Lost in the media glare around Don Drummond’s message of expenditure restraint delivered by was the other side of the equation – government revenues. Drummond’s mandate excluded consideration of tax policy, which is highly problematic by itself. But his revenue forecast left some commentators downright perplexed. USW economist Erin Weir recently drew attention to the Drummond […]
National level data reported by Statistics Canada reveals that the number of people working at universities and colleges has declined over the past year, offsetting gains in employment in other parts of the public sector. Since 2010, the average number of people employed in the postsecondary education (PSE) sector fell by 14,000. Almost all that decline occurred […]
Ontario leads the world in terms of postsecondary attainment. But as the data shows, this has more to do with college attendance than university access. Statistics Canada reports that half of Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64 have a college or university education. In Ontario, 56 per cent have attained a postsecondary credential. The average […]
The Drummond Report claims that it “protects annual growth in postsecondary funding at a time when many other public services will be rationalized.” True, it does recommend that postsecondary expenditures continue to increase by 1.5 per cent per year. But a quick look at the data reveals the truth: Drummond actually recommending a severe cut […]
A recent Statistics Canada look at women and education shows that postsecondary attainment amongst Canadian women and men has increased markedly since 1990. The increase in the proportion of people with a postsecondary diploma or certificate was roughly the same for women and men. When it comes to university degrees, however, women’s attainment rates grew much faster than […]
Recently, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a report comparing what students pay for their degrees with the public cost of providing undergraduate education in British Columbia. It found that university graduates, as a group, pay out considerably more in fees and taxes than the total cost of their education. A four-year undergraduate degree costs the […]
University enrolments continue to increase in Canada. If community colleges that recently were given university status and denominational institutions are included, the total number of students attending universities outside Ontario went up by five per cent between 2010 and 2011 reports the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada . The number of students at older publicly funded universities rose by almost three per […]
Statistics Canada reports that spending on research and development (R&D) in Canada is expected to be two per cent higher in 2011 than it was the previous year. After two years of cutting back, spending by business is expected to increase by five per cent. However, if inflation rose and the economy grew as anticipated in the […]
According to Statistics Canada, there were more than 44,000 full-time faculty at Canadian degree-granting institutions in 2009-10 . The increase over the previous year is 5.9 per cent – but only if 1,800-plus faculty members who teach at the six Alberta and British Columbia institutions reporting for the first time are included. Among universities reporting in the previous year, faculty numbers grew by only 1.5 per cent. […]
Almost without exception, unemployment rates in countries across the OECD rose during the “Great Recession” , no matter the education level. But while still high, unemployment rates — and the amount they rose — were lower for those with college and university education. The percentage of people with higher education who are employed tends to be highest in the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, and Switzerland – around […]
As more high school graduates opt for college or university education, Ontario’s attainment rate for higher education has risen from 44 per cent in 1999 to a 56 per cent in 2009, in the context of government forecasts that 70 per cent of jobs in the knowledge economy will require a postsecondary credential. In 2009, […]
The wage picture in this country is not a good one, especially in Ontario. Statistics Canada reports that average earnings of non-farm employees in Canada over the last year rose by a mere 1.0 per cent, below the rate of inflation. The situation is even worse in Ontario, where wages have lagged so badly they bring down the […]
Last month, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) released Public Education for the Public Good: A National Vision for Canada’s Post-Secondary Education System. Some of its finding: Since the late 1990s, full-time enrolment at colleges and universities has increased 25 per cent. Enrolment in graduate studies soared 42 per cent between 1998 and 2008. But federal funding for […]
Universities continue to be strong contributors to research and development in Canada. According to Statistics Canada , Ontario’s higher education sector spent almost $4.6 billion dollars on R&D in 2009-10. Higher education in fact is the largest single source of R&D funding, accounting for almost half. The federal government was the source of one-quarter of funding for […]
Statistics Canada’s report on unionization shows a positive relationship between unionization and earnings and hours. In Ontario, average hourly earnings for unionized full-time employees were 21 per cent higher in 2010 than for their non-union counterparts. And union members worked an average of three per cent fewer hours per week. For unionized part-time employees the wage advantage was […]
