Producing Indicators of Institutional Quality in Ontario Universities and
Colleges: Options for Producing, Managing and Displaying Comparative Data (July 2008)

EPI Canada

This paper was produced for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario to sketch out how an expanded system of quality indicators could be created. The paper looks at the kinds of data demanded by different stakeholder groups, the kinds of data that might go into a system of quality indicators, its current availability,
and the kinds of changes in data collection and reporting that would be required in order to make these indicators truly comparable. Finally, the paper concludes with an outline of key decisions with respect to choosing a data production and
management model recommendations for the data architecture.

Student Mobility & Credit Transfer: A National and Global Survey (June 2008)

Sean Junor and Alex Usher

This publication takes a look at the expanding issue of student mobility from a Canadian and international perspective. The first half of the paper centers on student mobility and what it means to the post-secondary system. The second half of the paper examines how post-secondary education credits act as a form of knowledge “currency” and how the issue of credit recognition is best seen as a policy issue which requires the “exchange” of one institution’s credits into a currency that other institutions can freely accept.

Engaging Faculty and Staff: An Imperative for Fostering Retention, Advising, and Smart Borrowing (February 2008)

Watson Scott Swail with Rebecca Mullen, Hyniea Gardner, and Jeremy Reed

This joint publication of TG and EPI provides an overview of the student departure/retention process, focusing on evidenced-based practices in engaging faculty and staff, strategies for student advising, and information on early warning systems. The purpose of the publication is to provide a hands-on resource for college and university stakeholders in the field.

Commentary 2007 (February 2008)

Watson Scott Swail & Alex Usher

Commentary 2007 is a compendium of weekly commentaries written by EPI President W. Scott Swail and Vice President and Director of EPI Canada Alex Usher for EPI's Week in Review, emailed out to subscribers every Friday. The commentaries are classified into five categories: Academic Preparation, Postsecondary Education Policy, Financial Aid, International Policy and Practice, Institutional Quality, and Miscellaneous.

The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Act: A Progress Report (January 2008)

Watson Scott Swail (EPI) & Betsy Brand (AYPF)

This report by the National Council on Disability (NCD) documents trends in academic achievement of students with disabilities and also the successes and barriers achieved by states,school districts, and other stakeholders as a result of the implementation of No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The report was researched and written by the Educational Policy Institute and the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF).

To read the press release, CLICK HERE.

• The full report may be downloaded by CLICKING HERE
• The Appendix to the report may be downloaded by CLICKING HERE
• Dr. Swail's Comments at the Press Conference may be VIEWED HERE (HTML).

Print copies may be obtained from NCD by faxing requests to Stacey Brown at 202-272-2022 or by e-mail (sbrown@ncd.gov).

A Clear and Present Danger to Institutional and Student Success: A training model for embedding student loan default aversion within strategic enrollment management. (January 2008)

TG & EPI

TG and the Council for the Management of Educational Finance have issued a second edition of “A Clear and Present Danger to Institutional and Student Success: A training model for embedding student loan default aversion within strategic enrollment management.” The training model is offered as a guide to help schools support academic and financial success among students through early and sustained intervention and education; to encourage entire campus participation and support in promoting wise borrowing decisions by students; and to help institutions develop systemic default aversion efforts within strategic enrollment management. To read the press release, CLICK HERE.

Decision 2008 (December 2007)

Watson Scott Swail, Ronald C. Willis, & Rebecca M. Mullen

This report provides an analysis of the 16 presidential candidates with a focus on educational issues.

Missouri Students and the Pathways to College (November 2007)

Watson Scott Swail & Sarah Hosford

This report presents analysis of a series of over 30 focus groups conducted in Missouri as part of a large-scale initiative by an anonymous Missouri organization. The focus groups included 7th, 9th, and 11th-grade students and concerns their attitudes toward college and the future.

A Practical Guide to Strategic Enrollment Management Planning in Higher Education (November 2007)

R.B. Wilkinson, James Taylor, Ange Peterson, and Maria de Lourdes Machado-Taylor

This guidebook provides a multi-step process for enrollment managers to follow in order to facilitate strategic enrollment management planning in all types of postsecondary educational institutions. It draws heavily from the practical experiences of the authors, the literature base on strategic planning as well as actual institutional strategic planning experiences.

Student Success (November 2007)

This edition of Student Success features an interview with John Gardner, a feature story by the University of Toronto's Peter Dietsche, a book review of Three Cups of Tea, and a report from the field on the National Capitol Summit on Latino Students and Educational Opportunity.

