OUSA

It might come as no surprise, but two of my favorite things to discuss are postsecondary education and the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. My last two days have allowed me a great amount of time to discuss both.

Tuesday involved driving from Waterloo to Oshawa with Alexi to present information on the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance to Your Student Association (the student government for Durham, UOIT and Trent in Oshawa students). This was an exciting evening. Presenting after our partners at the College Student Alliance, Alexi and I had the opportunity to discuss OUSA with the members of YSA and take questions on a number of topics. Even more exciting, after individual discussions with participants I was rejuvenated at the fresh ideas and concern for PSE that each student brought.

After spending the evening in Toronto bonding with Alexi, I packed up and headed back home to Waterloo for another exciting OUSA event. Acting in my capacity as the VP Education at UW, I had the pleasure of hosting a town hall forum with OUSA’s director of policy and research analysis, Paul, and the University of Waterloo’s Vice President Academic and Provost. This meeting allowed each party to spell out their vision for the future of PSE in Ontario.

One of the most interesting moments from today’s town hall forum was when Feridun, VPAP from the University of Waterloo, announced his disapproval for using students paying outside vendors for quizzes and assignments. This is an exciting comment, as over the last couple of months we have been working to protect students from this practice.

In the end this was a great two days that reminded me just how great working for students with OUSA really can be.

-Justin Williams

With a tight win over the number-one-ranked Laval Rouge et Or last Saturday, the Queen’s Gaels are headed to the Vanier Cup, Canada’s intercollegiate football championship. Joining them will be the Calgary Dinos, fresh off a 38-14 win over the St. Mary’s Huskies in which the Dinos racked-up a whopping 426 rushing yards.

In the spirit of friendly intercollegiate competition, and because Queen’s University is a valued member of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, we hereby challenge our partner, the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS), representing the University of Calgary, to join us in a friendly wager:

If the Gaels win the Vanier Cup this Saturday, CAUS will write a poem extolling the virtues of Ontario and the tremendous ability of our university athletes. If the Dinos win, OUSA promises to do the same for Alberta. The poem must be sent to the other organization’s board members and must be posted on the organization’s website for at least one week.

What do you say guys? Up for it?

-Alexi White

Educated Solutions - Issue 6 (Fall 2009)

TORONTO, Nov 18. /OUSA/ – The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance has released its 6^th issue of Educated Solutions.  Educated Solutions is an annual student-focused magazine that is designed to provoke thought, discussion and dialogue about higher education in Ontario.

This issue was themed around the future of post-secondary education, and features articles about the future of funding, teaching quality, e-learning, student advocacy, university differentiation, debt and grants, infrastructure and institutions.  It also features such contributors as the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy, Brock University President Jack Lightstone, University of Western Ontario President Amit Chakma, and University of Waterloo President David Johnston.

Educated Solutions also features a photo essay, and commentary and perspectives from current staff and OUSA alumni.  This issue was printed with mixed sources, approved by the Forestry Stewardship Council.

The magazine is available in hard-copy format from the OUSA office, or from your campus steering committee member or campus coordinator.  To receive a copy, please email communications@ousa.on.ca.  An online version is available via this website.  Click on the image of the magazine to be sent to an online reader.

Just a few minutes ago, a very nice delivery man came up our ‘service’ elevator and gave us our newly printed issues of Educated Solutions… I don’t think I can convey my happiness of this issue, both for arriving on time (sort of) and for the quality of its content.

I’ve uploaded the web version here, but pick up a hard copy from a steering committee member, or email me and I will mail you one… I’m just so happy it has turned out so well, and huge thanks to all those who helped me get it done, you know who you are.

-Alvin Tedjo

OUSA’s Lobby Conference at Queen’s Park is just days away and it’s shaping up to be phenomenal. We’re kicking things off with a press conference on Monday morning to release a new OUSA report that highlights the need for further investment in post-secondary education. A number of our partners from inside and outside the sector will be there with us, demonstrating the broad consensus that exists on the importance of higher education to the Province’s future.

For the lobby conference itself, we’ve already booked over fifty meetings with MPPs, including more than half of Cabinet. Kudos to the home office staff on a fantastic lobby brief, covering the key issues of financial aid, student success and tuition.

We’ll keep blogging throughout so stay tuned.

