Life on campus getting tougher, lonelier - AKA Canadian universities suck
Life on campus getting tougher, lonelier
U.S. students like university more
Challenge to keep students engaged
Among the results:
Canadians scored about the same as Americans on "level of academic challenge," including number of required readings and assigned papers and the difficulty of course work.
Canadians scored on average behind Americans on "student-faculty interaction," which measures how often students talk with teachers in class and out, and how quickly they get feedback on assignments - which can sometimes take months.
Canadians lagged behind Americans on "active and collaborative learning," which includes how often students get to ask questions, make presentations and work on group projects.
Canadians scored overall behind Americans on providing a "supportive campus environment," which includes everything from student services, to friendliness of officials, to the quality of relationships with peers.
One notable exception is Queen's in Kingston, which beat even most U.S. universities with its close-knit campus, where more than 90 per cent of first-year students live in residence and are highly involved in campus activities.
---
That's cause we're fucking BRAINWASHED to love it here. don't let it fool you we hate it here!
*scrambles to escape this urine soked hell hole*
The court objects, you could have called it peepee soaked heck hole.
Cheerfully withdrawn.*
*(simpsons TM)
But i still rather stay in canada than go to Bush country.
LOUISE BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER
All it took was a goofy cartoon drawn by a professor to make Canada's largest university class seem suddenly nice and small.
More than 1,000 first-year physics students were crammed across both balconies of Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto as instructor Jason Harlow delivered his final lecture, jotting down formulas projected on an overhead screen.
Then he threw in a quick sketch of himself sniffing back tears and waving goodbye with the breezy signoff: "It's been great fun teaching you guys, if even for a short time - take care, good luck with the test and have fun in the spring."
That simple gesture made physics major Neil Uppal feel that he mattered at the mighty U of T.
"That little note just made you feel like he cares about you, and it's so great when professors show they care, because first year at a university this large and intimidating can get lonely," said Uppal, 19, who commutes an hour from Mississauga to the 50,000-student downtown campus.
More and more, this is the challenge facing Ontario's cash-strapped universities: how to make ever-larger classes seem engaging to students often saddled with commutes and part-time jobs.
There is growing research to show that when students feel engaged, instead of lost and ignored, they're more likely to do well and go on to graduate.
But Canadian campuses have a long way to go to deliver that personal touch.
A dismal new survey of eight flagship Canadian universities and nearly 500 campuses in the United States shows that while Canadian institutions keep step with their richer U.S. cousins academically, they lag embarrassingly behind in the quality of the student experience.
In factors from class size to hands-on learning, Canadian universities tend to score lower than their U.S. counterparts, many of which receive more than three times as much funding per student, from government, donors and tuition combined.
"Our students are smart and our faculty is smart, but what's missing is the opportunity for them to have meaningful interaction," U of T president Frank Iacobucci lamented this week, in a rare admission that the quality of the university experience is declining.
"Unlike their parents, this new generation of students cannot expect their professors will either recognize them or know their names," he told a blue-chip Canadian Club audience, warning universities risk turning into "degree mills" if they can't boost the quality of campus life.
It was mounting concern over sliding quality - typified by lineups, super-sized classes, stale teaching and outdated services - that last year prompted Canadian universities to take part for the first time in the National Survey of Student Engagement. The survey, run by the Indiana University Centre for Postsecondary Research, measures everything from how often students chat with profs to how welcome they feel on campus.
The Canadian campuses placed last overall, though the participants were such heavyweights as the University of Toronto, McMaster, Queen's, University of Waterloo, University of Western Ontario, McGill, the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia.
"Our student-faculty ratio is a huge factor in Canada - we're up around 25-to-1, whereas the University of Michigan stands at 10-to-1 and Oxford, Cambridge and MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have ratios of about 4-to-1," noted president David Johnston of the University of Waterloo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`We score low in student engagement because we score at the bottom in operating grants'
David Johnston, president,
University of Waterloo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's simply a factor of funding. We score low in student engagement because we score at the bottom in operating grants."
Among the results:
Canadians scored about the same as Americans on "level of academic challenge," including number of required readings and assigned papers and the difficulty of course work.
Canadians scored on average behind Americans on "student-faculty interaction," which measures how often students talk with teachers in class and out, and how quickly they get feedback on assignments - which can sometimes take months.
Canadians lagged behind Americans on "active and collaborative learning," which includes how often students get to ask questions, make presentations and work on group projects.
Canadians scored overall behind Americans on providing a "supportive campus environment," which includes everything from student services, to friendliness of officials, to the quality of relationships with peers.
