February 6, 2001
Kamloops Daily News


Every year, Canadian universities wait with anticipation for
comparisons  of their institution relative to others in
periodicals like Maclean's Magazine.  Depending on the
results, there is rejoicing or muttering.  But too often
such rankings are based on the wrong criteria say the
authors of a new report called Missing Pieces II.

In their report, Denise Doherty-Deorme and Erika Shaker are
critical of the assumptions and methods in which these
reports have been used to devalue some, or promote others. 
For example, universities are often ranked according to
their ability to compete in an environment of dwindling
resources. 

Such contests force schools to compete without any
consideration of the fiscal restraints under which they are
forced to operate.  The authors consider factors that take
into account how institutions serve the society  --equity,
accountability, quality, and accessibility.  According to
the report,  B.C. has one of the best post-secondary
education systems in Canada.

B.C. ranks number one in equity.  The authors define equity
as access to post-secondary education regardless of gender, 
place of origin, or socioeconomic status.  Our province has
high percentage of low-income citizens with a post secondary
education -- just one of five areas of research in the area
of equity.

We are also number one in public accountability.  This is a
measure of how well education serves general public needs,
as opposed to narrow interests of corporations or private
donors.   Rankings are based on each province's commitment
to funding education.  Private funds come with strings
attached.

B.C. ranks second in quality, with New Brunswick coming in
first.  Quality is determined by not only the amount of
funding for post-secondary education, but where the spending
priorities are.  It includes student to faculty ratios, and
keeping full-time faculty. 

Attracting and keeping full-time faculty is vital to high
quality education. The trend towards part-time faculty
reduces the quality of education.  Since part-time faculty
are looking for regular work elsewhere, a consistent
commitment to education is hard to achieve.

Only two provinces, Quebec and B.C. have increased full-time
faculty in the college sector.  In the university sector,
only Prince Edward Island has increased full-time faculty,
and B.C. has reduced full-time faculty the least.

B.C. is fourth in accessibility, which is the freedom to
obtain and make use of post-secondary education. 
Newfoundland P.E.I. have joined  B.C. and Quebec in freezing
tuition fees.  Manitoba has actually lowered tuition fees. 
Alberta has increased fees by the greatest amount -- 209
percent in the last decade.  Quebec is ranked first in
accessibility, followed by Nova Scotia and Manitoba.

Low tuition fees have also had the effect of increasing the
quality of education, I think.  Low fees have increased
demand for courses from B.C. students and out-of-province
students from Alberta. This has some Albertans complaining
of a brain-drain to B.C.  Post-secondary institutions have
reacted to student demand by raising prerequisites.  

In turn, higher quality students has increased the quality
of instruction.  In my twenty-eight years of teaching in
high schools and at the post-secondary level, one lesson
I've learned is that the level of  my instruction is
determined by the skills of my students.

Too much of the public analysis of post secondary education
has taken the form of the forces of simplistic rankings
devoid of context.  Such methods serve only to reinforce the
rhetoric of restructuring -- rewarding institutions that 
move away from public  accessibility and towards market
accountability -- without  examining  the  source  of  this 
rhetoric and its harmful influence.

Affordable education should be regarded as an investment in
the future. Well paid wage earners return that investment
through higher taxes.  They problem with privatized
education is that it ignores the contribution that
low-income students can make to society.

The lesson that Ireland learned is worth paying attention
to.  They made post-secondary education free.  It took a
decade for it, and other economic measures, to pay off, but
now Ireland is regarded as an European tiger. 

Although Missing Pieces II is not exhaustive, nor does it
claim to be, the authors make use of a wide range of
information from students, activists, educators,
researchers, Statistics Canada.  The full report is
available from the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives at
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/

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