Archive for February, 2009

Report finds many “dropouts” either transfer or suspend their studies

Statistics Canada has released a new study of post-secondary student persistence in the Atlantic provinces. The report was prepared by Ross Finnie and Theresa Qiu who authored a similar national study last year titled The Patterns of Persistence in Post-Secondary Education in Canada.

As with the earlier study, the new report shows that many of the students who leave post-secondary institutions before graduating actually switch to another institution or temporarily suspended their post-secondary education before enrolling again (often referred to as stop-outs). The report demonstrates that community college and university dropout rates tend to be overstated because students who switch institutions or leave briefly and return are often not taken into account.

The study found that the rate of leaving was higher for college students than for university students in Atlantic Canada. Among students aged 17 to 20 when they started university, men were more likely to leave their studies than women – 28% of men left compared to 22% of women. Amongst college students, the rates were almost identical for men and women (33% and 34% respectively).

The study found that 33% of students aged 17 to 20 who enrolled in a university in the fall of 2002 or 2003 had left their studies within two years, however, about 25% of these students switched to another institution. About 25% of the remaining university early leavers subsequently resumed their studies. For college students, the two-year dropout rate was about 35% over the same time period. The number of switchers amongst college students was much lower as compared to university students.

After accounting for switchers and stop-outs, the two-year dropout rate for Atlantic universities fell from 33% to 18% while the rate for colleges dropped from 35% to 29%.

The full report can be downloaded here in .pdf format.

Two more student elections to note. Voter turnout is up at the University of Western Ontario where 9,470 students voted in the student union elections this week. Western has about 25,000 undergraduate students. Emily Rowe, whose campaign video was the topic of one my recent posts, won with 3,957 votes. Voter turnout was down at [...]

Two more student elections to note.

Voter turnout is up at the University of Western Ontario where 9,470 students voted in the student union elections this week. Western has about 25,000 undergraduate students. Emily Rowe, whose campaign video was the topic of one my recent posts, won with 3,957 votes.

Voter turnout was down at McMaster University with only 13 per cent of students voting. Vishal Tiwari, the current vice-president education of the McMaster Students’ Union, won the preferential vote with 59.27% of votes after eight rounds of counting. Tiwari received 861 first choice votes.

Concordia students’ union says allegations are completely false

A crisis at the Concordia Student Union has grown larger this week after the revelation that a former senior member of the ruling political slate allegedly demanded a $25,000 campaign contribution from the student union’s health and dental plan provider.

In a sworn affidavit, the executive director of the Quebec Student Health Alliance (ASEQ) Lev Bukhman alleges a campaign organizer for the “Unity” slate, Steve Rosenshein, asked for $25,000 to finance the campaign of the political slate.

Bukhman, a lawyer by trade, alleges that his decision to not give the money resulted in the CSU changing insurance brokers and subsequently asks that Concordia University’s administration take trusteeship of the student health plan.

The CSU denies the change in brokers has anything to do with the alleged bribe request and claims the ASEQ plan cost Concordia students $250,000 more than necessary last year.

The current Concordia student health and dental plan contract with ASEQ expires at the end of this academic year. The Concordia plan has been managed by ASEQ since 1996 when ASEQ was created by consortium of Quebec student unions, which included the CSU as a founding member.

In the late fall, the CSU executive hired Morneau Sobeco and the National Student Health Network, which is affiliated with the Canadian Federation of Students-Services, as consultants for their upcoming health plan. Morneau Sobeco and the NSHA are partners in delivering what some refer to as the “CFS health plan.”

Bukhman’s accusations against Rosenshien were only made public after these events took place.

The alleged incident, according to Bukhman, occurred on the evening of March 6, 2008. The affidavit was sworn on May 26, 2008 in front of a Commissioner of Oaths.

In his affidavit, Bukhman says Rosenshien asked for $25,000 dollars to support the campaign of the CSU “Unity” slate, for which Rosenshien was allegedly a campaign organizer.

Bukhman states Rosenshein was making the unusual request in part because, “in the past his [Rosenshein's] work had been supported by the CFS… but this support was no longer forthcoming because the CFS, Bukrman quotes Rosenshein as stating, “had it’s hands full dealing with referendums on other campuses.”

