All Posts Tagged With: "University students"

Just because voter turnout is low for ‘youth’ doesn’t mean it is low for all youth

Over here, Jacob makes the claim that tuition protests don’t work because “students don’t vote in elections.” Is this true? It is certainly a widely held belief that appears to be backed up by voter participation rates. But, while only 37.4 per cent of those aged 18-24 voted in the 2008 election, that doesn’t mean students, as a general subset of this age group, are as allergic to ballot boxes as other young people. In fact, the data we have suggests students are loyal voters.

In 2003, Electoral Insight published a study by a group of political scientists, led by McGill’s Elisabeth Gidengil, that tracked the decline in voter participation. The data, where the 2000 federal election is the latest to be considered, is admittedly dated, but voting trends haven’t changed all that much in the past decade. The pivotal election that saw voter turnout begin to rapidly decline was the 1993 poll.

Consistent with pretty much everything else that has been published on this topic, the authors demonstrate a steady drop in participation among young voters, particularly those born after 1970.

When accounting for education level, however, they conclude: “it is a serious misconception to suppose that it is the highly educated young who are failing to turn up at the polls. On the contrary, the more education young people have, the more likely they are to vote.”

To illustrate they show while participation has dropped off a cliff for those with lower levels of education, the university educated young continue to vote in the same, very high, numbers as they always have.

The 2000 Canadian Election Study reveals that turnout in the youngest generation was almost 50 points higher among university graduates than it was among those who left school without a high school diploma. Furthermore, the decline is confined to those with less than a university education. Since the 1993 general election, turnout has fallen over 30 points among those with less than a high school education and 15 points or more among those who have completed high school and/or some college. Meanwhile, turnout has held steady among young university graduates.

A caveat needs to be added. The authors of the study are referring to “university graduates” not university students. But in 1993, the oldest university educated cohort for this age group would have been 23. It’s possible that those who were 20 or 21, and still in school, voted at the same level as high school dropouts, but that seems unlikely.

(UPDATE: Another study conducted by the same authors breaks up groups by lesser, middle, and better educated, and predicts likelihood of voting. Turnout for lesser educated youth at age 20 is predicted to be 29 per cent. For the middle educated it is 43 per cent, and for the better educated at age 20, it is 58 per cent, which is comparable to total voter turnout for the general population.)

The common refrain, these numbers imply, that university students don’t vote just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

Now, the point that tuition protests don’t work because those participating don’t vote, could have some weight if the claim that politicians ignore education was true, or that those protesting were part of a small subset of the young and educated who don’t vote.

Here the argument continues to fall apart. For starters, if you’re politically engaged enough to take part in a protest, you are also engaged enough to vote. As Gidengil and her research partners point out, “these young activists are more likely than other members of their generation to belong to a political party or to an interest group, and to vote.” (Emphasis in original). In other words, people who don’t vote aren’t likely to be engaged in other ways. To the extent that protesting works as a way to impact public policy, it seems reasonable to assume that that is because protesters are voters.

As for whether politicians ignore students, it is a little tricky to draw even speculative conclusions based on these statistics for the simple reason that I have been referring to participation rates for federal elections, and higher education policy continues to be a predominantly provincial responsibility.

But the fact that pretty much every province heavily regulates the price of tuition and/or provides some form of debt relief would suggest politicians are mindful of university students as voters. As for policies like tuition tax credits and tuition rebates, it is true that they may not be precisely what some education advocates, who generally want upfront grants or lower tuition, are calling for. Such policies do, however, remind voters who their benefactors are. A fat cheque at tax time does a better job of this than if tuition is low to begin with.

Finally, if the question of jurisdiction seems inconsequential, and you’re wondering why the Stephen Harper Conservatives may appear to ignore tuition protesters, ask yourself if the government has anything to gain, in terms of votes, by paying attention to these activists? How many diehard anti-tuition advocates are also potential Conservative supporters?

That’s what I thought.

Buying a ‘university home’ is a worthwhile investment

Like many parents of university students, Kim Leone desperately wanted to rescue her child from less-than-ideal living conditions during her final years of university. So instead of paying another $6,000 in rent for the school year, she and her husband decided to purchase a second home that could serve as daughter Sarah’s home away from home.

The initial goal was to provide a safe environment that would offset rental payments and perhaps even pay for itself. But with Sarah set to return home next spring, Kim is now hoping to sell the six-bedroom condo townhouse a few kilometres from Ottawa’s Carleton University for a tidy profit. “In the beginning we weren’t looking when we purchased it of making a profit,” she said in an interview from Hamilton, Ont. “But now, in keeping our eye on the real estate market, there I know we’re going to make a profit.”