The IT Education Bubble: An Analysis of University Students Statistics 2002-2005 (October 2007)

Ian Dobson

Conducted with the support of The Australian Council of Deans of Science, this publication looks at who is studying information technology in Australia, where they are studying it, and how they are studying IT, using data from the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST).

An Annotated Bibliography of Latino Educational Research (October 2007)

Paul Baumann, Alberto Cabrera, and Watson Scott Swail

This publication lists 59 recent research studies on a variety of Latino educational issues. The bibliography was compiled in partnership with the College of Education, Univeristy of Maryland, College Park.

Commentary 2006 (September 2007)

Watson Scott Swail & Alex Usher

Each week, the Educational Policy Institute releases The Week in Review, a newsy review of educational issues. In addition, EPI's President and Vice President offer a commentary on timely issues. This publication includes the commentaries from 2006.

Mining Labour Market Transition Project - Final Report (September 2007)

EPI Canada

The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) contracted the Educational Policy Institute to examine labour market transition options, documented key stakeholder talent management strategies dealing with individuals from declining industries and identified transition opportunities for the mining industry. The report is part of the Council’s overall workforce strategy to increase workforce management awareness in the mining sector.

The End of Need-Based Student Financial Aid in Canada? (August 2007)

Sean Junor and Alex Usher

This report provides an outline of changes in the Canadian student financial assistance system over the past 15 years. Commissioned by the Canadian Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (CASFAA), The End of Need-Based Student Financial Aid in Canada? examines the most recent net tuition prices, explores recent student aid policy decisions in each jurisdiction, identifies what target groups (if any) are identified to receive aid and catalogues what students actually benefit.

Sustaining Science: University Science in the Twenty-First Century (August 2007)

Ian Dobson

This report by EPI's Australian Director Ian Dobson provides an analysis and commentary on trends in Australian university enrolments in science based on the latest available statistics. The focus of this study is the period 2002 to 2005, the years during which the Australian Department of Education, Science & Training (DEST) current methodologies for counting students and classifying courses and subjects have been in force. This report was written for the The Australian Council of Deans of Science (ACDS), which has been concerned about aspects of the trends shown by science enrolments for at least the past decade.

POLICY PERSPECTIVES. After Michigan, What? Next Steps for Affirmative Action (February, 2007)

John Brooks Slaughter

This edition of Policy Perspectives features commentary from Dr. John Brooks Slaughter, the president of the National Action Council on Minorities in Engineering (NACME), and former Director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Slaughter looks takes a historical look at affirmative action and posits what may be to come.

STUDENT SUCCESS (February, 2007)

This edition of Student Success features an interview with Stedman Graham about his efforts to help students succeed in life. As well, EPI President Watson Scott Swail discusses Campus Climate and Students of Color, and our Best Practice showcases the 2006 Annual Student Retention Award Winner, University of Connecticut.

Apples-to-Apples: Towards a Pan-Canadian Common University Data Set (November 2006)

Sean Junor, Miram Kramer, Alex Usher

This document outlines the difficulties in obtaining common, comparable data about Canadian Universities and provides a possible template for the creation of a Canadian Common Data Set.

PART III OF OUR THREE PART SERIES: THE BUY-IN CHALLENGE (September, 2006)

Dr. Watson Scott Swail

This is the third of three parts in our Institutional Strategies Series. The first article in our March issue outlined the barriers to student retention, both from the extant literature and also from interviews and surveys we’ve conducted through our workshops around the US and Canada. The second part focused on programs and strategies that appear to either help OR hinder student retention on campus. In this issue we will discuss the inherent difficulties in getting buy-in on our campuses—all campuses—from faculty, staff, administration, and yes, students.

Beyond the Sticker Price - A Closer Look at Canadian Tuition Fees
(August, 2006)

Alex Usher

The Educational Policy Institute today released a report entitled Beyond the Sticker Price, which looks at what Canadian families actually pay for university education after various inflation and various subsidies are taken into account. The surprising conclusion? Average net tuition across Canada is no higher now than it was seven years ago. The study also revealed that students receiving grants – that is, poorer students – had not benefited to the same extent because the average value of grants were decreasing. In fact, while wealthier students without grants saw their tuition drop slightly, poorer students with grants have seen a $500 tuition increase in recent years.

Grants for Students: What They Are, How They Work (August, 2006)

Alex Usher

In this sweeping review of work on financial assistance and access to education, Alex Usher argues that grants are required to entice low-income students into post-secondary education because a variety of factors, both real and perceived, lead them to underestimate its true long-term financial benefits. While this analysis provides strong analytical support for targeted grants to low-income students, it also strongly suggests that students from higher-income families, who are better-prepared for post-secondary education, are far less price-sensitive and consequently in much less need of non-repayable aid such as tax credits.

