One of the Ontario government's goals for the Reaching Higher Plan was to improve the overall quality of our post-secondary education system. Five years and billions of dollars later, students and government alike are concerned with the lack of results. The causes have been debated at length, but whether it was unexpected enrollment growth or unchecked cost inflation at our institutions that swallowed this funding, improving the learning environment and investing in student success continue to be important goals for the future.

A renewed emphasis on quality and student success is necessary for Ontario's future economic prosperity. While participation rates in Ontario have climbed toward 70%, countries around the world are still catching up, especially in university enrollment, and as the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity has consistently articulated, Ontario cannot compete with the world based solely on volume of graduates. With universities in India and China turning out hundreds of thousands of graduates, Ontario must have the best and brightest workforce, not simply hand out the most credentials.

And so we turn to the future, and to the question of how we can enhance the learning environment at our universities given Ontario's poor fiscal situation. Some suggest the greatest priority is to lower student-faculty ratios, but, while this ratio is an important indicator, the quality of the learning environment cannot be reduced to this one figure. Other options deserve to be explored as well. Given the attention this subject has received of late, I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify OUSA's position on student-faculty ratios and, more broadly, the quality of teaching and learning at our universities.

Reducing the ratio of students to faculty generally allows for two things: greater student-faculty interaction and smaller class sizes. Increased interaction can have a significant positive impact on learning and is a desirable outcome for students. OUSA's recent Ontario Student Survey showed a significant correlation between the availability and helpfulness of academic staff and students' overall satisfaction with teaching quality. However, when asked what makes a high-quality teacher, students selected multiple issues related to teaching pedagogy above availability outside the classroom. It should also be noted that high student-faculty ratios are not the only things preventing greater interaction. An increased emphasis on research has led to reduced teaching loads and less time for each professor to spend with their students.

On the second benefit, smaller classes create an environment where instructors can more easily implement active learning strategies and build stronger connections with their students. That said, most students have seen firsthand that a large class with a great teacher can be much more engaging than a small class with a not-so-great teacher. Dr. Tony Chambers and his colleagues at OISE are currently investigating the link between small classes and learning outcomes, and thus far they have found no causal relationship. In a presentation to the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Dr. Chambers concluded that small classes in and of themselves do not improve specific learning outcomes unless the instructor is proficient enough in teaching to take advantage of this environment.

To add some context, student-faculty ratios have increased steadily for the past 50 years. Our partners at OCUFA put the current ratio at 27-to-1, and estimate that over 7,000 additional faculty would need to be hired, for a total cost in the billions of dollars, to return to the ratio seen in 1990. In the end, hiring these professors would not directly address students' concerns with the quality of instruction at our universities. Students support the goal of lowering student-faculty ratios, but it should be treated as one part of the broader discussion of teaching quality. Given the fiscal situation we face in Ontario, we must consider where limited new funding should go to have the greatest impact on teaching and learning.

OUSA has developed a plan to enhance the quality of teaching and learning by pushing for cultural change in the way we teach. We have known for decades that the lecture model is less effective than active and deep learning techniques, yet we have not changed our practices accordingly. To provide a catalyst for change, OUSA is asking the government to:

-Target new funds to support and expand Centres for Teaching and Learning at Ontario colleges and universities

-Require new instructors to complete a training module in teaching, learning and assessment

-Require all graduate and PhD students to be given formal instruction in teaching, learning and assessment

-Set a province-wide target for the percentage of college and university courses employing forms of active learning

-Fund chairs in teaching, similar to the provincially-funded research chairs already in existence

While lowering student-faculty ratios is a worthy long-term goal, students believe these changes could be implemented at a modest cost and would have a tremendous long-term impact on the quality of teaching and learning at our universities.

-Meaghan Coker

As a new generation of children starts kindergarten this week, Ontario's university students are warning parents about the future cost of their child's post-secondary education. In 18 years, the cost of a 4-year undergraduate degree for a student living away from home is projected to be $137,013, according to TD Bank Financial Group. Ontario tuition fees, expected to reach a record $6,200 this fall, are the highest in the country. If the Ontario government continues to allow tuition fees to increase at the current rate, students beginning kindergarten this week will be paying over $11,750 annually when they enter university in 14 years.

"Parents of young children should know that the cost of a higher education in Ontario continues to rise at an alarming rate, and that their children could be paying over 6 times more than their parents did just 20 years ago," said Meaghan Coker, President of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA).

OUSA is urging parents to contact their local MPP and ask them about their plans for making post-secondary education more affordable for their children.

"Whether your child is currently attending university or just beginning kindergarten, tell your local representative that your child deserves an affordable and high-quality post-secondary education," added Coker.

After a few thousand kilometers were added to my car last month, it was nice to give it a rest and let it sit in my parking lot this past week. While the travel may have slowed down, the pace at the OUSA office has not.

With our Fall General Assembly just around the corner scheduled for November 5-7 in St. Catharine's, hosted by the Brock University Students' Union, and our Fall 2010 Educated Solutions Magazine (Volume 7) scheduled for release the same week - it will be a busy month of preparation and design for sure.

Looking ahead, our Lobby Conference and GA will prove to keep the pace up and running as we head further into Fall.

On a personal note, my wife and I are expecting our first child in the next few weeks, so I may be away for a few days =)

-Alvin Tedjo

The campus visit tour is over and I think all of the home office is looking forward to clearing up our to-do list which grew with each day away. There is no doubt that being back on campuses and hearing from students for much of the last two weeks has been a refreshing change of pace for us. In particular, the focus groups we conducted with students from rural, low-income and first generation backgrounds on accessibility barriers were a highlight for me. Hearing stories from students that reinforced and built on the available research was invaluable as we move into the final stages of our report on a comprehensive access strategy. I was also able to sit down with each campus' institutional analysis office to talk about last year's survey results, multi-year accountability agreements, growth funding and campus priorities.
 
September also contained a number of meetings with stakeholders and researchers to better inform our work on international students and access. I spent one day at HEQCO on the working group for their research project on work-integrated learning, which I'm looking forward to seeing come to fruition. We were also on the phone a lot for two weeks after receiving complaints from students about consistent busy signals on the OSAP help line. We called sixteen times a day to assess the average wait times and have been working with the Ministry on how to improve the situation for students.
 
We had our first meeting of the Campus Research Council at McMaster University last week. I am really excited about the Council and we've decided our major project will be conducting a study of student support services on campus and the role that ancillary fees play in their funding.
 
My next month from now until the Fall General Assembly will be largely devoted to finishing the three policy papers that will be presented at the GA: student financial assistance, access strategy and internationalization.

-Sam Andrey

Cheers!
 
As the newest member of the OUSA home office team, I can definitely say that this first month of work has been exciting and full of activity. September began with the preparation of results briefings on the Canada Student Survey for each of our constituent universities. I then had the opportunity to accompany the OUSA team on several campus visits, meeting with students, administrators and OUSA committee members. 

Something new OUSA has established this year, is the campus researcher position for students from each member university. In conjunction with the campus researchers, Sam and I are organizing focus groups with students from groups traditionally underrepresented in PSE, to gain insight into how students' personal experience reflects research on university access.

Information from the focus groups will be used to help guide the comprehensive access strategy I will be working on throughout October. As October progresses, I look forward to delving deeper into PSE access issues and helping the rest of the home office staff prepare for the fall general assembly at the beginning of November.