an additional student option.
 
Despite this more exploratory stance, OCUFA continues to have significant concerns with many of these proposals, and will work hard to ensure the faculty perspective will be clearly heard throughout the consultation process.
 
The Minister indicated that a series of roundtables will be held on the discussion paper, including four half day sessions in the GTA and full day sessions in the north, east and west of Ontario. Each stakeholder group is also invited to provide a written submission, and OCUFA plans to take full advantage of this opportunity. The roundtables have not yet been scheduled. Once we have more information, we will be in contact to provide the latest details and coordinate our participation.
 
Many of you are also aware that the Minister met with the University Presidents on Wednesday, June 27, 2012. The purpose of the meeting was again to introduce the discussion paper and the consultation process. In addition, the Minister asked each executive head to consult with students, staff, and faculty on their campuses to establish “institutional priorities” that will be part of the new Multi-Year Accountability Agreements (MYAAs).
 
The complete discussion paper can be downloaded at:
 
http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/publications/DiscussionStrengtheningOntarioPSE.pdf

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Data Check: University education still good recession insurance

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New Statistics Canada data reveals that a university education continues to insulate grads from economic shocks. However, grads are not immune to pressures in the labour market—the number of workers with a university degree grew faster than the number of employed university graduates.
 
An earlier edition of Data Check reported on Canadian and international evidence showing that people with a postsecondary education experienced lower rates of unemployment during the Great Recession than those who did not. The latest fact sheet from Statistics Canada looks at employment levels by educational attainment before, during and after the worst of the economic crisis.
 
It is not a surprise that a university education proved to be the best insurance. Although the total number of employed in Canada rose to a new peak in 2011, the number of employed with a high school diploma but without a post-secondary credential actually declined by 1.8 per cent. In Ontario, their numbers rose by 0.1 per cent. The number of employed university degree holders rose by 8.8 per cent in Canada. In Ontario, the increase was more modest – 6.9 per cent.
 
However, since 2008, the Canadian population grew faster than the increase in the number of employed. This means that employment rates are lower after the worst of the crisis than they were before the downturn began. A national increase of 10.7 per cent in the number of working age Canadians with a university degree offsets the 8.8 per cent increase in employment and results in a 1.8 per cent decline in the employment rate for university grads. The number of Ontarians with a university degree grew by 8.9 per cent, two percentage points higher than the growth in the number of employed graduates.
 
Source: Statistics Canada, Economic Downturn and Educational Attainment

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Looking out for our members’ retirement: OCUFA and the Pension File

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The 2012 Ontario Budget introduced several measures that will affect Ontario’s public sector pension plans, including those in the university sector. These include:
 

  • Consultations on a new legislative framework for jointly sponsored public sector pension plans (“JSPP’s”);
  • The introduction of framework legislation in fall 2012 to pool investment management of smaller public sector plans;
  • The establishment as a goal of moving all single employer public sector plans to a 50-50 cost sharing arrangement within 5 years, to adjust the solvency relief regulation to encourage this outcome, and to support the conversion of these plans to joint sponsorship.

OCUFA has been actively monitoring the implementation of these proposals, and will continue to meet with the Government of Ontario and the Council of Ontario Universities to make sure they understand the faculty perspective. We last met with COU president Bonnie Patterson on June 15th, and will be meeting with Ministry of Training, College, and Universities Staff on July 12th to discuss the pension file.

  OCUFA’s Board of Directors has authorized the organization to participate in consultations around pooled asset management for Ontario public sector pensions. We have prepared a brief on the proposal for Bill Morneau, the government’s advisor on pooled asset management. We met with Mr. Morneau on June 13th, and will meet with him again on June 29th to present our analysis. We will make this document available online once it is finalized.
 
On October 26, 2012, OCUFA will hold a special meeting to discuss whether our member associations wish to give the organization a mandate to participate in a consultation on incentives to move to 50-50 cost sharing and joint governance, and if yes, to develop a position on behalf of the organization.
 
As discussions around pensions continue, OCUFA will provide updates with the latest news, announcements, and analysis.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Data Check: Salary gap advantage for university grads declines

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According to a recent analysis by Statistics Canada, the salaries of Canadians who have attained a bachelor degree are more than a third higher than those who did not pursue further education after high school. However, the difference in earnings has narrowed over the past decade.
 
