Archive for June, 2009

Millennium Foundation says a degree is a great investment, but other studies raise a few caveats

If you have a university degree, you can expect to earn $746,000 more over your working life than someone with only a high school diploma. The information is contained in a study released today by the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation, authored by Joseph Berger and Andrew Parkin. The authors also found that Canadians with only a high school diploma are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than a university graduate. College graduates enjoy higher earnings than those with only a high school education, but the earning gap is not as wide and their lifetime payoff is only about half that of university graduates.

Bergin and Parker say they wrote this report in in order to counter “a series of recent suggestions that somehow we have too many [post-secondary] students in Canada, not too few.” They write that “the evidence about the positive returns to post-secondary education is so well-known that it seems unnecessary to review it again.” There’s pretty much no refuting that, if you take the income levels of all those with a university education and compare it to the incomes of all those with only high school, university looks is one heck of a good investment. College similarly looks like a good investment, but university appears to be a much better one. A few years ago, I opened our annual Rankings issue with an article entitled “The Best Investment Money Can Buy.” I estimated, based on a less thorough analysis of Statscan data than Berger and Parkin offer, that the return on a university degree was about $1 million dollars in extra lifetime earnings.

I still hold to the view that university offer serious economic benefits to students and society — but I have some caveats. Education is the fount of progress: social, scientific and economic. A more skilled society will be a more prosperous and successful society. But the more I look at our higher education system, the more frequently I see disconnects between the true statement “our society needs more educated people” and the not necessarily equivalent statement that “our society needs more people with university degrees.” The latter should equal the former, but unfortunately that’s not always the case. There’s lots of evidence that an increasing number of kids are simply being pushed through the system: they may get a university degree (and before that, a high school diploma) without having learned anywhere near as much as the credential suggests they should have. A few weeks ago, a chemistry professor told me about how some students in his third-year and fourth-year classes — students who are majoring in chemistry — never learned the most basic elements of the first-year material. He’s not sure how they made it in to upper-year courses; they’re not educated enough to be called scientists. But they’re going to get a B.Sc. What exactly is their degree worth? Somewhat less than the ideal.

A number of commentators, such as professors James Cote and Anton Allahar, authors of this book (and a related blog) have said that we are lowering standards in order to raise enrolment, devaluing higher education in the process. I’ve got a lot of sympathy for Cote and Allahar’s argument that we are putting too much emphasis on getting more people into higher education, and too little emphasis on what they do once they get there — what they actually learn. Cote and Allahar similarly point to a focus on credentials over learning in some high school systems — which deal with weak students by shoving them through the system regardless of actual performance or learning, raising everyone’s grades, raising graduation rates and giving the illusion of educational progress. More knowledge/skill/education are good things, for the individual and for our society and economy. However, we can’t just assume that more schooling, of whatever type, in whatever field and of whatever quality, equals education/learning/skills. Our system should aim to make those linkages — and this is where Parkin/Berger and Cote/Allahar surely agree. We can’t automatically assume that more people with credentials (whether that is a high school diploma or a B.A.) equals more people with knowledge and skills that lead to higher returns to themselves and to society.

Team also finds a computer hard drive containing “sensitive” U.S. gov’t data

A team of journalism graduate students at the University of British Columbia may have found a computer hard-drive full of sensitive U.S. Homeland Security information in Ghana last semester, but one of those students says he doesn’t want the public to lose sight of the real story: the immoral shipping of discarded or broken electronics from North America to developing countries.

In a PBS Frontline documentary set to air tonight Tuesday at 9 p.m., the grad students, led by UBC associate professor and former 60 Minutes producer Peter Klein, follow the “shadowy” industry of electronic waste disposal from China to West Africa to India, with surprising results.

While in Ghana, a country listed by the FBI as one of the top 10 sources of global cybercrime, the students purchased five hard drives in an open-air market, according to journalism grad student Blake Sifton. The group had the drives analyzed, and while the first four were empty, the last one contained confidential information about multi-million-dollar defence contracts between the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and military contractor Northrop Grumman.

Responding to the students’ investigation, the FBI said it’s concerned companies such as Northrop Grumman (wrongly) think their discarded drives are wiped clean by software before being recycled. The military contractor say it’s looking into how the hardware and data ended up in the country.

But Sifton says he hopes the main point of the documentary isn’t overshadowed by the “sexy” story of misplaced U.S. security data. “The flow of electronic waste from the western world to the developing world is a very, very important story,” he says. Unless consumers are extremely careful of where their electronic waste ends up, “a small child or pregnant woman is going to be burning it to get the metal out of it.”

