Globalization has been a hot topic in many sectors for nearly a decade, including education. This article in University Affairs highlights an important opportunity that Canadian universities can take advantage of if efforts are taken to reach out to India. With a rapidly growing economy, a population of more than 1 billion people and a middle class that now exceeds 200 million the opportunities must be endless.
Sadly, I have never been to India so I cannot speak to the exchange and partnership opportunities that the article points too. I do wonder how student affairs can contribute to the development of a relationship between higher education institutions in each country. Is it possible (or reasonable) for associations, like CACUSS, to play a role in finding solutions? ACUHO-I has used study tours of different countries to help professionals learn, exchange knowledge and build relationships.
Future enrollment of Canadian schools is going to be increasingly driven by new or recent immigrants to Canada according to this article in The (Waterloo) Record and many of those immigrant will be from India. Creating relationships with Indian schools could help these students or it could open the door for other students to explore the world and understand globalization first hand.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Developer's Perspective on Student Housing
Student Housing professionals may have an interest in this article, written by Derek Lobo, that is published in Canadian Apartment Magazine that is targeted to private developers. Lobo is predominantly a consultant for real estate and property developers who has also provided advice to some schools on their student housing. He presented at a past OACUHO conference and I was impressed with his grasp of the student housing industry, especially since he has no experience working directly in higher education.
The article touches on several issues that student housing professionals will have to contend with as we move into the future, such as: financial factors to consider for new construction, choosing the best location, public-private partnerships and student & parental expectations to name a few.
It would appear that private developers will be playing an increasing role in student housing in the year's to come, especially when college & university budgets continue to tighten. Are dollars and cents the biggest factor affecting the future of student housing or do others see more influential factors?
The article touches on several issues that student housing professionals will have to contend with as we move into the future, such as: financial factors to consider for new construction, choosing the best location, public-private partnerships and student & parental expectations to name a few.
It would appear that private developers will be playing an increasing role in student housing in the year's to come, especially when college & university budgets continue to tighten. Are dollars and cents the biggest factor affecting the future of student housing or do others see more influential factors?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
UBC Student Engagement Programs Highlighted
Earlier this week I attended a presentation called Using NSSE to Enhance Academic Success: Best Practices on Canadian Campuses. It was hosted by my school's Learning & Teaching Office. The session was targeted to faculty but a few student affairs professionals joined in. The presenter was Dr Debra Dawson who is the Director of Teaching and Learning Services at the University of Western Ontario.
Many points made by Dr Dawson would be familiar to student affairs professionals. For instance, a key part of her talk centered around Chickering & Gamson's Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1987), which is a key article discussed by those that study higher education.
A point she mentioned that is worth highlighting here is that NSSE data tends to be more differentiated within a school then between schools. For me this reinforces the need for student affairs professionals, or anyone in higher education really, to collect and analyze data at their school to determine which programs are having more of an impact.
To conclude her presentation, Dr Dawson shared examples of what several schools across Canada are doing to improve student engagement, but she made a point of highlighting UBC and some of the strong work happening there. The three programs/initiatives she highlighted are:
Many points made by Dr Dawson would be familiar to student affairs professionals. For instance, a key part of her talk centered around Chickering & Gamson's Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1987), which is a key article discussed by those that study higher education.
A point she mentioned that is worth highlighting here is that NSSE data tends to be more differentiated within a school then between schools. For me this reinforces the need for student affairs professionals, or anyone in higher education really, to collect and analyze data at their school to determine which programs are having more of an impact.
To conclude her presentation, Dr Dawson shared examples of what several schools across Canada are doing to improve student engagement, but she made a point of highlighting UBC and some of the strong work happening there. The three programs/initiatives she highlighted are:
- UBCevents - one common calendar for students to find information
- Commuter students hostel
- Terry Talks - which uses a similar approach to TED Talks
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Measuring Educational Success Thru Employment & Graduation Rates
As a follow up to my last blog post I wanted to share the employment & graduation rates for students that attend Ontario universities, which are the other two key performance indicators used by schools in Ontario. Employment rate could be increasing in importance as a high percentage of students attend post-secondary schools for the purpose of gaining a job. An article in University Affairs a few months back, which I'm struggling to find at the moment, suggested that 90% of students today attend college or university to get a job whereas a decade ago that number was closer to 50%.
This information was found on the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities' website, but the Accountability Gateway at each Ontario university website or the Council of Ontario University (COU) website are good alternate locations to find this type of info.