One notable exception is Queen's in Kingston, which beat even most U.S. universities with its close-knit campus, where more than 90 per cent of first-year students live in residence and are highly involved in campus activities.
So deep are concerns about the quality of the student experience that former premier Bob Rae has recommended that all 19 Ontario universities take part in the next National Survey of Student Engagement, as part of his recent $1.3 billion plan to improve higher learning in the province.
Universities already are scrambling to deal with the issue. Queen's, Waterloo and the U of T run teaching workshops for professors. McMaster, Queen's and the U of T have committees working on ways to improve relations between undergrads and staff.
Waterloo will host a conference next month on excellent teaching and urges professors to stay connected with students through online chat groups and has launched about 15 new "Freshmen Seminars" to counteract class sizes topping 600.
The U of T now runs 100 such first-year seminars, with no more than 25 students each, giving newcomers a chance to get to know the professor as a mentor, says program director Ken Bartlett. "Students here can suffer from a lack of connection, which is part of the trade-off of a large university with the largest library in the country and some of the best professors in the world," said Bartlett. "What's missing is the personal connection, and that's what we're working on."
Of special concern at the U of T is the alienation felt by the nearly 80 per cent of the student body that doesn't live on campus. In the survey, two-thirds of off-campus students said they spent "zero" hours there outside class.
"Engaging these commuters is a real concern to us, because those extracurricular activities allow students to acquire all sorts of skills they don't get in class,' said vice-provost David Farrar, who heads the university's campaign to improve the student experience.
The U of T launched a pilot project this year that created 10 First Year Learning Communities, designed for commuter students in the large health sciences faculty who are not enrolled in first-year seminars. In each group, about 30 students, plus a professor and a graduate student, gather informally once a week to talk about issues.
"We have more students in first-year chemistry - 2,000 - than the entire enrolment at Bishop's University in Quebec, so we know size is one of our greatest problems," Farrar said. One solution the university is considering is a one-stop student centre where commuters can relax between classes, attend club meetings, fill out course forms and find out what's happening across campus. Currently, commuters often sit in hallways or in off-campus restaurants between classes.
Commuter student Christa Sinclair says a new student lounge that opened in January in the Sidney Smith building on St. George St. has provided a welcome space to hang out between classes.
"But already this gets filled up quickly, too," Sinclair said. "A new centre would be awesome.'
U.S. students like university more
Challenge to keep students engaged
Among the results:
Canadians scored about the same as Americans on "level of academic challenge," including number of required readings and assigned papers and the difficulty of course work.
Canadians scored on average behind Americans on "student-faculty interaction," which measures how often students talk with teachers in class and out, and how quickly they get feedback on assignments - which can sometimes take months.
Canadians lagged behind Americans on "active and collaborative learning," which includes how often students get to ask questions, make presentations and work on group projects.
Canadians scored overall behind Americans on providing a "supportive campus environment," which includes everything from student services, to friendliness of officials, to the quality of relationships with peers.
One notable exception is Queen's in Kingston, which beat even most U.S. universities with its close-knit campus, where more than 90 per cent of first-year students live in residence and are highly involved in campus activities.
---
That's cause we're fucking BRAINWASHED to love it here. don't let it fool you we hate it here!
*scrambles to escape this urine soked hell hole*
The court objects, you could have called it peepee soaked heck hole.
Cheerfully withdrawn.*
*(simpsons TM)
But i still rather stay in canada than go to Bush country.
LOUISE BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER
All it took was a goofy cartoon drawn by a professor to make Canada's largest university class seem suddenly nice and small.
More than 1,000 first-year physics students were crammed across both balconies of Convocation Hall at the University of Toronto as instructor Jason Harlow delivered his final lecture, jotting down formulas projected on an overhead screen.
Then he threw in a quick sketch of himself sniffing back tears and waving goodbye with the breezy signoff: "It's been great fun teaching you guys, if even for a short time - take care, good luck with the test and have fun in the spring."
That simple gesture made physics major Neil Uppal feel that he mattered at the mighty U of T.
"That little note just made you feel like he cares about you, and it's so great when professors show they care, because first year at a university this large and intimidating can get lonely," said Uppal, 19, who commutes an hour from Mississauga to the 50,000-student downtown campus.
More and more, this is the challenge facing Ontario's cash-strapped universities: how to make ever-larger classes seem engaging to students often saddled with commutes and part-time jobs.
There is growing research to show that when students feel engaged, instead of lost and ignored, they're more likely to do well and go on to graduate.
But Canadian campuses have a long way to go to deliver that personal touch.
