For me, the year has always began in September. Though it’s been years since I was a student, every fall recalls the energy and optimism of the university campus at the launch of a new semester. These days however there is a note of pessimism arriving with the frosh, in newspaper articles which take as their point of departure a CIBC World Markets’ study entitled “Degrees of Success: The Payoff to Higher Education in Canada.” Rob Carrick reviews this study in the Globe and Mail (“Why some university students are doomed to below-average earnings”) as does Gary Marr of the Financial Post. At the CBC is an article and video titled “Many students asking if higher education is worth the debt,” and Robin Levinson asks at the Toronto Star “Is there any point to an arts degree?” All of these articles have drawn numerous comments, some of them thoughtful and some less so. A large, important and complex subject, “higher education” appears to be in a state of transition if not in crisis.
Journalism, Essays, Broadcasting, Books 