Future
The future of Higher Education in Ontario will face gradual economic constraint, increasing integration with business and industry, and an extensive use of technology. The rapid increase (60% from in the last decade) in student enrollment in Ontario universities has not been met in similar increase of university professors (28% increase in the same time span) resulting in a student-to-faculty ratio of 26-1, which is much higher than the national average. Internationalization of higher education is also on the rise. The number of domestic students studying abroad and international students studying in Canada is increasing rapidly. Students who are involved in higher education programs in western developed economies may have a gross rate of return to a year's additional education ranging between 5 and 10 per cent. The World Bank, amongst other development specialists, has recognized that low levels of education are often key risk factors for poverty. A TD Economics paper reports that a university-educated worker's weekly earnings are on average 61 per cent higher than their counterparts with just a high school education. However, in combining the revenues for peer state private and public universities, Ontario invested 44 per cent less annually in its university system compared with the system in the peer states. Continuous under funding of education can be linked to Ontario's prosperity gap. Studies reflect that underfunding in education is one of the contributing factors of a $6,000 per person prosperity gap between Ontario and the jurisdictional average.
The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (Ontario)'s Reaching Higher plan for postsecondary education in the province, initiated in 2005, includes a $6.2 Billion commitment to postsecondary education to address such issues as capacity, access, financial assistance and more. The plan calls for, among other deliverables, a target postsecondary attainment rate of 70%. Following the October 2011 provincial election which resulted in a Liberal minority, the government re-affirmed its commitment to the reaching higher plan by announcing that 3 new undergraduate campuses will be established to serve increasing demand.
Academic Reform: Policy Options for Improving the Quality and Cost-Effectiveness of Undergraduate Education in Ontario, written by Ian D. Clark, David Trick and Richard J. Van Loon, provides recommendations on the way forward for Ontario higher education.
Read more about this topic: Higher Education In Ontario
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