After adjustments for work experience, salary advantage for male university grads fell from 43 to 37 per cent between 2000 and 2011. Women with bachelors’ degrees earn significantly more than their high-school graduate counterparts, but their educational advantage also declined from 62 to 55 per cent.
 
The trend was more pronounced for workers aged 25 to 34. The report does not indicate the results for women, but men in that age group who had trade certificates saw their real wages grow by 14 per cent. Those with a high school diplomas experienced real wage increases of seven per cent, while the increase was just one per cent for bachelor degree holders.
 
The report suggests that employment contraction in the telecom sector after the tech bubble burst in 2001, and strong growth in the construction and resource and commodity sectors may account for these trends. It does not account for the implications of rising educational costs, such as rising tuition fees and increasing reliance on student loans.
 
Statistics Canada, Wage Growth over the Past 30 Years: Changing Wages by Age and Education, by René Morissette, Garnett Picot, and Yuqian Lu

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

OCUFA makes submission on the Ontario Budget Bill

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On Tuesday, June 12, OCUFA made a written submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs articulating our concerns about the provisions of Schedule 28 of the budget bill, Bill 55 Strong Action for Ontario Act.
 
Schedule 28 of Bill 55, the Government Services and Service Providers Act, is intended to allow for further privatization of Service Ontario. The Act would enable government ministries and broader public sector institutions to contract out services to third party service providers. However, the specific details of precisely what services would be contracted out are unclear in the Act itself. Instead these details are left to be clarified by regulation at a later date through a process without legislative oversight.
 
OCUFA’s submission expressed concern that the provisions of the Act could potentially empower universities to contract out teaching services or even research services, thus undermining the work of faculty. While there is no specific provision for contracting out faculty functions in the proposed legislation, by including broader public sector institutions – including universities – in the Act, it is possible that work central to the mission of  our universities could be contracted out to outside providers.
 
Subsequent to the OCUFA submission, the Budget Bill went to a clause-by-clause reading by the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.  Schedule 28 was amended by the committee to specify “Service Ontario services” in lieu of “Ontario government services” in order to narrow the focus of the legislation. However, references to broader public sector services remained in the bill. OCUFA will continue to monitor this legislation.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Data Check: With PSE funding, Ontario treads water…at the bottom of the ocean

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The most recent data indicate that operating funding provided to Ontario universities by the provincial government is in a holding pattern when compared to other provinces. For 2010-11, per student funding was 34 per cent lower than in the rest of Canada, the same gap as 2009-10. Ontario remains dead last in terms of public operating funding per student.
 
There is no doubt that increased funding under the Liberal government’s Reaching Higher plan reduced the shortfall from 26 per cent (in 2005) to 19 per cent. But the effect proved temporary when enrolment increases exceeded expectations. The gains were erased after three short years. Although inflation-adjusted funding rose by six per cent in Ontario since Reaching Higher was announced, it rose 16 per cent in the rest of Canada.
 
The latest provincial budget promises to maintain support for enrolment increases through a separate funding envelope, even as it calls for funding reductions in other areas. But without increases to base operating funding, the net effect – especially after adjusting for inflation – will be to reduce the level of per student funding further. Even without knowing what enrolment patterns and funding practices will be in other provinces, it is hard to see how Ontario will close our funding gap with the rest of Canada –  the worst we’ve seen in thirty years.
 
Sources: Canadian Association of University Business Officers, Financial Information of Universities and Colleges; Quebec institutions’ financial statements for 2009-10 and 2010-11
Statistics Canada, Postsecondary Student Information System; for enrolments 2010-11: Association of Atlantic Universities; Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec; Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Training; Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

OCUFA makes submission on enhancing fairness for employees

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On Thursday June 7, OCUFA made a written submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs in support of Bill 77, an act which introduces amendments to the existing labour relations act that enhance fairness for employees.
 
Bill 77 is a private member’s bill that was introduced by NDP labour critic Taras Natyshak and seeks to bring about five small concrete changes to improve the labour relations climate for employees.  The bill includes provisions to empower the OLRB to direct an employer to provide a trade union with a complete employee list at the union’s request; provides for representation votes to be held in a neutral site, electronically or by phone; enables parties to apply to the Minister as well as to the OLRB to request first agreement arbitration; extends successor rights rules to the contract services sector; and amends interim order for reinstatement provisions for employees who are fired during an organizing drive.
 
