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With the demographic reality of the baby boom generation moving toward their retirement years and the graduating high school population in decline, Canada must devote specific attention to increasing the educational participation and attainment levels of disadvantaged and under-represented groups.
Both media and politicians frequently talk about the need for Canada to remain or become a competitive knowledge-based economy. International studies of high school student performance suggest that young Canadian learners are doing well and that our young students are being well equipped to succeed in the future. Yet the same cannot be said of our postsecondary and adult learners: our system of postsecondary education is not well suited to meeting the current and future learning needs of many citizens in this country.
Listen to this lecture online » Post-secondary education 2.0: New millennium, new students, new directions (PDF, 383 KB)
My presentation will focus on why Canada needs to develop a postsecondary education system that is democratic, open, affordable, and accessible to all who are qualified and willing to participate, regardless of background.
During my presentation, I’ll discuss why, despite their goal of extending access to higher education to as many learners as possible, universities and other postsecondary institutions are still not able to meet the needs of many disadvantaged groups of learners in Canada. I’ll draw upon current research to talk about the challenges faced by specific groups of Canadians in successfully accessing postsecondary learning options. I will also suggest what our decision-makers should be doing to remove the impediments to postsecondary participation that have existed for those who have traditionally been excluded from this level of education.
Dr. Dale Kirby is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Memorial’s Post-Secondary Education Studies programs. Prior to joining Memorial, he worked as a public servant in the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
Dr. Kirby completed his doctoral studies in Theory and Policy Studies in Education (Higher Education) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education where he conducted research on rural post-secondary student finances and students’ choices to study beyond high school. He is a seventh generation Newfoundlander, originally from Lord's Cove on the Burin Peninsula of the island, where generations of his family have lived and worked in inshore fishing industries. His interest in post-secondary education as a field of study first emerged in the in the 1990s when he worked on post-secondary access and affordability issues with the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Students.
Dr. Kirby’s research interests include the transition to post-secondary education and the labour market with a focus on factors that influence student persistence and success, as well as post-secondary education policy and program development. He has published in the Alberta Journal of Educational Research, the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, the Canadian Journal of Higher Education, and the Journal of Student Financial Aid. He is also the author of one of Canada’s most widely-read blogs about trends, issues, practices and problems in the field of post-secondary studies. Dr. Kirby is currently co-investigator on a five-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) study of student transition to post-secondary education and the workforce.