We're number one - sort of
Canada at the top in tricky comparison of PSE
by Léo Charbonneau
Canada has the largest share of the population with at least some form of postsecondary education compared to other countries, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The latest OECD report on education indicators says 43 percent of Canadians aged 25 to 64 have taken postsecondary studies, almost double the OECD average of 23 percent.
But some analysts warn not to make too much of the numbers. "International comparative data is extraordinarily complex. You're never entirely sure that you're actually counting apples and apples," said Glen Jones, a professor of higher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Jones said what he's able to glean from the hefty 450-page report, which contains data from 2001, is "that our participation rates continue to be high in international terms . . . but it's really difficult to go much deeper than that."
Scott Murray, director general of institutions and social statistics at Statistics Canada, noted that media reports on the OECD data claimed that Canada is the most educated country in the world. But that's a bit misleading, he said, because the report makes no comparison of quality. If one looks just at university education, the United States is in fact "quite a bit ahead of us, so it begs the question of what is the relative quality of our postsecondary institutions to key trading partners' quality."
Dr. Jones agreed: "Participation rates don't tell us very much about the educational experience of our students."
The data on education expenditures are likewise "a little slippery," said Mr. Murray. According to the report, spending on postsecondary education in Canada is equal to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, putting us third behind the U.S. and Korea (both at 2.7 percent). However, at the primary and secondary education level, Canada ranked 19th out of 30 countries and below the OECD average.
The data show "quite clearly that in relative terms we're investing less of our GDP per capita in education" compared with some OECD countries, said Mr. Murray. But "we're not able to tease out [the reasons] from the analysis."
An article in the Globe and Mail, reporting on these figures, said Canada had cut its support of elementary and high schools over the past decade in favour of increased funding to universities - an interpretation contested by Robert Best, vice-president, national affairs, at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. In fact, in the period from 1994-95 to 2000-01 (the two base years in the OECD study), provincial and local government expenditures on elementary and secondary schools increased more rapidly than spending on universities, according to StatsCan data. "There was no shift in provincial government spending priorities towards universities," said Mr. Best.
The OECD report includes research funding as an educational expenditure, and indeed federal and provincial investments in university research grew rapidly during this time. But even with those research investments, said Mr. Best, the level of government support per student, adjusted for inflation, was only marginally higher in 2000-01 than it was in 1994-95.
Despite the problems with the data, the OECD report is still the best source of comparative information out there, said U of T's Dr. Jones. "But there is a whole other level of detail that we're not getting, and we need that." Policy makers, he said, would benefit from "a much more detailed, critical and comparative analysis between jurisdictions" - and that includes between provinces. StatsCan's Mr. Murray said he hopes the new Canadian Council on Learning will help to fulfill that role.