-Dan Moulton

As the 2009 year comes to a close, so to does the Millennium, or as it is more formally known the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation (CMSF).  In the realm of Post-Secondary Education (PSE) in Canada, I believe that there has been no organization as influential or as successful as the CMSF.

This comprehensive program distributed $285 million a year in financial needs based Bursaries; provided Access Bursaries to assist students of traditionally underrepresented groups attend PSE; encouraged student leadership and innovation through its Excellence Awards program; and conducted valuable PSE focused research that will continue to shape the way PSE in Canada operates.

It is because of the work of the CMSF that so many young Canadians have had the opportunity to attend PSE and that so many young Canadians have succeeded in becoming leaders and innovators.  It seems that almost every student currently enrolled in PSE knows someone who has been positively impacted by the Bursaries and Awards disbursed by the CMSF.  Entering university in 2006, I received a Millennium Excellence Award, without which my own successful participation in PSE would have been much less likely.

As an Excellence Award winner I was constantly encouraged to network with other Excellence Award winners and was invited to attend conferences and share ideas about improving the world we live in.  CMSF promoted learning and leadership outside of the classroom, and even provided grants to participants who had the ambition to lead an innovative and self directed project with the purpose of creating positive change.  The Millennium Scholarship Foundation is about the pursuit of dreams; academic dreams, careers dreams, and life dreams.  I for one am very thankful to the CMSF for making my dreams possible.

So as we ring in the new decade this new years eve, may we also stop to remember and pay our respects, to what will be known as the best Millennium in the history of post-secondary education in Canada.

-Kory Preston

Although I’d prefer to be enjoying myself in Halifax, at the moment, I am typing away at my laptop’s keyboard as I TA a Friday evening Lab (Basics of Media Writing, in case you’re interested).

I hope my colleagues are having a productive time at the CASA (Canadian Alliance of Students Association) Annual General Meeting and in the interim, I’m working hard to ensure that my OUSA Campus Coordinator, Madeline MacIsaac, and I are prepared for our rapidly approaching Lobby Conference! Many of our students live in the riding of Provincial Finance Minister Hon. Dwight Duncan, not to mention long-time MPPs Bruce Crozier and Minister of Economic Development and Trade Hon. Sandra Pupatello, so we look forward to a productive lobby effort on behalf of students.

Our members were recently engaged in a town-hall meeting by University of Windsor President Dr. Alan Wildeman where issues such as quality of education and student success were discussed, and there is excitement to learn of the results of the first-ever Canadian Student Survey.

Finally, I’m excited about the newest edition of Educated Solutions, and I think that Alvin has done an excellent job in putting that together for us. Of course, I’m happy to see that my official photo didn’t make it to print!

-Robert Woodrich

Educated Solutions - Paul Bien article

Republished from Educated Solutions: The Future of Post-Secondary Education Issue (Issue 6, November 2009)

By Paul Bien

The Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance talks a great deal about student financial assistance. Some of these conversations are simple: “is it student financial assistance or aid?” Some of these conversations are incredibly complicated: “is the needs assessment formula representative of the kind of system we are hoping to foster?” One thing we don’t talk about, beyond broad strokes and generalities, is the impact of high student debt on an entire generation of Canadians.

Now, I should say, it’s not as though the issue isn’t important to the organization. On the contrary, it is on our minds all the time. The real challenge is that we don’t have enough information to talk about the impact that debt has in our country more specifically than just “well, we know it changes behaviour.” I’ve been working in the area of post-secondary education issues for long enough that I could tell you that the average loan this past year was almost $7,800, or that over one hundred thousand university students used the Ontario Student Assistance Program last year. But for the life of me, I couldn’t tell you if having over $20,000 of student debt means you can’t get a car, or a house, or forces you to take a job you hate because you need to pay down your debt.

Do a quick Google search for student debt and over the course of the pages you might find a study here or there outlining some of the fall-out from high debt levels. Now add the word “Canada” to your search criteria and suddenly you lose most results resembling debt impact studies. There is a great deal of information about repaying your loans and those who face difficultly. You can find interesting studies about the relationship between staying in university and the debt that you carry. But that’s where the data ends.

It is important to point out that staying in school, or persistence, is a choice and a clear impact of debt. When the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation published their paper about debt impact in 2005 a number of interesting facts came to light. The study explains that “the group with the lowest level of persistence had the highest amount of debt for the amount of program they had completed.” This means that students who chose not to stay through to the completion of their degree also had the highest amount of debt. The study goes on to point out that debt aversion was a main factor in the decision to drop out.

