ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

INTRODUCTION

Any study of post-secondary education and training in Canada involves looking at a complicated interaction among demographic trends, economic questions, social issues as well as differing jurisdictional and political approaches.  Although how these factors work together is not fully understood, there are some things that we do know:  The Canadian population possesses the highest level of educational attainment among OECD members – 65 per cent of high school graduates in 1995 moved on to post-secondary education.  Yet when this achievement is examined more closely, some obvious discrepancies appear.  For example, the percentage of women in post-secondary education has increased to the point where they received 58 per cent of university diplomas and degrees in 1997.  At the same time, women remain underrepresented in critical areas in post-secondary education and training such as science, engineering and technology.  High school graduates from rural areas are less likely to participate in university education although more of them attend colleges.  Aboriginal students or young people with a disability are less likely to attend post-secondary institutions as are youth from families with low or even middle socio-economic status.  Evidence suggests that these groups are experiencing greater difficulty accessing higher learning compared to the past.

During the past several sessions of Parliament, issues like these have drawn the attention of the Members of this Committee.  We maintain an ongoing interest in post-secondary education and skills training issues because we believe that Canada must invest in its young people and the development of life-long learning.   As the Committee pointed out in its 1997 report, Ensuring Access:  Assistance for Post-Secondary Students:

It is evident to us that Canada’s post-secondary system is a broad and complicated area, involving as it does a continuum that begins with preparation for post-secondary studies in the home, elementary and secondary schools.  Then, there is the point of entry, the question of retention and completion of studies, the utilization of their degrees or training by the graduates and finally, the rate of return – the benefit that both the individual and society as a whole receive as a result of post-secondary education and training.  Many of these stages lie beyond the scope of the federal government, but the importance of knowledge and human capital in our country’s social, cultural and economic development, has led the federal government to recognize that it must support post-secondary education, training and research.

While the work to date of the Standing Committee has focussed mainly on the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP), the Committee has been impressed by the overarching requirement for access to post-secondary education and skills training for Canada’s young people and adult learners.  For example, the report that this Standing Committee tabled in 1997 made several strong recommendations not just with regard to the operation of the Canada Student Loans Program but also related to debt management and the need for grants to support certain students with additional needs.  After our follow-up roundtable on the CSLP in June 2000, the Committee again raised some of these access issues in a letter to the Minister of Human Resources Development.  In this letter, the Committee singled out the growing level of student debt as a barrier to higher learning as well as the need for measures to increase access for part-time students and students with disabilities.

The issue of access to post-secondary education and skills training has become increasingly urgent and although we have not had the opportunity to conduct a full and complete study, it must be addressed.  That is the reason for this report.

To initiate the current phase of the Committee’s ongoing study of post-secondary education and skills training, we held four roundtables during the current session of Parliament.  We have heard the views of representatives from students, university teachers, universities, colleges, private educational institutions, student financial aid officers, lenders, loan administrators, federal officials, the Council of Ministers of Education, the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship, sector councils and other experts.  The Standing Committee would like to thank them all for their participation and their thoughtful insights.

The first roundtable, on 3 April 2001, continued our monitoring of the Canada Student Loans Program.  This meeting examined the impact of modifications to the CSLP whereby the federal government moved from delivering the loans through financial institutions to direct lending and administering the CSLP by means of contracts with service providers.  Participants in the roundtable, also raised broader questions of access to post-secondary education and training that led us to hold our three subsequent roundtable meetings on the 17^th, 29^th and 31^st of May.

These four meetings have given us the information that we are using in this report that will set out our preliminary findings and observations on:

Access and Mobility

• the nature of the issues related to access to, and mobility in, Canada’s post-secondary system including those related to equity.

Student Financing

• monitoring student financing, in particular the Canada Student Loans Program, incentives to save for higher learning, income support for those engaged in trades training  as well as student debt and bankruptcy.

Capacity

• the overall challenge of university and college financing including the nature of federal transfers to the provinces and territories in light of the requirement to provide funds for facilities, staff, research and  our skills training system.

This Interim Report on these issues identifies the next steps in our ongoing examination of post-secondary education.