what is a U degree worth, anyway? BC study.

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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2012

what is a U degree worth, anyway? BC study.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/daily-mix/is-a-university-degree-still-key-to-finding-a-good-job/article2297501/

But I completely disagree with those that suggest university education as a panacea for labour market challenges. I have heard economists infer that if we could flip a switch and transform people from high school graduates to university graduates it would dramatically improve their income and employment outcomes.

The reality is more nuanced.

Take the example of British Columbia. According to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, from 2000 to 2010 the province saw a very impressive 79 per cent increase in the number of adults with a university degree. The overall provincial population grew by 16 per cent in the same period.

The percentage of adults with a university degree in British Columbia grew 40 per cent faster than the country as a whole. There were 257,000 more people with a university degree in 2010 compared to 2000.

Despite this rapid increase in university educated people in B.C., the average weekly wage for all workers increased by the second slowest rate among the 10 provinces in Canada over the same period.

Conversely, the provinces of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador...

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D - well, you get the idea.
My objection U stats is that there is money to be made. All those students offering their tuition fees (and forget all the mandatory fees - should be tallied in the base line amount! Just like air plane tickets...) means there is a profit motive. The educational institutions have a vested interest in fleecing the students. And fleece they do. Here are a coupla common examples of misleading advertising by post- secondary educational institutions that I've seen in K-W region this past decade:

1) a local college talking about the successful placement rate for a certain diploma program. First of all, with a 90% washout rate by graduatoin, this means there is only a 10% chance that a student will be in this elect. Furthermore, including a sales job at, say, Futureshop as 'working in the computer industry' is misleading.

2) a local university talking about the income benefits of a degree compared to not having one. First of all, you need to adjust for those years not in the workplace. And don't think that you will automatically take 4 years to get a 4 year degree! I tried to take statsII as early as possible at Windsor, but could never get into it early. Ergo, one fail later and I would need to stay and entire extra year in order to graduate with a degree of 4 instead of 3 years. You see how that went...
Also, the draconian terms on student loan repayment need to be considered. You can't kick that debt if times are tough when you graduate for SEVEN years (FIVE with special circumstances). There is the cost of the debt, plus the interest on it. Graduating right now would involve a double-edged sword scenario. The very low interest rates mean you can rapidly pay down the debt's principal with a decent job. However, the nasty recession means finding that job is highly problematic.

D - I'm not sure why the gov't is not required to collect and publish such stats in detail and in an accessible format and location. Ontario is a patchwork of dozen(s) of entities when it comes to access to information requests. Contrast this with some states that have a single website location for such things. Transparency is required!
Are you listening, Harper and McGuinty?

D.
POSTED BY DINO SNIDER AT 9:00 AM 0 COMMENTS
what is a U degree worth, anyway? BC study.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/daily-mix/is-a-university-degree-still-key-to-finding-a-good-job/article2297501/
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