If you ask undergraduates to describe their university experience they'll probably talk about the fun and freedom they experience. But, these days, it's also likely their complaints will be equally forceful. The two negatives most likely to be voiced? Skyrocketing tuition fees and bloated classrooms. "In every first- and second-year course I've taken I don't think the professor even acknowledged who I was," says undergrad Zahran Khan. Larger classes mean less opportunity to ask questions and initiate discussion, he says. "Sometimes you don't feel you have a connection with your professor." And although tuition fees continue to increase year after year, so do class sizes. "I don't see an increase in the quality of education," says Mr. Khan who is a vice-president with the York Federation of Students and in his final year of a political science degree. And today, it's no longer just students voicing these concerns. A growing chorus of naysayers—from professors to parents and media pundits— has begun to question the quality and value of a university education.
In some respects, things don't look good. Tuition fees, for instance, have increased substantially over the past two decades. Today, students pay three times as much for tuition than those who went to went to school in the early 1990s—that's far beyond the the rate of inflation for that same period. As well, the average student debt—$24,000—is now about double what it was then.Meanwhile, full-time enrolment has ballooned, rising some 40% over the past decade, putting a strain on class sizes. And many cash-strapped institutions are now relying even more on sessional instructors while being forced to layoff staff and eliminate courses. In short, university students are paying more and getting less than previous generations likely did.
This has spawned a host of related problems, according to James Côté and Anton Allahar, sociologists at the University of Western Ontario who rang the alarm about declining standards at Canadian universities in their book, Ivory Tower Blues. In it they argued that Canada's university system is in a state of crisis, marred by increasingly large class sizes and a significant proportion of students who arrive academically unprepared for the rigours of higher education. Many of these students, they contend, are unmotivated and put in minimal hours of work to obtain a degree that is more of a ticket to a white-collar job than evidence of critical thinking. Universities, in turn, they write, have responded by dumbing down courses while, under constant pressure from students, assigning increasingly higher grades. According to one survey of university students, some 80% of respondents reported receiving As and Bs. "A 'B' is now considered an average grade, whereas in the British system it is very good," Dr. Côté says.
Dr. Côté, who, along with Dr. Allahar is at work on a follow-up book, blames the dismal state of affairs on government policy that steers an increasing number of young people into higher education to keep them off the unemployment rolls. "Our schools have become holding tanks for young people who are no longer needed in the economy," Dr. Côté says. "There is pressure on universities to take these people in and do whatever they can with them."
To restore quality, he calls on universities to adopt a common grading standard across faculties that would reinstate the C as the respectable mark it once was and guard against grade inflation. He also advocates a system of exit exams for undergraduate students, similar to those now required of law and medical graduates. These exams, he proposes, should be administered by scholarly associations, such as the Canadian Political Science Association, rather than professors. This way professors would be freed from the constant cajoling they now face from students for higher marks. And students would see professors as mentors rather than as someone to appease.
Dr. Côté and Dr. Allahar aren't alone. Thomas Pocklington and Allan Tupper in their 2002 book, No Place to Learn, argued that the quality of undergraduate education has been eroded in part by a bias at many universities for specialized, often esoteric, research. Meanwhile, a greater share of teaching is being done by graduate students and part-time contract lecturers. While some improvements have been made in recent years, more needs to be done, says Dr. Tupper, head of the political science department at the University of British Columbia. For one thing, class sizes must be reduced. "There has to be much more interaction between faculty and students as well as between students," he says. Conservative academic Charles Murray went even further in the New York Times last month, arguing: "Do away with the BA". He wrote: "Discredit the bachelor's degree as a job credential. It does not signify the acquisition of a liberal education. It does not even tell an employer that the graduate can put together a logical and syntactically correct argument. It serves as rough and unreliable evidence of a degree of intelligence and perseverance—that's it."
But there are others who view the criticisms with a grain of salt. The University of Toronto's vice-president and provost, Cheryl Misak, says "people have been complaining forever about declining standards, both in terms of education and student quality. It's a constant theme in post-secondary education." She and others argue that the changes that have occurred in Canada's post-secondary institutions are a reflection of the increase in, and the make-up of, the people who attend them. Students are now more likely to come from diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds. Some will inevitably find it too tough and leave while others will struggle through, Dr. Misak says. "That's not such a bad state of play. When you increase the participation rate and give so many more students the opportunity to give it a go, that's a good thing."
