What can be done to improve numeracy skills among Ontario PSE students? Our workshop participants had some great ideas, like integrating more problem-based learning in university and college programs (and also in high school), designating numeracy faculty leads who can spread knowledge and facilitate communities of practice, creating a repository of numeracy modules and resources that all Ontario institutions can access and incorporate into their programs, and developing and sharing relevant assessments to continuously improve numeracy teaching and learning.
In a paper we published earlier this year, we wrote that access to postsecondary education starts early in the educational pathway, and isn’t an equal race for everyone. We know that youth from low-income and first-generation backgrounds (those whose parents did not go to postsecondary) have a particularly difficult time getting in. But what happens […]
We recently published a series of reports describing the skill levels of entering and graduating postsecondary students. The most telling observation made in those reports is that too few students are graduating with superior literacy and numeracy skills and too many — about one in four — are graduating with literacy and numeracy levels that […]
Why did those who created this agency include the word quality in its name, even though it resulted in one of the clumsiest acronyms — HEQCO — on the face of the earth? I think it’s because they were smart and prescient. They understood that there are a million questions one could ask and research […]
Take a walk through university and college campuses and you may see ivy-covered buildings that hark back to a bygone era, while others have a more modernist bent. What do the buildings say about the place? More importantly, what are they telling students? As institutions grapple with ways of attracting and retaining students who are […]
Educators around the world are being called on to pull up their socks and save the economy: to “bridge,” “plug” or “prevent” the skills gap by equipping students with the technical and transferable skills needed to meet tomorrow’s economic needs. But which technical and transferable skills, exactly? Well, we know that employers are looking to […]
On April 4 and 5, HEQCO will hold its annual conference. The theme this year is “Access in Practice: Putting great ideas to work” and will feature 88 speakers across 24 different sessions presenting their ideas on how best to increase access to and retention in higher education. As we approach the conference, we will […]
On April 4 and 5, HEQCO will hold its annual conference. The theme this year is “Access in Practice: Putting great ideas to work” and will feature 88 speakers across 24 different sessions presenting their ideas on how best to increase access to and retention in higher education. As we approach the conference, we will […]
If you were to read all that is out there about quality assurance in higher education, you might be left with the impression that quality assurance is a complicated, nuanced, arduous, complex concept and process that defies rigorous measurement, and that will take a decade or more to get it right. I am fond of […]