Helping students make the best choice for post-secondary education

OTTAWA, Sept. 1 /CNW/ - Choosing which university or college to attend can be a daunting task for students and their parents.  As high school students return to school and begin to consider which post-secondary institution they would like to attend, a new report from the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) is proposing a tool that would help students select the educational path that best meets their needs—as part of a new comprehensive framework for post-secondary education in Canada.

Navigating Post-secondary Education in Canada: The Challenge of a Changing Landscape argues that Canada does not have a clear framework to describe the many changes that have occurred in the post-secondary education sector over the past decade. This report is intended to help students, parents, guidance counsellors, educators and policy-makers gain a better understanding of the changing landscape of post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada and provide information that will help them as they navigate their way through the sector. 

In the past, Canada's PSE sector consisted of colleges offering mostly technical or vocational programs, and universities that provided students with academic and professional programming. Today, the distinction between universities and colleges has been blurred and there has been significant growth in the number and types of degrees and diplomas offered at the post-secondary level. The PSE sector also includes a number of hybrid institutions offering both technical and professional programming as well as privately-funded institutions, faith-based institutes and international unregulated institutions.

"Post-secondary institutions are far more complicated than they used to be, yet Canada does not have a framework that reflects this new reality," says Dr. Paul Cappon, President and CEO of CCL.

"A classification framework encompassing all types of post-secondary institutions in Canada would help clarify the kinds of programs offered at the post-secondary level and would assist both Canadian and international students in making clearer and more informed decisions about the post-secondary options available to them," says Cappon.

The paper is the second of a series on the critical issues confronting Canada's PSE sector. The series, entitled, Challenges in Canadian Post-secondary Education, is available on CCL's website at: www.ccl-cca.ca/pse.

About CCL

The Canadian Council on Learning is an independent, not-for-profit corporation. Its mandate is to provide evidence-based information to Canadians so they can make the best decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years.

For further information:

Sheena Powell
Canadian Council on Learning
613.782.2959 ext: 6252
[email protected]
www.ccl-cca.ca