OCUFA expressed its strong support for this bill in a written submission and encouraged the committee to report the bill to the House for third reading. OCUFA’s submission contended that the provisions outlined in the bill represent a fundamentally important step toward creating an employee-friendly climate and increased union density, which ultimately works to reduce social inequality.
 
The Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs will go through clause-by-clause reading of the bill, which must be reported back to the House no later than Thursday, November 29, 2012 for third reading.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Toronto reaches tentative settlement

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On June 3, 2012, the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) reached a tentative agreement with the administration. The three-year deal includes across-the-board increases and temporary enhancements to progress-through-the-ranks worth 7.14 per cent over the course of the agreement. It also contain improvements to health benefits and increases sabbatical pay to 90 percent for people taking first sabbatical after tenure or after promotion to Senior Lecturer or permanent status Librarian.
 
The deal also includes an increase to employee pension contributions, worth about two per cent of salary. UTFA won a commitment from the employer to only use the increased contributions to meet current service cost obligations, not to offset employer contributions or pay down the plan deficit. The new contributions will be phased in over the three years.
 
The deal will go to the U of T Governing Council for ratification later this month.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Reality Check: Different countries, same problems for contract faculty

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Australia’s National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) recently released the results of a survey of “casual” academic staff who are appointed on a per-course or research contract basis, equivalent to part-time, sessional, or contract academic staff in Canada. Almost two-thirds of respondents aspire to an academic career, preferably a permanent full-time position with teaching and research responsibilities. Teaching-only positions were the least desirable of the full-time options.
 
Almost two-thirds are women, and almost two-thirds have been employed as casuals for three or more years at the same university. Of those surveyed, 15 per cent have been cobbling together a living with appointments at more than one university.
 
The survey also found that unpaid work is a problem. Fewer than half reported that there was sufficient time allocated in their contracts for lecture preparation and class time. When it came to tutorials, less than two-thirds had adequate paid time for preparation. And while over 80 per cent of per-course faculty reported that they had consulted with students outside normal hours, three-quarters were not paid for the activity.
 
Not only does the pay end up being meager, but access to resources is limited. Most share an office and a computer and only half had space for consulting with students.
 
OCUFA has noted that similar problems – ‘permanent casualization’, multiple appointments, lack of paid time for preparation, and unequal access to resources – exist for Ontario’s contract academic staff. We believe that all academic jobs should be ‘good’ jobs, with job security, fair compensation, and the resources needed to fulfill their responsibilities. When we invest in contract faculty, we invest in both their quality of life and in the quality of our higher education system.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Reality Check: Online education is expensive when you do it right

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It is not cheap to provide a high quality university education online. At first glance, the operating expense per student appears lower at the Télé-Université du Québec (TÉLUQ) and Athabasca University than at traditional universities. Accounting for enrolment profile, the same is true for Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in BC, which has a physical campus and hosts BC’s Online Learning Agency.
 
Drilling deeper, online education is less of a bargain. The weighted average cost per student at TÉLUQ and Athabasca is 11 per cent higher than the on-campus per-student cost in Ontario. It is only by adding TRU without adjusting for enrolment mix that the weighted average falls to 10 per cent lower than Ontario.*
 
The cost savings are achieved partly by savings on full-time faculty salaries. The combined student-faculty ratio for the three online institutions is 34, well above the combined average of 21 for their counterparts in BC, Quebec, and Alberta. Take faculty salaries and student scholarships out of the mix and the combined operating costs at TÉLUQ and Athabasca are 30 per cent higher than in Ontario. Even with TRU included, Ontario institutions still spend less.
 
Ontario already has the lowest operating cost per student and the worst student-faculty ratio, which rose to 28 in 2010. If online learning in Ontario is meant to achieve cost savings parallel to those in other provinces, it looks like the only savings will come at the expense of the student-faculty ratio. Whatever its pedagogical merits, it is hard to imagine online education can make up for fewer professors, especially when the vast majority of students  do their learning on campus.
 
*Note:Approximately one-third of Thompson Rivers University full-time equivalent enrolment is in college and other courses which are not university credit courses. The BC comparator group is composed of the University of Victoria and four institutions recently designated universities.
 
Sources: Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO), Financial Information of Universities and Colleges; Québec university financial statements
Statistics Canada, Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS); University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS)

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

OCUFA Faculty Survey: Professors and academic librarians warn against rash reforms of Ontario’s universities

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Professors and academic librarians are warning the Government of Ontario against putting limits on the educational options available to students, based on the results of a survey released today. In a leaked discussion paper and several speeches, the Government of Ontario has floated moving to a three-year degree structure, delivering 60 per cent of a degree online, and introducing year-round university programming.