Student Aid Time-Bomb (July, 2006)

Sean Junor and Alex Usher

A recent report by the Educational Policy Institute suggests that rising interest rates and planned aid reductions are about to cause an $800-million financial hole in the country’s student financial aid programs. It also outlines the possibility that the Government of Canada may abandon the field of student financial assistance as part of a general program of “rebalancing”. While this may or may not be a good thing for students, the report stresses that who delivers aid is ultimately of less importance than how much aid is delivered, and urges policymakers to remain focused on fixing the programs’ collective $800-million hole rather than be distracted by federal-provincial issues.

Innovation and Differentiation in Canada's Post-secondary Institutions (June, 2006)

Robert Crocker and Alex Usher

In this report published by Canadian Policy Research Networks, Robert Crocker of Atlantic Evaluation and Research Consultants, and Alex Usher of the Educational Policy Institute, argue that provincial and federal governments must take steps to encourage research and innovation in teaching and learning if Canada is to maintain its human capital edge over rapidly emerging international competitors.

The full report is available from CPRN's website here.

Part II: Institutional Strategies
Strategies to Increase Student Success (May, 2006)

Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D

This is the second of three parts in our Institutional Strategies Series. The first article in our March issue outlined the barriers to student retention, both from the extant literature and also from interviews and surveys we’ve conducted through our workshops around the US and Canada. This edition’s discussion focuses on programs and strategies that appear to either help OR hinder student retention on campus. In our June issue we will discuss the inherent difficulties in getting buy-in on our campuses—all campuses—from faculty, staff, administration, and yes, students.

Beyond the 49th Parallel
The Affordability of Public University Education (March, 2006)

Kim Steele and Alex Usher

A follow-up to Dr. Watson Scott Swail’s 2004 report on the affordability of University education in Canada and the United States, this study updates the data by two years, includes data on loan remission and tax credits, and, crucially, ranks all fifty states and ten provinces using six different measures of affordability as well as a composite, overall affordability ranking. Top spot in the affordability rankings goes to New Hampshire; the bottom spot to Nova Scotia.

Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D

The California Student Aid Commission and EdFund released the report California Trends in Student Aid: 1994-95 to 2003-04. The report, written by the Educational Policy Institute, documents all available student financial aid and the relative cost of attending postsecondary education to students in the Golden State.

Student Success
Institutional Strategies. A New Three-Part Series (2006, March)

Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D.

Over the course of the next issues of “Student Success,” we will explore three questions about retention on our college campuses. Part I will look at the barriers to student retention, both from the extant literature, but also from interviews and surveys we’ve conducted through our workshops around the US and Canada. Part II will focus on programs and strategies that appear to either help OR hinder student retention on campus. Ultimately, we all want answers. This discussion will provide some core issues for understanding what matters. Finally, Part III will discuss the inherent difficulties in getting buy-in on our campuses—all campuses—from faculty, staff, administration, and yes, students.

A major report on international higher education, A World of Difference: A Global Comparison of University League Tables, shows that while many countries have tried to emulate US News and World Report’s attempt to rank universities, the lack of agreement about what constitutes “quality” in higher education has led to a multiplicity of different – and perhaps conflicting – standards in league tables.

Watson Scott Swail, Ed.D.

Keeping students in school seems harder than it should be. Today’s students appear to be less prepared, have more emotional baggage, and have a different set of expectations than prior cohorts. It’s arguable whether any or all of this is true, but for the average campus professional, it seems so.

Ian R. Dobson

In June 2005, the Australian Senate Education, Workplace Relations, and Education References Committee released “Student Income Support,” a report that reviewed the issue of costs associated with attending higher education in Australia. In this EPI report, Dr. Ian Dobson discusses the 15 recommendations on how government can help students pay for higher education.

EPI was contracted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to write a chapter on the 2006 federal budget and its implications for science and education. This chapter provides an overview of the President's budget.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and
the Pathways to College Network Framework: Mutually Supportive Visions and Complementary Goals (June 2005)

Watson Scott Swail & Adriane Williams

This brief, prepared for the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) and the Pathways to College Network, describe how NCLB and the Pathways Framework can be partnered when developing and evaluating comprehensive programs for schools interested in preparing children not just for the next grade, but for the next steps in their educational careers. The paper lays out the conditions under which the Pathways Framework can be most effective and how those conditions
relate to NCLB.

The Role of Counseling in Increasing Academic Opportunity in Missouri (2005, March)

Watson Scott Swail

This report, written for the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA), presents findings from a review of counseling literature and interviews conducted by EPI of high school counselors in Missouri.