Still, she does worry that the current state of the economy, which has forced cutbacks at many universities, will take a toll on today's crop of undergraduates. But, even with these challenges, Dr. Misak believes a university degree is more valuable than ever before. In her parents' day, she notes, a family with a single provider who had no postsecondary education could lead a comfortable middle-class life. "This is becoming less and less true," she says.
A university degree has indeed become an essential credential and those without one face steep hurdles. According to a new study by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, Canadian workers with a high-school diploma are one and a half times more likely to be unemployed than those with a bachelor's degree. A bachelor-degree holder will also earn $18,000 more a year than a high-school graduate and this disparity has grown over the past 25 years. According to Ken Norrie, vice-president of research at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO), a provincial government research agency, "few other long-term investments will produce a higher rate of return than a postsecondary education." A postsecondary education brings other intangible benefits, he adds. Studies show that university and college educated workers have higher job satisfaction, better health, and greater civic involvement.
But, what does any of this tell us about the quality of a university education that students receive today? "We truly don't know," Dr. Norrie replies. By some measures standards have undoubtedly slipped: government funding per student is down while faculty-student ratios and tuition fees are up. At the same time, he adds, universities are paying more attention to the quality of teaching, giving it a greater role in tenure and promotion decisions, for example. The diversity of programs has expanded and students have more opportunities to participate in international exchanges and other programs. But to what extent one set of factors offsets the other isn't known. If so little is known then, how can students and parents make informed decisions about whether universities provide good value for the money they charge?
Dr. Norrie believes there may be a way to find out. HEQCO, he says, would eventually like to conduct what are known as "value-added" tests for graduating students to examine what skills—both specific qualifications like a student's knowledge of chemistry or American literature as well as more generic abilities such as critical thinking—they acquire during their four years in an undergraduate program. In the U.S., the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test of critical thinking, is quickly gaining popularity. In Canada, however, very little research is being done on this topic because of the high cost of developing and administering such tests, Dr. Norrie says.
To Sean Riley, president of St. Francis Xavier University, a small university in Antigonish, N.S., talk of value-added assessments, exit exams and new measures of quality is not the point. "The prescription, I think, is to just face facts," he says. Undergraduate education "has been hammered" over the past 15 years and student satisfaction surveys consistently show that big, urban universities with a large share of commuter students have taken the biggest hit. The way to fix the problem is to direct teaching resources—much as his university does—to the undergraduate level. "If you're not doing that, you can have all the performance indicators in the world and all it's going to tell you is that things are trending downward rather than upward."
Universities, though, may find they have little choice in the matter. Alex Usher, president of the policy group, Higher Education Strategy Associates, believes Canada will have to adopt some mechanism to monitor educational standards, mainly because other countries such as the U.S., parts of Europe and Latin America are doing so. In Europe, for example, under what is now known as the Bologna Process, countries are working toward harmonizing degree lengths and credit requirements. This is partly to improve the mobility of students among nations but it is also as a way to ensure quality. "Canada has not yet begun to think about this stuff but this is the way the world is moving," Mr. Usher says. And as universities become more globally competitive, foreign students are going to demand it, he predicts.
In the meantime, students and parents are left grappling for answers. Alanna Makinson, a fourth-year student at the University of Manitoba, has made up her mind. Rising tuition fees are an immense problem for students, she concedes, and she has seen colleagues take on two and even three part-time jobs in order to make ends meet. And yet, despite its drawbacks, there is no alternative, as far as she's concerned. "Some 70% of jobs require postsecondary education," says the 22-year-old, who is enrolled in the women and gender studies program and wants to be a human rights lawyer. And her university experience has brought other benefits, too, she adds. "I personally wouldn't be who I am if I didn't attend a postsecondary institution," says Ms. Makinson, who is a vice-president with the University of Manitoba Students' Union. "I was exposed to new ways of seeing the world. I have been able to locate my passion in life and for that I will be forever grateful."