Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Post-secondary Education in Canada: Strategies for Success

2007 Report

Summary: Part II

Measuring What Canadians Value: A Pan-Canadian Data Strategy

In preparing the 2006 report, Canadian Post-secondary Education: A Positive Record – An Uncertain Future, CCL was constantly challenged by a lack of information. In many cases appropriate data were simply not available. When they were available, they were often not comparable, compiled or adequate.

These informational shortcomings hinder the ability to report on the state of PSE in Canada.

This year’s report, Strategies for Success, proposes an approach for gathering and utilizing the information required for the PSE sector in Canada. Only with a solid base of information will we know whether the billions of dollars invested are being used most effectively.

In the absence of a strategy for data collection, the present condition—where nationwide, coherent, coordinated and comparable data are unobtainable—will continue to prevail.

Canada’s capacity to assess and improve its PSE sector will continue to be compromised, as will its ability to compare performance with other countries.

Table 2.0.1  Number of post-secondary institutions in Canada based on the typology proposed in the 2003 Orton paper

Part II of Strategies for Success, entitled Measuring What Canadians Value: A Pan-Canadian Data Strategy, (PDF, 1 MB) proposes a path for filling the country's PSE information gaps. It discusses in detail the types of information required to assess performance in eight identified goals for PSE. In addition, Strategies for Success outlines why, without a champion and a process to engage the various stakeholders, little progress on the data front should be expected.

Although CCL recognizes that significant discussions are required to develop a process for the implementation of the strategy, the issues are too important to await unanimity. Given that governments already possess many of the necessary levers to create and sustain a data strategy, CCL suggests that every effort be made now to address the three most pressing information issues.

They are: 

• ongoing and adequate funding for the essential data instruments (see Essential data instruments below)
• comprehensive data on specific and salient issues in each of the eight goals identified by CCL for the PSE sector in Canada
• immediate implementation of a unique student identifier, and collection and reporting of faculty numbers for colleges, of data on adult education and of data on private providers

Consideration of a broader strategy should proceed while at the same time addressing these immediate and achievable goals.

Next Steps

In order to ensure progress is made toward a coherent base of PSE data, CCL has identified six issues that should be addressed.

1. Effective coordination of the pan-Canadian data strategy
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   Greater coordination and coherence among the various intervenors are required to ensure that priorities are set within the overarching data strategy, that priority activities are identified and funded, and that results are delivered.
   
   Within the federal government, Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) has the broadest responsibility for learners, the PSE sector and labour-force issues. In addition, Industry Canada, with its responsibility for the innovation portfolio and coordination of the federal granting councils, will be an increasingly important partner in this venture.
   
   
2. Public reporting
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   Achievement of an effective pan-Canadian PSE data strategy requires regular public reporting and the active involvement of stakeholders.
   
   The adequacy of the PSE information base should be kept in the public eye through regular public reports—a public form of external audit and evaluation. Stakeholders need to be involved to ensure that the PSE database reflects the public interest.
   
   
3. Collective commitment to ensuring a return on increased
   investment in PSE
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   In its 2007 budget, the federal government proposed an increase in the Canada Social Transfer (CST) of $800 million per year, stating, “This increase will take effect in 2008–09, allowing discussions with provinces and territories on how best to make use of this new investment and ensure appropriate reporting and accountability to Canadians.”
   
   For that reporting and accountability commitment to become a reality, the development and pursuit of a pan-Canadian PSE data strategy should be a central focus for those discussions among the federal, provincial and territorial governments.
   
   
4. Creating an ongoing pan-Canadian forum
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   The development and effective implementation of a pan-Canadian data strategy for PSE is a complex process and requires the active engagement of stakeholders―people and organizations with a professional, personal or financial stake in the PSE sector.
   
   There is a need for an annual pan-Canadian forum for stakeholders to discuss the priorities of the PSE data strategy and system.  This forum should include governments, educators, learners and employers. It should also involve the statistical experts and researchers who provide important insight into educational and contextual data—many of whom are already active in accountability and reporting activities.
   
   Substantive engagement of stakeholders requires the opportunity to give serious consideration to complex material before it is considered at the pan-Canadian forum. In addition to public consultation on discussion documents and reports, a series of regional, thematic workshops (on issues such as  adult and workplace learning) should be held to help achieve a consensus prior to the annual pan-Canadian forum.
   
   
5. Early action on priority issues
   
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   The process of engaging stakeholders and convening the necessary federal–provincial–territorial discussions is pivotal to ensuring a robust pan-Canadian data strategy. However, without immediate action on a number of the identified gaps, both in the data and the info-structure required for an effective data strategy, Canada will continue to lag behind other nations in its capacity to assess and report on the performance and condition of its PSE sector.
   
   In order not to lose current momentum—generated by the Canadian Council on Learning’s 2006 PSE report, the related provincial activities (e.g. B.C.'s Campus 2020 report) and the federal government’s commitment to ensure that reports on results and opportunities be available and easily accessed—immediate action is advisable on a limited number of initiatives. Three data issues are seen as particularly urgent:
   
   

   • The implementation of a unique student identifier that stays with the learner throughout his or her life. This will provide richer information about learners as they move from secondary school to PSE, between PSE institutions and the workplace, among PSE providers and across regions of Canada. Such an initiative is urgent and should be implemented by June 2009.
     
   • A concerted and formalized approach to the introduction of a common dataset, including a data dictionary that is applied across the PSE sector and is compatible with international standards. This will require a mechanism for developing, maintaining and promoting standardized specifications for PSE activities and data elements, to enable reliable and comparable data collection and exchange among stakeholders. Such a mechanism could take the form of a formal assignment to the Canadian Education Statistics Council (CESC). Ideally, this would also be implemented by June 2009.
     
   • The development of an information base on adult learning (including data from private providers). The lack of data on this aspect of the PSE sector is unacceptable. HRSDC could play a leadership role and the Canadian Council on Learning’s two related knowledge centres (the Work and Learning Knowledge Centre, and the Adult Learning Knowledge Centre) could bring together many of the partners, providing a useful sounding board for the indicators that would supply evidence about the condition and performance of adult learning in Canada.
     
     
6. Resources to make it happen
   
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   There are inefficiencies in the current situation that can be addressed, in part, through improved coordination and common standards. However, this will not address the overall need for more effective measurement of the condition and performance of the PSE sector.  A discussion concerning the resources required for the implementation of a pan-Canadian data strategy, and how these costs should be shared, is a vital next step.

Who benefits?

Among the greatest beneficiaries of a successful PSE data strategy would be:

• Learners and their families—who seek information on whether a specific program or institution will provide a rich learning opportunity and the knowledge, skills and abilities needed in the labour market and as citizens, as well as the institution’s track record on graduation rates and employment
• Taxpayers—who want accountability on the performance of the sector as a whole and assurance on the alignment of public expenditures with public benefits
• Boards of Governors and institutional managers—who require information on institutional performance, competitiveness and operational efficiency, usually in a comparative context
• Employers—who want assurance about the quality of PSE credentials and to know better what types of skills they can expect from PSE graduates in the years to come
• Governments—which need information on international and domestic comparability of performance, including learning outcomes, the social and economic return on their investments, and insights on how to refine policies and programs for better efficiency and effectiveness
• Researchers—who inform policy and practice by investigating the relationships between educational practices and their various social, economic and learning outcomes