Just the Facts

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Here are the facts that voters, candidates and journalists need to know.

Are there enough people going to university today?

  • only 24% of Canada’s youth who recently completed high school are enrolled full-time in university (Trends in Higher Education: Vol. 1 AUCC 2007).
  • Canada is in the bottom half of the OECD nations in the proportion of youth attending university (Trends Vol. 1, 2007).
  • U.K., U.S., Australia, Korea, France, Greece, The Netherlands and ten other countries have a higher proportion of youth in university (Trends Vol. 1, 2007).

Are there jobs for universities graduates?

  • between 1990 and 2006, jobs filled by university graduates doubled from 1.9 million to 3.8 million (Trends Vol. 1, 2007)
  • the fastest growing professions, including natural and applied sciences, health professions, teachers, professors and social workers, require a university education. (AUCC Trends Vol. 1, 2007)
  • 94% of Ontario university graduates had jobs six months after graduating (Council of Ontario Universities 2005)
  • almost 97% had jobs two years after graduating with an average salary of $50,000 a year (Council of Ontario Universities 2005).

Does a university degree mean higher pay?

  • the 2006 Census showed Canadian full-time workers with bachelor’s degrees earned 57% more annually than workers who had not completed university
  • in a 40-year working life, a university graduate will earn about $1.3 million more than a worker who had not completed university.

What do universities contribute to the economy?

  • Universities are a $26-billion enterprise in Canada (Trends Vol. 3, 2008).
  • Universities employ more than 150,000 faculty and staff and serve more than 1.5 million full- and part-time students. (Trends Vol. 3, 2008).
  • In 2007 Canadian universities conducted more than $10 billion worth of research – about 35 percent of Canada’s annual research effort (Momentum, AUCC, 2008).

How does university research help Canadians?

  • A Neuroarm developed at the University of Calgary allows brain surgeons to do more intricate brain repair by using MRI imagery to give detailed 3-D images of the patient’s brain.
  • Microchip voice-compression software developed by Université de Sherbrooke researchers enables communication in 300 million computers and one billion cell phones around the world and has earned inventors $16 million in royalties.
  • Biochemical engineers at the University of Western Ontario developed a portable machine that converts agricultural biomass leftovers into heating oil, fertilizer or pharmaceuticals. The device has been commercialized and marketed by the university’s agricultural spin-off company Agri-Therm.
  • Researchers at Memorial University identified a genetic mutation that had caused sudden unexplained deaths in Newfoundland families for generations and developed a blood test and treatment that has saved more than two dozen lives.
  • These are just a few of the many examples of applied and commercially successful research results (see Momentum 2005, AUCC).

How are universities connected to the realities of the business world?

  • Canada ranks first in the G7 countries for the percentage of private-sector investments in university research.
  • In 2005 there were 5,500 research contracts between universities and businesses valued at $400 million (Momentum 2008).

How do Canadian universities connect to the world?

  • Approximately 70,000 foreign students from 200 countries come to Canada each year to study (Trends Vol. 1, 2007).
  • About 60,000 landed immigrants are enrolled at Canadian universities.
  • 18,000 Canadian university students took part in short-term study opportunities abroad in 2006-07.
  • There are more than 3,500 active academic exchange agreements between Canadian universities and universities abroad.
  • There were more than 1,600 research partnerships between Canadian universities and foreign businesses and universities in 2005 (Momentum 2008).

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More reading:

Trends in Higher Education | Summary

Volume 1: Enrolment | PDF

Volume 2: Faculty | PDF

New! Volume 3: Finance | PDF | Backgrounder

Internationalization: A force for change at Canadian universities | PDF | Summary

Momentum: The 2005 report on university research and knowledge mobilization | PDF | Summary