Search

We examined the influence of human and psychological capital variables on the reporting of stress affecting Canadian post-secondary students' academic performances. This cross-sectional study used the Spring 2019 National College Health Assessment-II data collected across 58 Canadian post-secondary institutions from 55,284 respondents. Of this, 31,091 undergraduate students indicated being stressed in the past year and were included in this analysis. Ten variables were selected based on their relevance to human and psychological capital in the literature, and an additional seven socio-demographic variables were adjusted for in subsequent analyses. The associations between these explanatory variables and stress impacting students' academic performances were examined by fitting mixed univariable and mixed multivariable logistic regression models. Students who had a high cumulative grade point average, received information on stress reduction, were aware of mental health resources on campus, felt experiences that challenged them to grow and become a better person, felt their life had a sense of direction or meaning to it, felt interested in life, felt confident, and felt they had something important to contribute to society reported significantly lower odds of experiencing stress that negatively impacted their academic performance. Students who previously utilized psychological or mental health services and who felt hopeless reported significantly higher odds of experiencing stress affecting their academic performance. Targeting these components within post-secondary institutions may cultivate human and psychological capital, mitigate the deleterious effects of stress affecting academic success, and promote intrapersonal resiliency skill-building among students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neoliberal university is described as a space where there is an ever-present 'scarcity of time' as faculty face increasingly high-paced demands for efficiencies and productivity. By this logic, students are produced as self-enterprising individuals, steeped in the values of competition, and solely invested in enhancing their human capital. Within this context, online education has gained prominence as an alternative to on campus, face-to-face post-secondary education. In this article, we draw on findings from qualitative interviews conducted with social work educators who teach using online-based pedagogy as well as recent graduates who completed their social work education in distance learning programmes. Our research explores how distance education shapes the pace of knowledge production in Canadian Schools of Social Work where a mandate to promote social justice-based professional practices coincides with time constraints associated with neoliberalism. Building on conceptualizations of temporality, we found that when mobilized as a time-saving measure, online programmes can exacerbate the intensified workload for both teachers and students, and they can also limit potential for equity and inclusion in the university. However, when mobilized as a 'time-taming' measure, adequately resourced distance social work education programmes offer possibilities of resistance to pressures faced in post-secondary institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1979, less than 30% of full-time university students in Canada worked for pay during the academic year. By the mid-2000s, this had risen to 45%. This trend to increasing work among full-time students is also evident in other countries, and may be a concern if it reduces students' investment in human capital during their studies. I find that, controlling for the demographic characteristics of the student population, the only economic variable that explains a substantial portion of the increase in students' work is higher tuition fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare the returns on education for graduates of postsecondary institutions who delayed their tertiary education for some time and those who proceeded with no delays. Using a unique survey that collects information on a representative cohort of graduates, we are able to estimate the effects of delaying school among successful graduates abstracting from specific macroeconomic conditions at the time of graduation. We show that graduates who delayed their education enjoy a premium relative to graduates who completed their education with no interruptions even after considering other factors such as experience or labour market connections. These estimates are robust to the possibility of selection in the decision to delay school. The results unveil a puzzle about the returns on education that calls for further research to investigate the effect of delay on earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using three cohorts of the National Graduates Survey, we study earnings five years after graduation from Canadian bachelor’s programs. Evidence is found of significant university-specific effects on earnings. Changes in earnings and university characteristics across cohort are correlated. Increased undergraduate enrolment is associated with lower earnings, suggesting crowding out in educational quality. For men, but not women, increases in the professor-student ratio are associated with meaningful gains in earnings. When student major is excluded, since it may be endogenous to university, the effect of university characteristics is much larger. University characteristics are not strongly related to post-graduation employment probabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]