Cooperative Education for Canadian Students
Canadian cooperative placements can give student two years of education and are appealing to Silicon Valley. These are paid placements for undergraduates with terms alternating between work and school.
According to the Matthews, these are attractive to some of the “world’s most desirable companies.” The largest cooperative program is at the University of Waterloo. Waterloo students were the “second most frequently hired in Silicon Valley.”
President of the Royal Bank of Canada, David McKay, said, “At Waterloo, I’ve seen first hand how co-op students are more demanding and curious, pushing their peers and professors to look for fresh insights and to think more broadly and creatively about problems.”
Most Education Tax Credits Claimed by the Highest-Earning Canadian Families
Over the last decade, the financial aid has befitted the families with higher incomes. This happened at the same time that there was “little to improve the affordability of college and university for the lowest earners.”
This reflects polarization of “accessibility of postsecondary education.” For example, the Registered Education Savings Plans is received more by rich families. Moreover, students graduate with more debt. Executive director at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, Fiona Deller, said, “?mechanisms are always going to benefit those people who have extra income and pay attention to things like savings plans and education tax credits.”
Quiet Suffering of Undergraduate Students with Higher Debt
Post-secondary graduates are leaving their educations with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Furthermore, those that are coming into postsecondary education have higher tuition rates now, which means burdens leaving and entering undergraduate education.
Universities and colleges are making an “attempt to lessen the load by offering financial aid” and “beefing up their mental health services.” Students are having mental health problems based on the debt.
Member of University of Toronto’s faculty of law, Dillon Collet, said, “we’re worried about one type of debt ? student debt ? and we want to know how to pay it off as quickly as possible.”
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is an AUSU Councillor. He works with various organizations, and runs In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, and In-Sight Publishing.