Purchased two years ago for about $210,000, the unit in the Hogs Back district is being listed for $270,000. The Leone family put five per cent down and spent $15,000 to create two basement bedrooms. With five student renters each paying between $425 and $500 per month, the townhouse fully covered its costs and gave Sarah a less stressful environment to complete her studies and gain her independence. “It’s the best thing you can do for your child,” Kim said.

It’s a feeling echoed by 22-year-old Sarah, who said she’s thankful for the experience of being a landlord, which included collecting rent and finding replacement tenants. She urges parents to consider purchasing after their child experiences the first year living in a university dorm and advises them to do their homework to ensure rental income can cover costs.

A growing number of parents have turned to ownership over the past 20 years as an alternative to student residences or frat-style rentals, industry experts say. Patrick Walchuk of Keller Williams Ottawa Realty, who helped the Leones purchase the townhouse, said he’s seen interest grow as people have looked to real estate as an investment alternative during the stock market weakness. “People want to put money as an investment into real estate and they figure they can kill two birds with one stone and also provide shelter or accommodation for the kid that is going to university.”

With Ottawa’s real estate prices growing about six per cent annually, the nation’s capital presents an opportunity to make profits, he said. University towns, such as those in southwestern Ontario, are also good locations because prices are relatively low and with good resale markets. He urges buyers to be realistic about expectations. Most buyers end up in condo-style arrangements that include maintenance instead of relying on their child.

High cost cities such as Toronto, however, can be more challenging because it’s harder to get high enough rents to cover the costs of ownership, says David Larock, an independent mortgage planner.

He suggests that rental income should be at least 10 to 20 per cent more than the total expenses for the mortgage, property taxes, maintenance and food costs. “Any time the cost of carrying the property as an investor exceeds the rental income that can be earned, the investors are essentially subsidizing the renters so at that point it’s a better deal to rent than to buy,” he said.

Not exclusively the purview of the rich, buying a university home can also make financial sense for middle-class families, especially those with a few kids heading to the same academic institution. “It’s sort of like hand-me downs. You get a hand-me-down house as opposed to hand-me-down pants,” added Larock.

Like all real estate investments, longer time horizons put the owner in a better position to realize a financial gain and offset some of the costs like realty fees and taxes. Larock cautions that buying may not be the right option for everybody, including those parents with children heading to American universities.

Plummeted U.S. housing prices may seem like a great opportunity. But Larock said a high “shadow inventory” of homes may suppress prices and make it harder to sell down the line. “Personally, I would not be buying property in Florida right now, even though prices have come right down.”

Parents should avoid buying a second home if there’s a risk they won’t be able to pay the mortgage and may be forced to sell it with little notice, he added. With classes set to start in about six weeks, time is running out but it’s not too later to buy a home for this year. The choice of tenants may be limited but many students continue to scramble to find accommodations through to October.

The Canadian Press

MESA reports that many students change programs, delay studies over course of degree

A sizable group of Canadian students enrolled in university or college finish their studies in a different program or take an extra year to graduate, according to a yet-to-be-released report by the Measuring Effect of Student Aid project obtained by the Globe and Mail.

The study also apparently finds that “just more than half of college and university students graduate from the program and the school where they begin,” and that one in four college students take time off during their studies.

Greater than one in three university students take an extra year to graduate, according to the Globe.

Ross Finnie, a professor in the University of Ottawa’s graduate school of public and international affairs and the lead researcher on the project, told the Globe, “These numbers open the door to a whole lot of questions … It’s very exciting stuff.”

Finnie conducted research with Theresa Qiu using data from Statcan’s Youth in Transition Survey.

These most recent findings seem to illustrate a tendency of Canadian students to pursue their studies using alternative techniques. Not only are they changing programs and taking more time to finish, but they are also taking time off before pursuing higher education.

We recently reported on a Canadian Council on Learning study that analyzed this “gapper” phenomenon in Canada and around the world. Gappers are those students who take time off—at least four months, according to the study’s parameters—between high school and their post-secondary studies.

Commenting on that story, University of Ottawa education professor Joel Westheimer suggested that more and more students are taking time between studies to experience learning in a non-academic setting that better prepares them for the workforce. According to Westheimer, universities are increasingly focusing their curricula on job-training functions and students are looking outside university for “life training and exposure to the broader world.”