Access and Participation
Ontario boasts the highest postsecondary participation and attainment rates among Canadian provinces, ranking high in international comparisons as well. A 2010 report from Statistics Canada, Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective, indicates that 63% of Ontario's population aged 25–34 have educational attainment to at least the tertiary level as compared to the national average of 56% and the average across OECD countries of 37%.
Despite these comparatively strong participation and attainment rates, under-represented groups in Ontario face access issues that are common around the world. The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) illustrates that issues such as geography and disability have negative impacts on participation that may largely relate back to family income and the cost of postsecondary education, but the two most significant factors affecting postsecondary participation in Ontario are parents' level of education and Aboriginal status, factors that relate more to the perception of higher education rather than the actual costs.
Ontario's Liberal government and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (Ontario) embarked on the Reaching Higher plan for postsecondary education in the province beginning in 2005. The plan calls for a $6.2 Billion investment in postsecondary education to address such issues as capacity, access, financial assistance and more, including a target postsecondary attainment rate of 70%.
Reaching Higher follows the 2005 report by the Honourable Bob Rae, Ontario: A Leader in Learning (a.k.a. the Rae Report), which also sparked the creation of the HEQCO. While current government efforts are intended to address issues of access, the HEQCO warns that a lack of reliable system-wide data will make it difficult to monitor the effects of these efforts and the state of access and participation in the future. One current source of data, Stats Canada's Youth in Transitions Survey (YITS), will soon end while another Stats Canada source, the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), provides less comprehensive data with respect to higher education transitions specifically.
Read more about this topic: Higher Education In Ontario
Famous quotes containing the word access:
“A girl must allow others to share the responsibility for care, thus enabling others to care for her. She must learn how to care in ways appropriate to her age, her desires, and her needs; she then acts with authenticity. She must be allowed the freedom not to care; she then has access to a wide range of feelings and is able to care more fully.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)