Understanding repayment and persistence is important, no doubt, but very little work has been done on how debt changes a graduate’s non-academic life choices.

For example, if I were to graduate with $90,000 of combined debt from an undergraduate B.A. and a law program at the University of Western Ontario would I still have the ability to pursue my dream of being a legal-aid focused lawyer? Could I still afford food, shelter, and an $800 loan payment each month? Further, what life steps will I have to put on hold to repay this debt. Maybe I’ll move back in with my parents, maybe I’ll delay my wedding and put off having kids.

Worst of all, maybe I won’t do any of this and instead go to Bay St. to take a high paying job that is not even in the vicinity of the reasons I had gone to into the profession of law for in the first place. This will ensure that I can repay my loans, but higher education is supposed to open the doors to achieving our dreams, not bolt them shut.

Imbedded in some of these questions are the kinds of metrics researchers might use to test the long term impact of debt. Comparative analysis between graduates from low-income and high-income family backgrounds would be useful in comparing post-graduation: employment choice; living situation; consumer purchases; or, further education. Moreover, a long-term survey and analysis, similar to the youth in transition survey conducted by Statistics Canada, would give important information over the period of time that might be considered the adult formative years: those years between graduation and your first serious professional employment in the field in which you studied. This will help answer the question of the true impact that the rising cost of higher education has on a student’s life over the long term.

It is time that the community of post-secondary education researchers spent some serious energy in this area. As tuition fees continue to rise, politicians and institutions are inclined to say “it’s ok, there’s student financial assistance to make sure no student is unable to access higher education.” But this is a worrying trend. If student loans are going to be used as the reason for allowing educational costs to grow ever higher, shouldn’t we better understand the impact of these decisions? With the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation’s mandate coming to an end, it will fall to the government and others to pick up this mantle and push the issue forward. Without more knowledge, we’re sending graduates down a perilous path without fully understanding where it might lead.

Paul Bien is the Director of Research and Policy Analysis for the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance.  He graduated from Carleton University with a Bachelor’s in Public Affairs & Policy Management.

Educated Solutions - Mark Langer article

Republished from Educated Solutions: The Future of Post-Secondary Education Issue (Issue 6, November 2009)

By Mark Langer, President of OCUFA

Students and faculty are united in the belief that Ontario’s universities are underfunded. Our institutions simply do not have the resources they need to maintain and expand a high-quality educational experience. More money is needed in the university system, and this money must be injected by the Government of Ontario. The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations currently estimates that $1.1 billion in additional operating funds are needed to help universities hire more faculty, renew their facilities, and keep tuition affordable for Ontario students and their families. Over one billion dollars in the midst of a recession?

Absolutely. Everyone is aware of the difficult financial situation faced by the provincial government, a predicament shared by governments all over the world. But the reality is this: university funding is not a cost to be avoided. It is an investment in the future success of Ontario, and we simply cannot afford to not give our universities the public funding they urgently need.

Ontario is in the midst of a painful transition from a traditional manufacturing economy to a new economic reality based on high-tech industry, innovation, and information. This knowledge economy requires a highly skilled workforce, exactly the kind of professionals produced by our universities. Research suggests that over seventy per cent of new jobs created in Ontario will require some form of postsecondary education. If we don’t give our universities the resources to equip our students for success in the new economy, we cripple the competitiveness of our province and consign ourselves to second-tier status in Canada and around the world.

The people of Ontario deserve better.

In the mid-1990s, Ontario universities endured deep cuts to their public operating grants. This forced many institutions into greater reliance on private funds like endowments and tuition. Increased reliance on endowment funds has exposed our universities to the vagaries of the stock market, essentially gambling a portion of institutional budgets on the boom-and-bust cycles of the global financial system. The folly of this policy shift is powerfully demonstrated by our neighbour to the south. The global financial crisis has hit American private universities – those that rely entirely on tuition, donations and endowments for funds – extremely hard. Conversely, public institutions in France, South Korea, and Australia have thrived during the recession. When universities have a strong foundation of public support, they need not turn to risky sources of funding like the stock market– sources that invariably dry up when the economy goes south. So while Harvard and Yale are forced to cut their budgets, French universities can continue advancing the social and economic goals of their citizens.