“In a competitive and knowledge-based economy, our students don’t need less education,” said Constance Adamson, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA). “Any policy that potentially reduces the quantity and quality of curriculum taught in universities has to be met with extreme caution and concern.”

Survey highlights:

  • 87 per cent of faculty agreed that moving to a three-year degree will limit the ability of students to pursue graduate or professional education in the rest of Canada and the United States.
  • 86 per cent of faculty surveyed  agreed that moving to a three-year degree will harm the quality of university education in Ontario
  • 82 per cent agreed that delivering 60 per cent of undergraduate courses online will harm the quality of university education
  • Only 24 percent of faculty surveyed strongly agreed that there is sufficient student demand for year-round university

“Online education has an important place in today’s universities, but moving the majority of undergraduate education online will undermine the learning experience our students expect. We shortchange students if we ignore the educational importance of face-to-face student interaction with their peers and faculty inside the classroom and laboratory,” said Adamson

“Faculty members are united in their concern over the online learning and three-year degree proposals. These ideas need to be carefully scrutinized and reviewed to ensure that they support the best possible student experience while meeting Ontario’s educational needs.”

The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) survey was commissioned to assess Ontario university professors’ and academic librarians’ opinions on a variety of issues affecting university education. The online survey received over 2,300 responses between March 21 and April 16, 2012.

READ THE FULL REPORT

Data Check: Higher education still leads the R&D Charge

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Who drives innovation in Canada and Ontario? When it comes to research and development, higher education – fuelled by public dollars – leads the way.
 
According to Statistics Canada, the number of people engaged in research and development (R&D) in Canada rose by almost 67,000 between 2000 and 2009. Ontario accounted for 27,000 of those added positions. During the same period, the constant dollar value of R&D expenditures grew proportionately less – by 18 per cent for Canada and six per cent for Ontario.
 
Across Canada and in Ontario, the business sector contributed the most to employment growth, but its 2009 research and development expenditures fell to levels at or below what they were in 2000. The predictable result is a 30 to 37 per cent decline in the R&D expenditures per person by business.
 
Higher education provided the second biggest boost to R&D personnel numbers. Moreover, in Canada and Ontario, R&D expenditures in higher education rose faster than the number of researchers, technicians and support staff contributing to the effort. Thanks to higher education institutions, research and development expenditures per person in Canada and Ontario climbed 10 per cent above the 2000 level.
 
Statistics Canada: Research and development personnel, 2009; Spending on research and development

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

OCUFA holds ‘Building Solidarity’ workshop in Toronto

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On May 23, 2012, OCUFA held a member mobilization workshop at the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto. Attended by over 60 faculty association representatives from across Ontario, the goal of the workshop was to develop the skills needed to effectively communicate with and engage faculty association members. The workshop was led by Rob Fairley and Mike Balkwill of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council.
 
Faculty associations, as with all public sector unions, are coming under increasing pressure. From government austerity to media criticism of pension benefits, associations are facing new and difficult challenges. To meet these challenges head on, it is vital that associations are able to connect with and mobilize their membership. Organized under the auspices of OCUFA’s Collective Bargaining Committee, the Building Solidarity workshop is part of our ongoing work to ensure that Ontario’s professors and academic librarians have the tools they need to support robust local bargaining.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.

Reality Check: Without good data, you can’t have good policy

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One of the many casualties of the recent federal budget is the University and College Academic Staff System (UCASS). This Statistics Canada survey was an annual census of full-time faculty in Canadian universities, and an invaluable source of information for the postsecondary sector. Due to cuts, the August 2011 data will be the final UCASS release.  Without detailed information on faculty and academic staff, governments, the public and the higher education research community will have little understanding of who is actually educating students at Ontario and Canada’s universities.
 
Even before these cuts, Canada lagged behind many other countries in the information collected on post-secondary education. One glaring example is the total lack of any data on the large number of sessional faculty who teach on short term contracts.
 
The OECD has previously written to Statistics Canada encouraging the agency to broader their data collection to make it more comparable to others in the OECD community.  Now, we can only fall further behind. At a time of change and uncertainty in higher education, cutting UCASS will hurt our collective ability to make good policy.

This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.