(Notes: (1) Percentage of 2004 graduates of bachelors or first professional degree programs who were employed six months after graduation. (2) Percentage of 2004 graduates of bachelors or first professional degree programs who were employed two years after graduation. (3) Percent of year 1 students in bachelors or first professional degree programs in 1998 who subsequently received a degree between 1999 and 2005 in any program of study.)
| University | Employment Rate After 6 Months(1) | Employment Rate After 2 Years(2) | Graduation Rate(3) |
| Brock | 94.50% | 96.20% | 72.00% |
| Carleton | 89.20% | 95.70% | 62.80% |
| Guelph | 94.20% | 95.50% | 75.10% |
| Lakehead | 92.80% | 97.00% | 73.00% |
| Laurentian | 95.00% | 97.20% | 64.90% |
| Algoma | 85.70% | 84.20% | 49.60% |
| Hearst | 100.00% | 100.00% | 51.70% |
| McMaster | 90.70% | 95.80% | 81.30% |
| Nipissing | 94.30% | 97.50% | 86.20% |
| OCAD | 90.30% | 97.00% | 53.60% |
| Ottawa | 93.60% | 96.50% | 75.90% |
| Queen's | 94.40% | 96.90% | 86.90% |
| Ryerson | 92.10% | 96.50% | 70.50% |
| Toronto | 90.30% | 97.10% | 79.80% |
| Trent | 93.80% | 94.30% | 65.60% |
| Waterloo | 94.70% | 97.00% | 78.20% |
| Western | 94.30% | 96.70% | 79.20% |
| Wilfrid Laurier | 94.90% | 96.00% | 79.40% |
| Windsor | 92.50% | 95.90% | 72.20% |
| York | 91.60% | 94.30% | 67.70% |
| Average | 92.80% | 96.20% | 75.60% |
This information was found on the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities' website, but the Accountability Gateway at each Ontario university website or the Council of Ontario University (COU) website are good alternate locations to find this type of info.
(Notes: (1) Percentage of 2004 graduates of bachelors or first professional degree programs who were employed six months after graduation. (2) Percentage of 2004 graduates of bachelors or first professional degree programs who were employed two years after graduation. (3) Percent of year 1 students in bachelors or first professional degree programs in 1998 who subsequently received a degree between 1999 and 2005 in any program of study.)
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Measuring Educational Success Thru Retention
Measuring success in business tends to revolve around the amount of profit a company generates. Lots of other calculations are used to measure the performance of a business, as an investment professional will surely say, but put simply the goal of business is to make a profit.
Education has not achieved such a focal point for measuring achievement. While some would surely argue that student's grades are the ultimate measure of educational achievement, many have pointed out that grades are influenced by many factors. Simply put learning is not easy to measure.
To help provide some measures of performance colleges and universities have tended to adopt the following three key performance indicators (KPI): retention rate, graduation rate and employment rate.
I have recently become curious to know how student service programs influence these KPI's, especially since university executive (and governments) have adopted retention, graduation and employment rates as some of the primary measures of success. To help understand the KPI's one of my staff has compiled a list of KPI's for Ontario universities. We are now working to gain an understanding of how some student service programs influence these measures.
I thought I would share the retention rate information here that was collected on Ontario universities to help raise awareness and see if others in Student Affairs understand how their work influences retention rate.
Education has not achieved such a focal point for measuring achievement. While some would surely argue that student's grades are the ultimate measure of educational achievement, many have pointed out that grades are influenced by many factors. Simply put learning is not easy to measure.
To help provide some measures of performance colleges and universities have tended to adopt the following three key performance indicators (KPI): retention rate, graduation rate and employment rate.
I have recently become curious to know how student service programs influence these KPI's, especially since university executive (and governments) have adopted retention, graduation and employment rates as some of the primary measures of success. To help understand the KPI's one of my staff has compiled a list of KPI's for Ontario universities. We are now working to gain an understanding of how some student service programs influence these measures.
I thought I would share the retention rate information here that was collected on Ontario universities to help raise awareness and see if others in Student Affairs understand how their work influences retention rate.
- Brock University (2007) - 86.6%
- Carleton University (2007) - 86.7
- Lakehead Univesrity (2007) - 86.7
- Laurentian University (2007) - 83.4
- McMaster Univesrity (2007) - 86.2
- Nipissing University (2007) - 84.5
- Ontario College of Arts & Design (2006) - 85.6
- Queen's University (2007) - 94.7
- Ryerson University (2006) - 87.4
- Trent University (2007) - 81.5
- University of Guelph (2007) - 90.2
- University of Ottawa (2006) - 87.6
- University of Toronto (2007) - 90
- University of Waterloo (2007) - 88.5
- University of Western Ontario (2006) - 91.1
- University of Windsor (2008) - 80.1
- Wilfrid Laurier University (2007) - 88.9
- York University (2006) - 87.9
Friday, December 25, 2009
Book on Canadian Student Services Coming
Check out this post from CACUSS Reads to find out about a forthcoming book on Canadian Student Services titled Achieving Student Success: Effective Student Services in Canadian Higher Education by Donna Hardy Cox and Carney Strange. Its due out in February.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Canadian Higher Ed Groups
Most student affairs professionals are aware of the associations that help us share knowledge, learn and network. In some ways its analogous to student groups that can be found on every college or university campus. I thought I would share a list of links to some of the associations in Canada that come to mind in case some people are not aware of them:
- Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC)
- Council of Ontario Universities (COU)
- Association of Universities & Colleges of Canada (AUCC)
- Canadian Association of College & University Student Services (CACUSS)
- Ontario Association of College & University Housing Officers (OACUHO)
- Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO)
- Colleges Ontario
- Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education (STLHE)
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