The other source of private income – students – is no less problematic. Shifting the cost of delivering higher education onto students through high tuition fees has severe implications for the affordability and accessibility of our university system. In just two decades, tuition has risen 250 per cent. Student debt has risen alongside skyrocketing fees, saddling many graduates with a severe financial burden. What’s more, higher tuition doesn’t improve quality; it just softens the damage caused by government cuts. As a result, students end up paying more for less.

Increased use of endowment funds and higher tuition fees amount to a kind of privatization-by-stealth. As the balance of public and private funding gradually shifts, the very idea of a public higher education system becomes threatened. Canada’s past successes have depended on robust public services, particularly in the education sector. The erosion of public support for higher education undermines this central principal and imperils our future economic and social vitality.

Premier Dalton McGuinty affirmed the importance of public support for higher education in his 2005 Reaching Higher Plan. This bold initiative injected $6.2 billion into higher education over five years, and was a welcome change from the previous ten years of deep cuts and then static funding. But in many ways, the Reaching Higher Plan has been the victim of its own success. Unexpected enrolment increases largely erased the impact of the new funding. And with tens of thousands of new students expected at Ontario’s campuses in the coming decade, an even bolder follow-up plan will be needed to ensure the quality of our universities in the years to come.

So, $1.1 billion doesn’t sound so crazy after all. In fact, Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto, has estimated that Ontario’s universities need $10 billion to remain competitive with the rest of the world. With that in mind, a measly $1.1 billion investment seems downright cheap. And let’s be clear: a $1.1 billion influx now means many more billions in economic returns down the road.

Students and faculty agree: to ensure Ontario’s social and economic success now and in an increasingly competitive future depends on high quality higher education built on a foundation of strong public support. Or, in other words, how can we possibly expect to move our province ahead if we leave our students and universities behind?

Mark Langer teaches a variety of courses related to film history, national cinemas, genres and animation. His research interests are devoted to the early work of Robert Flaherty (the “father of documentary”) and to the animation studios headed by Walt Disney and Max and Dave Fleischer. Outside of Carleton, he has been active as a guest curator for museums, archives and film festivals, including the Museum of Modern Art. He is currently acting president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

Educated Solutions - David Simmonds article

Republished from Educated Solutions: The Future of Post-Secondary Education Issue (Issue 6, November 2009)

By David Simmonds

Change is life’s only constant. As Ontario’s higher education system prepares to embark on another journey of change, Ontario’s students must be prepared to accept the reality that there is no time to waste.

A review of news clippings, speeches, discussions about research and system design illustrate that in Canada, and more pointedly in Ontario, there is a truly palpable sense of urgency. Leaders and advocates are marking their territory and preparing to engage in what promises to be a crucial conversation about the future of higher education.

Naturally, for student leaders, the number one priority must be enshrining a student-centered vision on your campuses and protecting the interests of your members. But the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance has a reputation for being supernatural in its policies, positions, and tactics. The challenge for students in the next generation of higher education is ensuring that OUSA has the courage to move beyond access.

Moving beyond access. What does that mean? It means encouraging students, governments, and institutions to look beyond enrolment trends and participation patterns and think seriously about who makes up our campus populations, where they come from, and how reflective these students are of Canada’s demographic reality. Ensuring that opportunity is driven in parallel with the pursuit of excellence is the new frontier.

At no time could the value of a university degree be more obvious than it is today. Here and around the world, there is a growing gap in earnings based on education levels. In 29 of 30 developed nations, the wage gap is widening between people who have completed some form of postsecondary education and those who have not. Despite increased enrollment and higher expenditures in the Province of Ontario, students from high-income families are almost three times as likely to persist through university than their peers from low-income backgrounds. Gaps in degree attainment have not closed in the last ten years and, for some learning populations, they have widened. Even in the face of broader access, the challenges of opportunity are stubbornly persistent.

Ignoring the imperative of social justice in higher education could mean loosing our province’s most vital battle. I mean that sincerely. Higher education has always been an important rung on the socioeconomic ladder in this country. But it’s more than that now. In today’s ever-changing global economy, postsecondary education is critical to individual success and the nation’s continued prosperity and social stability.

And as Canadians face the most challenging economic conditions since the 1930s, a post-secondary education could very well be a citizen’s most important possession. Approximately two-thirds of the jobs created in our new economy will require some form of postsecondary education, including degrees and credentials. That percentage increases even more if you take into account the certification programs and extended job training that many workers will need—and that colleges and universities often will provide.

