Post-secondary Education in Canada: Strategies for Success

2007 Report

Summary: Part I  Chapter 6 

Access for under-represented groups

Canada must continue to improve access for qualified students from under-represented groups, such as students from low-income families, students with disabilities, male students, immigrants, older adults and Aboriginal people.

Progress has been achieved among some under-represented groups. For example, the participation and attainment rates for Aboriginal people have risen steadily since 1986, but are still well below the rates for non-Aboriginal Canadians.

The country’s networks of community colleges appear to be an equalizer. College students are proportionally represented across all income levels, while Canada’s universities have a disproportionately low number of students from lower income households.

Figure 6.4.2  University, college and overall post-secondary participation rates of 18– to 21–year–olds, by family income quartiles

Source: Rahman A., J. Situ, & V. Jimmo. Participation in Postsecondary Education: Evidence from the survey of Labour and Income Dynamics. Statistics Canada, Catalogue No 81-595-MIE, No 036, 2005.

Canada faces numerous challenges in achieving equality of access to PSE.

  • The 2001 census showed that despite improvements in the high-school retention rates of Aboriginal youth, they are still much less likely to finish their high-school education than non-Aboriginal youth.
  • Census 2001 also showed a significant increase in PSE participation among Aboriginal people over the past 15-year period. Nonetheless, Aboriginal attendance and participation rates are still well below Canadian averages.
  • The most recent data available for rural youth show that dropout rates in Canada’s small towns and rural areas are about double the rates for metropolitan areas.
  • Of the 27 OECD countries for which data were collected in 2004, Canada ranked 11th in the percentage of youth who are not in education and who are without upper-secondary education.
  • The percentage of 20- to 24-year-olds without high school, not in education and unemployed is higher for men than for women.
  • Data demonstrate that youth from families with an annual income of more than $75,000 are almost twice as likely to attend university as those who come from families who earn less than $25,000.
  • Enrolments both for men and women at university are at all-time highs, but female students now account for about 58% of bachelor-degree program enrolment. Males now constitute a new under-represented group. In 2004, 61% of all undergraguate degrees were earned by women.
  • The proportion of immigrants holding a trade certificate declined from 9.7% in 1996 to 4.7% in 2005.

What does this mean?

Access is an important issue for learners from under-represented groups because of the variety of barriers they face in pursuing post-secondary studies. Despite some progress, inequalities remain, such as the noncompletion of high school among Aboriginal youth, the gender gap in PSE participation and graduation rates, and lower access by low-income students to universities.

Although more Aboriginal students are participating in PSE than in the past, their participation rate is still well below the Canadian average. Many Aboriginal students are still reporting financial, academic and motivational barriers.

 With regard to the gender gap, Canada has exchanged one problem for another. Women, who were in the minority on Canadian campuses not long ago, now represent the majority. Males now constitute a new under-represented group. Canada needs to examine why this gender gap is widening.

Canadians, whether born in the country or new to it, must be able to use their credentials and learning experience for employment or further education. This makes prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR) an important issue for Canada, particularly in the absence of a coun trywide approach to credential recognition.


Part I in full (PDF, 3.1 MB)

 

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