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By Julienne Bay. How students on scholarship could learn to manage their debt.
Please note that this article has been revised with updated information about OSAP's six-month grace period and average student debt.
An average Canadian full-time undergraduate student in the 2012-13 academic year paid $5,581 in tuition fees, according to Statistics Canada. That is five percent more than the previous academic year, which in turn was 4.3 percent higher than the year before that. Despite rising tuition fees, enrolment in postsecondary education shows no signs of slowing down. In 2012, more than a million students confirmed their acceptance to first-year undergraduate studies, according to the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. That figure doesn’t include college applicants. More...

April McNeil, a career educator at the University of Victoria, describes how graduate students can prepapre for a non-academic job search.
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I think what makes it really challenging for graduate students to make a decision about within or outside of the academy, is they have had no exposure to what’s available for them outside of the academy. And there is an idea within the academy that that is the most desirable option, and anything outside of it is less desirable. So I think we need to challenge that assumption – there’s some really good research that shows that’s not true: that graduates in certain careers are as satisfied in their careers.
I would just encourage them when they are weighing that decision, to do some research, to see what’s out there, and to really get clear on what their factors for satisfaction are. So what is it in a career that they need to be satisfied? I think we don’t ask ourselves that question, and we don’t examine that. So we just assume we’ll be happy pursuing what we’ve been pursuing without ever knowing what it entails.
It makes sense that they [graduate students] would be looking to their professors, supervisors and faculty members for advice and support. But they should also, if they want to expand their goals a little bit and look outside of academe and start connecting with people who work in industry.
They probably have networks in industry that they haven’t thought about approaching, so I would encourage them to think about that. I would also suggest approaching career educators and co-op coordinators and start talking to them about what’s out there. The benefits of doing something like co-op program or any kind of work experience during your degree is that employers do value your education, but you have to think of their context.
What they also value is experience. And they’re in a context where employees are judged and promoted based on the projects they have accomplished, and the knowledge they have of that business area, or the knowledge and literacy they have related to their specific industry. So if you can show them that you have had some experience in industry, even just a couple of co-op terms, or meaningful projects, then they are much more likely to take a chance on you.
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By Rosanna Tamburri. This trend could make economics profession “irrelevant” in Canada, say the authors.
Economists at Canadian universities are publishing fewer articles on the Canadian economy and economic policy, a worrisome trend that could have serious consequences for the country’s students, policymakers and citizens, says a new study. The study (PDF), recently published in the journal Canadian Public Policy, was conducted by Wayne Simpson, economics professor at the University of Manitoba, and Herbert Emery, economics professor at the University of Calgary. The two also wrote a companion piece with Stephen Tapp, research director at the Institute for Research on Public Policy, for Policy Options. More...