News and commentary

Ohsweken, Ontario, October 5, 2010 – Actions speak louder than words, and today participants at the National Working Summit on Aboriginal Postsecondary Education committed to action. Participants from universities, colleges, Aboriginal institutes, charities, Aboriginal organizations and the private sector met at Six Nations Polytechnic in Six Nations of the Grand River territory, near Brantford Ontario. Already actively involved in Aboriginal postsecondary education, all of them committed to do more.

The summit was co-chaired by Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada President Paul Davidson and National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation President Roberta Jamieson.

“The energy at the summit was incredible,” said Mr. Davidson. “There was real commitment and belief that we can transform the results that Aboriginal Canadians are currently getting from the PSE system. This will give them the skills to get good jobs and contribute to their communities.”

Aboriginal Canadians have the lowest high school completion rate of any demographic group in Canada, and recent Aboriginal high school graduates are 23 percent less likely than their non-Aboriginal peers to go on to postsecondary education within two years after high school graduation. Aboriginal youth are the fastest growing segment of the Canadian population, there are more than 460,000 Aboriginal youth under the age of 20.

“Canada cannot dodge the hard-nosed economic fact that unless we do something about education of indigenous youth, hundreds of thousands of youth will not be available to help Canada deal with a shrinking labour force,” added Ms. Jamieson. “Neither will our youth become adults who contribute to Canada’s economy and that of their own communities. In other words, inaction would mean human tragedy with significant economic consequences.”

Both the Association and the Foundation have identified the crisis of First Nations, Inuit and Métis education as one of the most compelling national issues Canada must face. AUCC member institutions have identified this as one of the Association’s most significant priorities.

“Solving the problem we face will not ‘just happen’,” Ms. Jamieson said. “AUCC’s active involvement with the Foundation is a significant joining of forces to deal with this national crisis.”

Through AUCC and the Foundation, summit participants committed to the following objectives:

• to take a holistic approach to ensure successful transitions for students and to help more Aboriginal students complete their post-secondary education;
• to work collaboratively, seeing opportunities to partner with other interested organizations, to share knowledge about what approaches are most successful.
• to continue to seek increased federal funding for Aboriginal students; and
• to continue advocating for increased federal funding for Aboriginal-focused support programs at universities and colleges.

In addition, AUCC and the Foundation plan to survey the thousands of recipients of bursaries from the Foundation to determine what are the essential features that contribute to their success as students in a postsecondary institution.

AUCC and all summit participants welcome the Foundation’s goal of creating a virtual Aboriginal Achievement Institute. The institute will evaluate and share best practices and shape a series of pilot projects driven by Aboriginal communities designed to improve high school graduation rates.

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The National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation provides more funding to First Nations, Inuit and Métis youth than any other agency in Canada outside the federal government. This year alone it provided over $5-million to over fifteen hundred recipients.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is the voice of Canada’s universities. It represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

For more information, please contact:

Lyse Huot
Director, Government Relations & Communications
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

Jamie Monastyrsk
Director of Communications & Media
National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation
Cell: 416-903-4331
Tel: 416-926-0775, ext. 238
jmonastyrski@naaf.ca

For background information:

See AUCC’s brochure on the Value of a university degree for Aboriginal Canadians.

Ottawa, October 4, 2010 – Today, Canada’s universities released new data that underscores the transformative power of education for Aboriginal Canadians and the urgent demographic need to improve access to university for Aboriginal Canadians.

A university degree can ensure Aboriginal Canadians earn higher incomes – approximately 50 percent more over a lifetime than Aboriginal high-school graduates. Aboriginal Canadians with a university degree also experience fewer and shorter periods of unemployment, and have significantly better health outcomes. These and other points can be found in a new, fact-filled brochure created by AUCC using Statistics Canada data. It is the second in a series being released this fall to demonstrate the contributions of university graduates to the economy.

“Improving access to education for Aboriginal Canadians has tremendous potential for improving their lives, their families, their communities, and for helping to address Canada’s looming demographic shift,” says Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada President Paul Davidson.

Canada’s Aboriginal youth population is growing at three times the national average, yet they are the least likely to graduate from high school, and are even less likely to attend university.

Canadian universities are addressing the unique needs of Aboriginal students on campus, through targeted recruitment campaigns in high schools, bridging year programming to help students upgrade Grade 12 courses while taking first-year university credit courses, scholarships and bursaries exclusively for Aboriginal students, Native student centres on campus, and more. Despite these important steps, more must be done.

“There are more First Nations people than ever before wanting to attend postsecondary education,” said Mr. Davidson “We are calling on the federal government to increase student financial aid to First Nations peoples and to better support the university programs that help these students succeed.”

“Canada’s future depends on the success of its young Aboriginal peoples, whether they are First Nation, Métis or Inuit. When they succeed, all Canadians benefit,” added Mr. Davidson.

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The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is the voice of Canada’s universities. AUCC represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

Read the brochure The value of a degree for Aboriginal Canadians.

For more information:

Mélanie Béchard
Communications Officer
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Tel.: 613-563-3961, ext. 306
mbechard@aucc.ca

OTTAWA, September 30, 2010 – It is with great pleasure that the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada congratulates Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman on receiving the 2010 Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research.