A dismal new survey of eight flagship Canadian universities and nearly 500 campuses in the United States shows that while Canadian institutions keep step with their richer U.S. cousins academically, they lag embarrassingly behind in the quality of the student experience.
In factors from class size to hands-on learning, Canadian universities tend to score lower than their U.S. counterparts, many of which receive more than three times as much funding per student, from government, donors and tuition combined.
"Our students are smart and our faculty is smart, but what's missing is the opportunity for them to have meaningful interaction," U of T president Frank Iacobucci lamented this week, in a rare admission that the quality of the university experience is declining.
"Unlike their parents, this new generation of students cannot expect their professors will either recognize them or know their names," he told a blue-chip Canadian Club audience, warning universities risk turning into "degree mills" if they can't boost the quality of campus life.
It was mounting concern over sliding quality - typified by lineups, super-sized classes, stale teaching and outdated services - that last year prompted Canadian universities to take part for the first time in the National Survey of Student Engagement. The survey, run by the Indiana University Centre for Postsecondary Research, measures everything from how often students chat with profs to how welcome they feel on campus.
The Canadian campuses placed last overall, though the participants were such heavyweights as the University of Toronto, McMaster, Queen's, University of Waterloo, University of Western Ontario, McGill, the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia.
"Our student-faculty ratio is a huge factor in Canada - we're up around 25-to-1, whereas the University of Michigan stands at 10-to-1 and Oxford, Cambridge and MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have ratios of about 4-to-1," noted president David Johnston of the University of Waterloo.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
`We score low in student engagement because we score at the bottom in operating grants'
David Johnston, president,
University of Waterloo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It's simply a factor of funding. We score low in student engagement because we score at the bottom in operating grants."
Among the results:
Canadians scored about the same as Americans on "level of academic challenge," including number of required readings and assigned papers and the difficulty of course work.
Canadians scored on average behind Americans on "student-faculty interaction," which measures how often students talk with teachers in class and out, and how quickly they get feedback on assignments - which can sometimes take months.
Canadians lagged behind Americans on "active and collaborative learning," which includes how often students get to ask questions, make presentations and work on group projects.
Canadians scored overall behind Americans on providing a "supportive campus environment," which includes everything from student services, to friendliness of officials, to the quality of relationships with peers.
One notable exception is Queen's in Kingston, which beat even most U.S. universities with its close-knit campus, where more than 90 per cent of first-year students live in residence and are highly involved in campus activities.
So deep are concerns about the quality of the student experience that former premier Bob Rae has recommended that all 19 Ontario universities take part in the next National Survey of Student Engagement, as part of his recent $1.3 billion plan to improve higher learning in the province.
Universities already are scrambling to deal with the issue. Queen's, Waterloo and the U of T run teaching workshops for professors. McMaster, Queen's and the U of T have committees working on ways to improve relations between undergrads and staff.
Waterloo will host a conference next month on excellent teaching and urges professors to stay connected with students through online chat groups and has launched about 15 new "Freshmen Seminars" to counteract class sizes topping 600.
The U of T now runs 100 such first-year seminars, with no more than 25 students each, giving newcomers a chance to get to know the professor as a mentor, says program director Ken Bartlett. "Students here can suffer from a lack of connection, which is part of the trade-off of a large university with the largest library in the country and some of the best professors in the world," said Bartlett. "What's missing is the personal connection, and that's what we're working on."
Of special concern at the U of T is the alienation felt by the nearly 80 per cent of the student body that doesn't live on campus. In the survey, two-thirds of off-campus students said they spent "zero" hours there outside class.
"Engaging these commuters is a real concern to us, because those extracurricular activities allow students to acquire all sorts of skills they don't get in class,' said vice-provost David Farrar, who heads the university's campaign to improve the student experience.
The U of T launched a pilot project this year that created 10 First Year Learning Communities, designed for commuter students in the large health sciences faculty who are not enrolled in first-year seminars. In each group, about 30 students, plus a professor and a graduate student, gather informally once a week to talk about issues.
"We have more students in first-year chemistry - 2,000 - than the entire enrolment at Bishop's University in Quebec, so we know size is one of our greatest problems," Farrar said. One solution the university is considering is a one-stop student centre where commuters can relax between classes, attend club meetings, fill out course forms and find out what's happening across campus. Currently, commuters often sit in hallways or in off-campus restaurants between classes.
Commuter student Christa Sinclair says a new student lounge that opened in January in the Sidney Smith building on St. George St. has provided a welcome space to hang out between classes.
"But already this gets filled up quickly, too," Sinclair said. "A new centre would be awesome.'