Bukhman also claims Rosenshein implied that a failure to provide the hefty donation would result in the CSU switching their health plan to the NSHA plan. Bukhman’s affidavit states Rosenshien warned that “the CFS wants to get the Concordia health plan, they are working hard behind the scenes, and they are giving us lots of support.”

Rosenshien has not yet publicly commented on the affair. The Concordia Student Union denies the accusations they’ve signed a health plan contract with the NSHA and calls the allegations “ridiculous”.

Little could prepare the intrepid diner for the travails of this brutal “café”

Little prepares the intrepid diner, newly landed in Edmonton, for the travails of the University of Alberta cafeteria. Located at points throughout the sprawling campus–we ate at CAB Café, in the basement of the Central Academic Building–they are industrial feeding machines, capable of efficiency but not delicacy. The results suck, combining national outlets like Burger King (probably your best bet, though good luck with your heart in a few years should you come to rely on it) with no-name fast-fooderies like Hot & Fresh Pizza 73.

At the latter, the server looked genuinely stunned at our request: a simple slice of Hawaiian. The petroleum-product cheese and grease made it initially tricky to unglue the pizza from our cardboard, V-shaped plate. Then a bite made us question the advisability of the project entirely. That unmistakable, arsenic tang of false tomato, the candy-store pineapple, beef jerky pepperoni and overall slovenliness–it all pleases not. Hot & Fresh? We doubt it.

A breaded veal cutlet with “potato” (french fries, actually) and “vegetable” (an unholy coagulation of green beans) from the Mediterranean Spice counter, generously slathered in “gravy,” made us consider actually resigning from our positions as food reviewers with Maclean’s rather than continue the horror. The meat, heavily salted, was likely not meat at all but some kind of substitute. The beans appeared to have been regurgitated by Oliver, of Charles Dickens fame, then preserved for our present delectation. The fries were waterlogged with gravy. We chose not to sample the mushrooms. A pasta concoction, meanwhile, from the salad bar, was like faux Hollandaise, solidified.

Only Wok’s Cooking, the caf’s Chinese stop, surprised–but only in comparison with the CAB Café’s other slop. A dark, thick, MSG-laden sauce, good for both noodles or for tarring a road, put the ummmmmm into umami (though we knew we would pay later in the form of the sweats and hot flashes). The noodles were gluey, but not inedible. The broccoli was real and wholesome, as were the onions, carrots and bean sprouts.

For dessert, a blueberry-poppy seed loaf, encrusted on top with icing and raw oatmeal, might have been better had the oatmeal not pierced the flesh of our gums. With luck, the antioxidizing action of the blueberries (pray for us they are real) may ultimately help us survive this meal.

Strike by 73,000 teachers would affect about 750,000 students

Premier Dalton McGuinty is urging elementary school teachers to avert a potential strike and take a “fair” contract offer that his government has put on the table.

Ontario’s public elementary school teachers have until 4 p.m. Thursday to either accept or reject the government’s four-deal deal.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne says if teachers don’t take the $700-million offer, they will be stuck with a two-year deal that will be worth much less.

A strike would affect about 750,000 students.

Wynne says the contract proposal would give teachers a 10.4 per cent salary increase over four years, and include money to hire more teachers.

School boards have already accepted the offer, but the union says it’s outraged by Wynne’s threats and deadlines.

Last month, the union threatened to hold a strike vote if “significant progress” wasn’t made in contract talks with school boards by Feb. 13.

That could put more than 73,000 teachers and education workers in a strike position by the end of March.

The province had set two other deadlines with teachers, but an agreement was never reached.

McGuinty dismissed suggestions Thursday that setting a third deadline at the last minute makes his government look weak.

“I think what Ontarians expect of their government is that they will establish a solid, professional, good working relationship with our teachers,” he said.

“I think we’ve done that. And I think the results speak for themselves — higher graduation rates and higher test scores.”

For weeks, Wynne has insisted the souring economy meant there was no more money for elementary teachers.

But the province’s latest offer isn’t that far off the original, $800-million deal that would have given teachers a 12 per cent pay raise over four years.

That was trimmed to four per cent over two years when no agreement was reached in December.

The new offer doesn’t appear to resolve a key issue that the union says is at the heart of the dispute — the province’s unwillingness to commit to closing a $711-per-student funding gap between elementary and high schools.

