An article written by Ken Coates for CBC News’ Opinion Section about the pressure of university on post-secondary students was responded to by the University of Manitoba president, who said Coates’ argument was a false one.
The editorial penned by Coates, founding vice-president of the University of Northern British Columbia, is titled “University vs. College: Why pressuring your kid to go to university is a big mistake.”
The main premise of the piece is that “for some Canadian high school graduates, going to university is an impressive and valuable option. For others, it is an expensive and time-consuming exercise in self-discovery and, often, failure.”
Coates said the choice to apply for a university degree should be presented as equal to the opportunity to pursue an alternative form of post-secondary education.
“Canadians have alternatives. This country has one of the highest quality and most comprehensive post-secondary systems in the world. Just as our universities rank well internationally, other institutions perform at a high level,” Coates wrote.
“Universities and governments oversold the economic benefits of a degree — and people bought the argument. Also, young adults and particularly their parents are career obsessed,” Coates wrote.
Coates’ article was read by another member of the Canadian university community, Dr. David Barnard, president and vice-chancellor at the University of Manitoba. Barnard’s response to the editorial was to write an article of his own highlighting the usefulness of Canada’s focus on university degrees.
“Encouraging enrolment in one form of post-secondary education over another is not productive; in fact, many of our young people flout the debate altogether and choose successful post-secondary trajectories that include both university and college education,” said Barnard in his article.
However, Barnard said he continues to see great merit in the university system.
“Demand for university graduates across Canada is concentrated in professional, management and administrative occupations, but employment is growing at all post-secondary levels,” he wrote.
Coates called Barnard’s article “excellent,” and said in an email that he agreed with many of his points. However, he said Barnard’s “articulate defence of universities leaves many questions unanswered.”
“Universities have had [to] meet funding needs [and] lower their admission standards in some/many programs. The result is larger classes, weaker students and less impressive undergraduate experience for many, including the top students,” Coates said.
“The changing realities of the Canadian workforce —almost all of Dr. Barnard’s examples point to this— favour people with specialized and advanced skills. Many of these, like medicine, law and engineering, are validated by organizations away from the campus. We have a specialist economy and we are training a substantially generalist university student body,” he said.
Both Barnard and Coates said balance appears to be the key when approaching the university vs. college debate and that students should not feel pressured that one path will guarantee them success and another garner them failure.
“[University] is not a fix-all for every high school graduate and that, I fear, is how university education has come to be seen. I just wish students were more careful about their post-secondary education choices,” Coates said.
