Canada’s Education System 2021: How Does This System Compare To The Rest Of The World?

 

 Canada’s Education System 2021: How Does This System Compare To The Rest Of The World?

 Canada's education system has come in for a lot of criticism lately, and not without reason. Not only is there a growing student debt crisis, but graduation rates are particularly alarming. In fact, if you're planning on attending university in Canada anytime soon, you might want to think about taking your education elsewhere. Here's why.

Canada’s Education System

Canada's education system has come in for a lot of criticism lately, and not without reason. Not only is there a growing student debt crisis, but graduation rates are particularly alarming. In fact, if you're planning on attending university in Canada anytime soon, you might want to think about taking your education elsewhere. Here's why.

1. Deficits on Education

To put it bluntly,  Canada's education system is bullshit. If there was some sort of easy and inexpensive way to educate children in this country at a much cheaper cost, we'd have something we could all be proud of. Instead, we have to pay through the nose for our kids to go to university.

 Plus, the number of university graduates in Canada isn't expanding. In 2006, 40,000 students signed up for university classes in Canada, but only 17,500 students completed a degree. It's like we suddenly eliminated competitive university admission and put all new college grads into a pool with shoreline parking lots. Needless to say, the overall GDP from tertiary education in Canada is a joke.

Of course, we have an education system

—we're even championing the values of open education

—but as a country, we have a long way to go. Check out these stats on how much we spend on tertiary education and how much we receive in return (the Canadian dollar is, of course, the strongest indicator of the value of an education system):

2. Transferrable Skills

Another problem with the Canadian education system is that not all subjects can be transferred more easily to employers. Sure, there are a lot of STEM subjects that are common across North America, but science and math aren’t STEM and aren’t easily transferrable to many other jobs.

 Similarly, English has ups and downs relative to other languages around Canada. There might be some positions that can successfully be filled with English media and literature graduates, but it’s not going to be the same as a Canadian who studied French, German, or Scandinavian studies in university.

In the US, a similar picture emerges. If a successful American alumnus can’t be hired immediately for a comparable or even worse job, it may be worth considering a change of scenery. 

And Canada’s relatively young population will also be aging, meaning the number of workers entering the market is expected to decrease over time. Given the alternative of less attractive options for a younger and more employable workforce, it might be time to start reconsidering where you live.

3. Problems With Student Rentals

It's no secret that rents in most major Canadian cities are unaffordable—great swathes of small businesses in cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Waterloo, and Montreal can't afford to stay afloat. These local businesses are generally looking for ways to stay open, and student rental spaces are a great solution.

 

Not all universities are created equal

While it's true that there's some diversity among in-demand university programs, most programs here are heavily standardized and taught býthe same teachers, year after year. Other countries are finding this a bit unacceptable, and are moving in a number of different directions. In the U.S., private universities can compete with public institutions for students. 

British Columbia, for example, has the reputation of being “the liberal University of Canada,” while Quebec and Ontario have prized university systems with less restrictive admissions standards and greater geographic diversity.

It also helps that Canada’s higher education standards are high. Unlike in the U.S, which has its fair share of for-profit universities, Canada’s system has been around for a very long time, giving much of the advantage to programs that have maintained some semblance of a trusted reputation. 

Ranking higher means better financial aid and financial assessments, and this is definitely a double-edged sword. While Canada has one of the highest median incomes in the world, higher education often remains out of reach for many families, creating a culture of “academic debt.” For those who can afford it, it’s very much the norm.

Obviously, if you’ve got the desire to go to university in Canada, you might be able to pay. For those without the means, though, entering the system is obviously not a good choice.

 

The crème de la crème: Tim Hortons and some maple trees

While we might be falling short of The Holy Grail of economic growth, we do seem to be all up on Starbucks—rather than maple trees. 

Maybe it's time to change that. Because when it comes to the appeal of Starbucks, there’s certainly nothing like a carload of freshly-graduated students. They know how to strike up a conversation with a friend about their day, and never have a problem articulating their love (or hate) for Tim Horton's.

In an article from the Graduate Students Coalition for Equity at the University of Toronto, graduate students were offered the opportunity to cast an official vote of confidence in Starbucks and hire them as seasonal baristas. 

As part of the story, they even scored a free Tim Horton’s this past May to celebrate the company’s 150th anniversary. (While it sounds ultra-commercial, it was actually an official vote of confidence in the university and the baristas, if you haven’t guessed already.) Not a bad little marketing strategy, eh?

While international studies have long found that a well-educated workforce increases productivity (and income) all across the economy, it also makes us more productive in the workplace.

 A high-income worker is more productive in his or her job because the income from the job provides higher benefits. 

Wages earned by hi-skilled workers have, on average, been four times higher than those of unskilled workers, leading many to argue that a high-skilled workforce may not only lower costs for consumers but also freed up productive time in the economy. This could have positive implications on the economy as a whole, and not just for Starbucks.

But Starbucks isn’t the real hero of this story. It’s the Canadian economy—specifically the university system.

The dividend

According to a study published by the C.D. Howe Institute, university graduates are leaving job opportunities at double the rate of their peers just entering the workforce. 

For example, two years after graduating they’re 28% more likely to have a job than those with just left school—and 23% more likely to have a job with benefits. So while “average” is not always a good measure of a bad thing, the average university graduate certainly ends up ahead of his or her peers during their post-graduation period.

This bodes well for Canada’s overall economy, which continues to see strong growth thanks to strong exports like softwood lumber, oil, and gas.