I try to avoid shamelessly passing along links without any commentary; today you’ll have to suffer the indignity of such a post.   1. Ontario Catholics are able to choose between sending their children to the (Catholic) separate schools system or the public system, while non-Catholics could only go to public schools. 2. Separate schools [...]

I try to avoid shamelessly passing along links without any commentary; today you’ll have to suffer the indignity of such a post.

  1. Ontario Catholics are able to choose between sending their children to the (Catholic) separate schools system or the public system, while non-Catholics could only go to public schools.
2. Separate schools systematically outperform their public school counterparts, even though they receive the same funding and draw from almost-identical populations.

This was consistent with a story in which separate schools face incentives that public schools do not and in which they respond to those incentives in predictable ways. Since separate schools do not have a captive market, they have a greater incentive to provide higher-quality education.

There are some interesting echoes of that story here in Quebec. As in Ontario, there are two public systems: English and French. And as in Ontario, only one system has a captive market: unless a child’s parent was educated in English in Canada, she must go to a French school.

If we wanted to apply the Ontario story to Quebec, we’d predict that the English system generated better outcomes than the French system. And we’d be right.

The original post is available here, it contains some background links that are also highly recommended.

A new podcast posted on the website for the Boston College Center for International Higher Education features an interview with Jamil Salmi of the World Bank. Dr. Salmi is the World Bank’s tertiary education coordinator and author of the soon-to-be-published book The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities. I appear to have googled upon a draft [...]

A new podcast posted on the website for the Boston College Center for International Higher Education features an interview with Jamil Salmi of the World Bank. Dr. Salmi is the World Bank’s tertiary education coordinator and author of the soon-to-be-published book The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities. I appear to have googled upon a draft of the book here (in .pdf format).

Here’s an interesting response to the report, Ontario in the Creative Age, recently prepared by the University of Toronto’s Roger Martin and Richard Florida: Before Premier Dalton McGuinty pours billions of dollars into post-secondary education in his quest to transform Ontario into a “creativity-driven” powerhouse, there is a low-cost possibility he might want to consider. [...]

Here’s an interesting response to the report, Ontario in the Creative Age, recently prepared by the University of Toronto’s Roger Martin and Richard Florida:

Before Premier Dalton McGuinty pours billions of dollars into post-secondary education in his quest to transform Ontario into a “creativity-driven” powerhouse, there is a low-cost possibility he might want to consider. Studies have repeatedly shown that the single most effective thing a government can do to strengthen the economy is invest in basic literacy.

When I recently heard my 12-year-old brother launch a squishy, viscous sneeze across the kitchen, I knew it was only a matter of time. It doesn’t matter how often I wash my hands, or if I chemically bathe my fingers with Purell before eating lunch. Unlike the Coughing Guy sitting behind me during a lecture, [...]

When I recently heard my 12-year-old brother launch a squishy, viscous sneeze across the kitchen, I knew it was only a matter of time. It doesn’t matter how often I wash my hands, or if I chemically bathe my fingers with Purell before eating lunch. Unlike the Coughing Guy sitting behind me during a lecture, there’s no escaping my younger brothers’ germs. They’re right across the kitchen table. They’re in the bathroom, surrounding my exposed tooth brush.

My younger brothers are the weak, germy link in my family’s immune system.

Now I’m on the brink of sickness. I’m just one ‘staying-up-the-whole-night-to-finish-that-stupid-chemistry-lab-report’ away from being full-blown sick. And in university, I don’t get to lie down in bed and read all day. I still have to attend classes.

In university, being semi-sick isn’t cause for celebration.

PhD student loses one-of-a-kind collection and his girlfriend, too

In this Times Higher Education piece, titled No shit: how I lost my one-of-a-kind collection and my girlfriend, too, PhD student Daniel Bennett describes his horror at discovering that his university had thrown out his unique collection of fecal samples from a rare lizard:

To some people it might have been just a bag of lizard shit, but to me it represented seven years of painstaking work searching the rainforest with a team of reformed poachers to find the faeces of one of the world’s largest, rarest and most mysterious lizards. I didn’t realise just how much my bag of lizard shit meant to me until it was “accidentally” incinerated at the University of Leeds early in the third year of my PhD.

Whether it was the largest collection of lizard shit in the world is uncertain, but it certainly contained the only dietary sample from that little-known species Varanus olivaceus, and probably the most complete dietary record of any single population of animals in South East Asia. Its loss left me reeling and altered the course of my life for ever.