He says the by-products industry created by the western world’s discarded computers, televisions, cell phones and electronics is surprisingly large, and hurts both the environment and the health of locals in the developing countries where that garbage ends up. “Companies here in Canada will say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to recycle your broken or used electronics locally and safely,’ and then they put it into a shipping container and ship it to Hong Kong.”

The international reporting project was funded by a $1-million donation to the university’s journalism school from Vancouver’s Alison Lawton, a donation made on the condition that students focus on under-reported issues. For professor Klein, having that kind of monetary support was an important piece of why this story is now being told.

“One of the mantras of my class is that we don’t want to be parachute journalists,” he says. “You don’t want to have a preconceived idea about your story, and just find pictures to match.” He says this important piece of reporting is a perfect example of what a young reporter with a video camera and an entrepreneurial sense of purpose can accomplish.

“University is not the real world,” says Klein. “If you are 25, and you just graduated from journalism school, and you’re unencumbered and want to do stories, then you can do it. You can find a really cheap ticket, spend some time on the ground, report on a story and do some really interesting enterprise reporting.”

Clip from Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground:

The documentary airs June 23 on PBS’ Frontline/World’s season finale at 9 p.m. EST.

Revamped student loan and grant program is unveiled to mixed reviews

The federal government’s launch of the new Canada Student Loans and Grants Program is getting mixed reviews in today’s Globe and Mail.

Although the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations appear to like the new program, which both groups say are badly needed due to the recession and grim job prospects of high school grads, not all responses have been as enthusiastic.

The Education Policy Institute’s Alex Usher told the Globe that the overhauled loan and grant program hasn’t been given any additional funds, and is rather an attempt to distribute those same funds differently.

The restructuring of the loan and grant program was announced more than a year ago in the 2008 budget and has been a work-in-progress ever since. This will be the first summer students can apply under the new grant program, designed to replace the Millennium Scholarship Foundation created by the former Liberal government.

The new program will allow about 245,000 college and university students to qualify for grants that do not need to be repaid. Although the awards for eight months of study up to $2,000, will be lower, that means an additional 100,000 students will be eligible to receive the cash.

Usher says he isn’t sure whether this change will encouraging more students to enroll in college or university. “I suspect that it will not have the effect on access that they think it will, but spreading money around more is likely to be politically popular,” he says.

The CFS’s chairperson, Katherine Giroux-Bougard, says she is pleased the program will being administered through the federal Human Resources and Skills Development department and not as a stand-alone foundation. In past years, Canada’s auditor general has expressed concern that arms-length foundations such as the now-defunct Millenium Scholarship Foundation are not sufficiently accountable.

University says planned family health centre will need more space

According to The Hamilton Spectator, McMaster University has turned down a $2-million gift of downtown land for its planned family health centre, saying the plot isn’t big enough.

Developer Brian Otis, vice-president of the Toronto-based Otis Group, says he recently offered to give Mac almost 40,000 square feet of open land in downtown Hamilton. After a few meetings, he was told the university was looking at other options.

Otis says he offered the university about half of a piece of land currently being used as a parking lot. His group planned to develop the other half for an adjoining commercial-retail project that would share hundreds of underground parking spots with the medical centre.

Mac’s dean of health sciences says it was hard walking away from the generous offer, but that the school decided the project needed more room to grow.

For more on this story, click here.

Being an Only Child has its advantages

For the past two months I’ve been living like an Only Child.

Unlike my younger brothers, my summer vacation started at the end of April. Which means each week day, between the hours of nine and three, I’m an Only Child.

Suddenly the TV doesn’t have to be split five ways. Dexter doesn’t have to compete with SpongeBob Squarepants. If I want to use the computer, nobody’s in the middle of a Runescape battle.

And those four toaster slots? All mine.

With four siblings in the house, using a water bottle is complicated. At the very least, it’ll migrate: a water bottle that starts on the top shelf of the fridge never stays on the top shelf. It’ll either get buried somewhere else in the fridge, or disappear completely. Or the lid will vanish.

Even worse, a layer of backwash might suddenly appear on the surface.

Taking a sip from a water bottle, putting it back in the fridge, and finding it where I put it. It’s a special kind of luxury.

And it ends in less than a week.

- photo courtesy of .jo.hardell.

Canadians concerned about the value of an education, finds poll

As young people prepare to don caps and gowns this month and take the stage to grab their diplomas, Canadians confess a certain skepticism about the value of an education in this country.

Nearly half of the Canadians polled in a recent Harris-Decima survey said they feel Canada’s educational system does not adequately prepare young people for work in the modern economy.

Albertans are most pessimistic about the system – 52 per cent say they find it inadequate.

