Loss of Canadian Council on Learning federal funding will be detrimental to
post-secondary research

OTTAWA , Jan. 8 /CNW Telbec/ - Federal funding for the Canadian Council on Learning will not be renewed after March 10, 2010 , further cutting research that evaluates and seeks to improve government programs for post-secondary education.

The capacity to conduct research and evaluation on post-secondary issues has taken a massive hit this year, with the loss of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, the Canadian Policy Research Networks, and now the funding cuts to the Canadian Council on Learning.

"The funding of independent research on post-secondary education has been invaluable to the progress of education in Canada ," said Arati Sharma, National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. "Cutting our ability to effectively evaluate post-secondary education programs will drastically affect Canada's ability to measure the progress of higher learning."

Canada is already lagging behind other OECD countries in terms of being able to provide comparable post-secondary education information - presenting challenges for government policy makers looking to demonstrate results to the public; education advocates working to make a sound policy case for investing additional funds in universities and colleges; university and college administrators working to continuously improve the teaching, learning, and research environment; and students and parents looking for comparative information to find a 'best-fit' institution to meet their educational goals.

"To improve post-secondary education in Canada , we need to conduct research," said Sharma. "Without the research of groups such as the Canadian Council on Learning, Canada will continue to lack the knowledge needed to improve access, persistence and quality in our post-secondary institutions."

The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) is a non-partisan, not-for-profit national student organization composed of 25 student associations, representing over 300,000 students from coast to coast.

For further information: Jillian Flake, Public Relations and Communications Officer CASA, Tel.: [phone] ext. 224, (c) 613-868-6605, E-mail: [email protected]