Canada’s Substandard Tertiary Education System

In late 2012, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, (OECD) released a report looking at the educational systems of its member states. The results are not promising for tertiary education in Canada.

Canada's tertiary type-A graduation rates are below the OECD average, as are first-time graduation rates in tertiary-type A and B education. Employment rates for 25-64 year olds with tertiary education in Canada are also below the OECD average. Corresponding unemployment rates for this cohort are above the OECD average. We also have a well below average proportion of full-time earners among 25-64 year-old tertiary-educated individuals for both men and women. Out of 32 nations, Canada has the 8th lowest relative earnings from employment among tertiary educated 25-64 year-olds, once again well below the OECD average. This substandard performance is not due to lack of funding. Canada spends the third highest in annual expenditures per student by tertiary educational institutions among 36 countries, behind only the United States and Switzerland. The inefficiency of this high spending level is nicely exemplified by an OECD plot of per capita tertiary education expenditures versus per capita GDP within the countries examined. Canada places well above the associated regression line, suggesting we spend about $5,000 more per student than expected given our per capita GDP position (i.e., we should be at $16,000 per student, not $21,000 -- the OECD average is only $13,700). In short, Canada is doing a poor job at translating tertiary education expenditures into national wealth.

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Further evidence of the poor returns on Canadian tertiary education investment comes from the fact we spend the third highest amount on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP among 37 nations, behind only the USA and South Korea. In each of the analyses presented in the OECD report, Canada's internal rate of return for an individual obtaining tertiary education as part of initial education was below the OECD average. An unacceptable result. What we see in Canada's tertiary education system is big spending, but poor performance -- driven largely by the mediocre and substandard faculty, staff, and administrators that occupy this field. It's long past time for an overhaul.