Younger Canadians, between the ages of 18-34, are more likely to say it is up to snuff than older respondents.

Nathan Seebaran, a student at Edmonton’s Ross Sheppard High School, says he feels optimistic about the training he’s getting through a registered apprentice program.

He’s studying to become a cabinetmaker and will be doing projects at the University of Alberta as part of his training.

“I was thinking of dropping out of high school because I didn’t really think I needed it, but I’m glad I stayed to do this,” Seebaran said.

Confidence is the hallmark of the so-called “Generation Y,” which is now hitting graduation age, says Harris-Decima vice-president Jeff Walker.

“Part of that self-awareness and self belief of that generation of people is the feeling that they work extremely hard and that the system has been beneficial to them,” said Walker.

When asked to grade different levels of education, Canadians gave high school the lowest marks.

Only 37 per cent felt high school did “very well” or well at preparing young people for the workforce.

Solving humanity’s problems, one researcher at a time

I just spent the day at the University of British Columbia. I was meeting with a professor who does research in environmental policy, something I’m particularly interested in. We had a fascinating discussion about how the recent rise in popularity of “going green” provides many opportunities for businesses and governments to capitalize on the trend. This can be done while actually having a positive effect on the environment, rather than simply perpetuating the largely tokenistic “lifestyle changes” already being encouraged: driving a hybrid, turning down the heat a couple degrees, etc.

His job is basically to analyze complex and pertinent problems facing humanity and come up with innovative solutions. And there are 4,000 similar faculty members at a big school like UBC, all with their own fields of specialization but all with essentially the same noble pursuit of knowledge. As my professor insisted: “Ninety percent of what we think we know is wrong.”

That’s where academia comes- trying to figure out where we went wrong and how to put it right.

Later that day I attended a lecture in UBC by a Nobel Chemistry laureate, entitled “Challenges facing human society in the 21st century.” Here was yet another example of the ongoing discussion and debate between academics in all disciplines concerning the state of the world and how best to improve it.

After the lecture, as I was riding my bike home through the good-sized town that is UBC, I began to get excited about my own imminent plunge into academia. In just over two months I will find myself in the midst of the largest academic instituion in the country, and I’ll be joining over 60,000 other individuals who are constantly engaged in and surrounded by this exciting and important research and dialogue.

I can’t wait.

n_mazereeuw@hotmail.com.

- photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

The high number of respondents (88 per cent) who said they would recommend their university to prospective students illustrates the high satisfaction levels among graduates of masters and doctoral programs. Other results from the survey suggest why those who have followed a course of graduate studies have reason to be happy: fewer than three per [...]

The high number of respondents (88 per cent) who said they would recommend their university to prospective students illustrates the high satisfaction levels among graduates of masters and doctoral programs. Other results from the survey suggest why those who have followed a course of graduate studies have reason to be happy: fewer than three per cent were unemployed; more than 90 per cent of grads worked in professional or management occupations; and the average salary was $76,218.

Would you recommend the university to prospective students? (Click chart to enlarge.)

Source: B.C. University Survey of Graduates from Masters and Doctorate Programs

Graduates were asked if they were employed in jobs related to their program. The study found a high correlation: 60.5 per cent responded that their job was very related to their program and a further 30 per cent indicated that it was somewhat related. Doctoral grads reported a higher correlation with 77 per cent reporting [...]

Graduates were asked if they were employed in jobs related to their program. The study found a high correlation: 60.5 per cent responded that their job was very related to their program and a further 30 per cent indicated that it was somewhat related. Doctoral grads reported a higher correlation with 77 per cent reporting that their jobs were very related compared to 58 per cent for masters grads.

Relationship of main job to graduate program (Click chart to enlarge.)

Source: B.C. University Survey of Graduates from Masters and Doctorate Programs

Twenty-one per cent of graduates reported difficulty in scheduling required courses, a cause for concern as grad students have specific needs and interests. Unlike in undergraduate programs, other courses cannot be substituted. Over the past 10 years, graduate programs have grown rapidly, but without an accompanying growth in faculty, course availability could become a growing [...]

Twenty-one per cent of graduates reported difficulty in scheduling required courses, a cause for concern as grad students have specific needs and interests. Unlike in undergraduate programs, other courses cannot be substituted. Over the past 10 years, graduate programs have grown rapidly, but without an accompanying growth in faculty, course availability could become a growing problem.

Were there required courses that respondent had difficulty scheduling (unavailable, not offered, full, or restricted enrolment policies? (Click chart to enlarge.)

Source: B.C. University Survey of Graduates from Masters and Doctorate Programs