Yesterday afternoon, Dr. Tilghman gave an address at the University of Ottawa as part of her lecture series supported by the Henry G. Friesen prize. Her speech, entitled “Science and enterprise as a social good: the role of universities,” emphasized the critical role research universities play in society by creating socio-economic mobility and a unique interplay between talent and resources to produce the next generation of scientists.

She outlined five reasons that make the US scientific system is a good one:

• investing in young people;
• good immigration policies that permit institutions to attract the best and brightest;
• generous funding that can make a difference
• a willingness to take risks; and
• a sustaining environment where taking research findings in the market place is encouraged and a robust venture capital system.

View her presentation.

Dr. Tilghman, a native of Canada, is the president of Princeton University and the first woman to hold the position. She served on the faculty of Princeton for 15 years before being named president in 2001.

She attended high school in Winnipeg, Man. and earned her BSc at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. in 1968. After two years of secondary school teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa, she obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University in Philadelphia.

From 1993 through 2000, Dr. Tilghman chaired Princeton’s Council on Science and Technology, which encourages the teaching of science and technology to students outside the sciences, and in 1996 she received Princeton’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

The Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research was established in 2005 by Friends of CIHR in recognition of Dr. Friesen’s distinguished leadership, vision and innovative contributions to health research and health research policy. The award supports an annual fall lecture or series of lectures by a worthy and accomplished speaker of international stature on topics related to the advancement of health research and its evolving contributions to society.

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For more information:

Lyse Huot
Director, Government Relations and Communications
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

OTTAWA, September 23, 2010 – The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada views increased Aboriginal access, participation and success in higher education a national priority, and joins Aboriginal stakeholders in calling for increased action to achieve these goals.

The AUCC considers this a priority not just because it is important to Aboriginal peoples, but because it is of vital importance to all Canadians. Aboriginal youth are one of the fastest growing segments of the Canadian population. There are more than 460,000 under the age of 20. During the next two decades, they will enter the workforce, at the same time that thousands of baby boomers are retiring.

The more highly trained and skilled these young Aboriginal Canadians are, the better they will do. They can become the engineers, nurses, educators, doctors, entrepreneurs and creative thinkers that their communities need. Canada needs these young Aboriginal Canadians to succeed.

Yet even though Canada’s Aboriginal population is growing at three times the national average, only eight percent of Aboriginals had completed a university program in 2006. That is just one third of the national average. Things must change.

Canada’s universities are doing their part. Together with Aboriginal partners, we have learned that Aboriginal students are most successful when learning is linked to their own culture and way of life. We have significantly increased the academic programming, support programs and financial aid available to Aboriginal students.

There have been successes. From only two status Indians attending university in 1952, there are between 25,000 and 30,000 Aboriginal students enrolled in universities across Canada today. But more must be done.

We strongly encourage the federal government to invest in:

• Improved student financial aid for Aboriginal students.
• Sustainable funding for vitally important support programs such as tutoring, social support, elders visits, career counselling and mentoring.
• New partnerships between universities and Aboriginal communities to improve elementary and secondary school results.

AUCC and its 95 member institutions are committed to working with governments and Aboriginal communities across the country to transform enrolment and graduation rates.

In 2009 and again this year, AUCC identified Aboriginal higher education as one of its top three priorities in its pre-budget submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

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The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is the voice of Canada’s universities. AUCC represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

For more information:

Robert South
Government relations officer
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
613-563-3961, ext. 288
rsouth@aucc.ca

OTTAWA, August 31, 2010 – As more than one million university students head back to school this fall, parents across the country may be wondering about the value of a university degree.

What’s a university degree really worth? More than you think, according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada – and the payback is greater than just money.

A university graduate will earn $1.3 million more over his or her lifetime than someone who has not gone beyond high school. University graduates earn $1 million more than community college graduates, says AUCC, the group that represents Canada’s 95 universities and university degree-level colleges.

Not only do university graduates earn more money, they also have fewer periods of unemployment, and tend to live healthier lives. The association backs up these points using data from Statistics Canada in a fact-filled brochure, the first in a series being released this fall to demonstrate the contributions of university graduates to the economy.

University graduates are innovative thinkers with strong problem-solving skills – valuable traits in today’s quickly changing employment market. A university degree proved even more useful during the recent economic downturn. AUCC points out that, during one of the deepest recessions in 70 years, there were 150,000 net new jobs for university graduates from September 2008 to March 2010, compared to 684,000 fewer jobs for those without a degree during that same period.

“University graduates enter the workforce with the skills and knowledge necessary to adjust more easily to shifts in the employment market,” AUCC president Paul Davidson says. “They find jobs quickly – and they find good jobs, that are interesting and pay well.” University graduates also contribute more to Canada’s economy and communities than do those without the benefit of higher education. They are more likely to vote and volunteer, and rely less on government benefits than those without a degree.

AUCC released this new data on the value of a university degree to emphasize the benefits of investing in higher education, especially as Canada’s shifting demographics call for an increasingly flexible, adaptable and productive workforce. Additional data will be released throughout the fall, leading to the release of a major publication in January 2011.

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The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada is the voice of Canada’s universities. AUCC represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities and university-degree level colleges.

Get a copy of the brochure The value of a university degree.

For more information:

Lyse Huot
Director, Government Relations and Communications
AUCC