Research Summary:
Degrees of Opportunity: Broadening Student Access by Increasing Institutional Differentiation in Ontario Higher Education was commissioned by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) to determine whether there are significant gaps in Ontario’s postsecondary education system with respect to education and research activities, and, if so, how these gaps might be addressed.
Jones and Skolnik conclude that Ontario’s higher education system could benefit from several new types of postsecondary structures including: teaching-oriented institutions that focus on undergraduate education; collaborative programs; an ‘open university’ that enables learners to combine credits from different institutions and learning experiences; and greater pathways for college students to attain a bachelor’s degree and continue on to graduate study.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Glen A. Jones is Professor of Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. He is the author of more than fifty papers on Canadian higher education. In 2001 he received the career Research Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. He is a former president of the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education and a former editor of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education.
Michael Skolnik is a Professor Emeritus in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Dr. Skolnik has also been a consultant or adviser to many commissions and task forces that have been concerned with the organization of postsecondary education in Ontario and other provinces, and was commissioned to write background reports for the Rae Review in Ontario and the Campus 2020 Review of Postsecondary Education in British Columbia.