The COVID-19 pandemic has had the dual effect of negatively impacting student mental health while also disrupting the delivery of mental health supports. These dueling challenges come at a time when postsecondary institutions are working to shift their approach to mental health support from reactive to proactive. A proactive model is one built to engage, […]
Category: Other HEQCO Staff
Substantial evidence shows that racism in Canada has worsened in recent years. In addition to alarming rises in hate crimes in cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal, there has also been a particular rise in anti-Asian hate that is disproportionately affecting younger Asian Canadians. Recent events such as the discoveries of mass graves […]
Our perceptions are shaped by the way information is presented to us. This applies everywhere, including postsecondary education (PSE) where the dominant perspective often positions certain groups of students through a deficit framework. Deficit thinking uses a blame-the-victim way of attributing student failures to individual, family or community traits and approaches student difficulty through a […]
Work-integrated learning (WIL) — including co-ops, internships and practicums — is widespread in Canada; nearly half of postsecondary students complete WIL as part of their studies. Participation in WIL is associated with higher employment earnings and a higher likelihood of finding full-time work after graduation. Unfortunately, 35% of Canadian postsecondary students have missed out on […]
The densely urbanized areas of southern Ontario — particularly the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Ottawa — attract a disproportionate number of people with more advanced educational credentials. This matters because this demographic group provides numerous advantages to communities, such as greater financial resources and key skills needed for modern technologies. While this is real […]
The phrase “people with disabilities” describes a wide variety of individuals including those with physical, learning, mental health, hearing and vision disabilities. Recognizing the diversity of disability is crucial to understanding each individual’s unique lived experience. It is important to understand the impact of systemic barriers faced by people with differing disabilities in order to […]
The long-term economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening inequality in Canada and is a growing concern for citizens and policy-makers. This manifestation of inequality has been referred to as the ‘K-shaped economic recovery,’ a term which describes the bifurcated outcomes that are largely positive for highly educated and high-income earners, and largely negative for lower-income workers with fewer educational credentials. There […]
In September 2020, HEQCO released a report aimed at improving the accessibility of remote learning in higher education. At that point, we were six months into the COVID-19 pandemic in North America and dealing with the onset of a new academic year. Among the lessons we learned from postsecondary students, faculty and staff, as well […]
There has been much discussion of how the abrupt shift to online learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected postsecondary course delivery and exam administration, but perhaps less discussed is how this shift affects the informal but important ways in which students exchange knowledge. Student-to-student connection allows incoming postsecondary students to acquire knowledge […]