In other words, the educational bar already has been raised for those who hope to hold the jobs of tomorrow. And to complicate things further, growing numbers of the province’s underrepresented students already face daunting challenges. The math is inescapable: For Ontario to even come close to reaching the goal of 70 percent participation – which should be “re-understood” as degree attainment – achievement rates among underrepresented students will have to rise dramatically. The process of preparing students for an education beyond high school, getting them into PSE and helping them stay through graduation is essential to our collective well being. And this is especially true for aboriginal students, low income Ontarians, and Ontarians who are the first in their families to attend higher education. It is these Ontarians that represent a rapidly growing percentage of our population. Closing the achievement gap isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do.

It’s not just about money. When we say higher education has become the only reliable path into the middle class, this has implications far beyond mere earnings potential. We all know that higher education can transform lives and improve society. Education matters; it’s that simple. Statistics show that degree holders earn more, save more and produce more in their lifetimes. They’re happier, healthier, and they even live longer. They pay taxes; they’re more likely to vote, volunteer, give blood, support charity, and take on leadership roles in their communities.

Conversely, the consequences of not earning a degree are increasingly dire and increasingly likely to affect those from groups that today are grossly underrepresented in PSE or face particular challenges—low-income students, first-generation students, and aboriginal learners. That’s why—unless we want demography to dictate destiny—we must find ways to ensure that every willing and qualified Ontarian has the opportunity to succeed in higher education.

How does Ontario achieve this? Where can students make a contribution? I propose three policy efforts that should be pursued.

1) Make the development of human capital a cornerstone of Ontario’s economic policy. To do this, Ontario must significantly increase the production of high-quality degrees, make postsecondary education more responsive to workforce needs, and expand opportunities for non-traditional learners. One way to accomplish all of these things is to bolster the province’s community colleges in their efforts to improve their students’ success rates.

2) Make sure that every child is prepared for success in postsecondary education. This means that K-12 standards must align with those at the post-secondary level. Also, students and families must get all of the information they need to plan for success, and they must get that information early—before eighth grade. We must change the way our government ministries see their business. The Ministry of Education’s goals must look beyond high school completion rates. Our post secondary institutions have to appreciate their responsibility to partner with their colleagues in the K-12 system. Daunting challenges require collaborative and sometimes uncomfortable approaches.

3) Define student outcomes for postsecondary education, including expectations for completion and learning. Participation targets for Ontario should specify 70 percent attainment of “high-quality” degrees. Ontarians should not be content to increase the number of degree holders by the quickest and simplest means possible. That’s a fool’s exercise. As the subprime mortgage mess has shown us with brutal clarity, there’s a very important difference between perceived worth and genuine value. Our students need degrees that have—and can demonstrate—real value. That’s why a focus on learning outcomes must go hand in hand with our efforts to improve retention and attainment rates.

It will be important to see additional public funding made available to higher education institutions. We also know that money will be especially tight in coming years, particularly as the economic recession tightens its grip.  This means difficult and strategic choices. (con’t p.28)
To achieve what I’ve described, the sector will need to work harder—and faster—than ever before, focusing on both increasing productivity and clearly demonstrating how and why leaders are using resources effectively and efficiently.

It all starts with data: collecting, measuring and analyzing data to help show the way. I’ve learned that compiling and analyzing the right data is essential to improving higher education. Every institution needs to track some basic things such as enrollment, progression and completion of students by income, age and, in some cases, aboriginal status. We can’t achieve a goal if we can’t track it. Every institution should define and report learning outcomes in a manner that allows the value added by institutions to be easily discerned. These systems should permit interprovincial tracking and analyses. Data that shows how institutions are performing should be public and broadly disseminated. Taking these steps will allow us to more precisely measure gains.

At this pivotal moment in our history, the decisions that are made by leaders today are likely to have a profound effect on our provinces economic, social, and cultural well-being. OUSA has to show the collective foresight and duty of purpose to recognize that higher education is at the core of our provincial prosperity and that the wise investment of resources will benefit every student—and thereby pay dividends that we will all share for many generations to come. Communicate this value broadly. Influence your partners. Lead through your values.

David Simmonds works for the Canada Millenium Scholarship Foundation.  He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in Political Science.  He served as OUSA President from 2007-2008.