Canada leads in higher education

But public funding falls short, new OECD report concludes

Canada continues to top the list of most educated countries in the world, but it is falling short when it comes to public funding for post-secondary institutions, according to a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The group’s annual report, Education at a Glance 2013, ranks Canadians as the most educated of 34 OECD countries, with 51 per cent of the population having completed university-, college- or polytechnic-level education. But Canada trails the non-OECD Russian Federation, which reported a 53 per cent rate of tertiary education in 2012.

Canadians with universitylevel education are also less likely to be unemployed, the report found.

Both men and women with bachelor’s degrees or higher had a five per cent rate of unemployment, compared with nearly seven per cent for high school and college graduates in 2011. Canadians without a diploma experienced unemployment rates of around 12 per cent.

Some statistics in the report reflected data collected earlier than 2012, depending upon when they were made available by participating countries.

The report comes out just one day before Statistics Canada is set to release the second phase of its National Household Survey, with a special section analyzing education in the country over the past five years.

Despite high levels of education, the statistics also show that Canada is falling behind other OECD countries when it comes to funding education, and it is university students who get the smallest slice of the pie.

While the average OECD country contributes 68 per cent of the cost for post-secondary education, Canada’s provinces, on average, only take on 57 per cent of the cost, meaning that an increasing proportion of the cost falls on students.

Canadian students pay some of the highest tuition fees of all OECD countries, with average fees of $4,288 US per year for a bachelor’s degree program. The United States, the U.K., Ireland, Japan and Chile have higher tuition for public post-secondary institutions.

David Robinson, associate executive director with the Canadian Association of University Teachers, says he is not surprised that Canada has a high rate of citizens with university degrees despite less funding.

“What we are seeing is that participation rates have remained quite high and have actually increased.”

But that comes with a price, he says. “Almost everyone has to take on a loan now to get a university degree.”

Jessica McCormick, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students, says enrolment in university hasn’t been curbed because a bachelor’s degree is increasingly becoming a requirement to enter the labour market.

“The enrolment is high because people need to get that education to participate in the economy and make a living,” said McCormick, noting students are willing to take on more debt in Canada because without a degree they’re less likely to find employment.

Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies, cautions against analyzing Canada’s education system because it’s the provinces, not the federal government, that fund education.