cover image: Going the distance : Rural and northern access to university education

Premium

20.500.12592/2c8dmd

Going the distance : Rural and northern access to university education

20 May 2010

The 2007 Throne Speech promised that the government would make a “major investment in the education and skills of our people,” and made direct reference to a “special distance grant for students from the north and remote areas who must commute long distances.”10 This explicit reference and subsequent implementation of the Ontario Distance Grants shows that the government understands that the needs [...] In the absence of a complete understanding of the rural and northern accessibility issue, government officials will be unable to develop and implement effective policy and programs in this area. [...] Currently, there are only two authoritative Canadian studies dealing with the question of rural and northern accessibility, and both are more than five years out of date.11 Although these studies represent an invaluable contribution to the discussion, they do not provide enough information to adequately gauge the problem of rural and northern university access, or allow for the development of comp [...] When both a university and a college are within 80km of a student's home, students are more likely to attend a university, by a 22.9 percent to 14.6 percent margin.20 However, when only a college is nearby, the numbers flip, and 20.4 percent attend college compared to only 13.6 percent for university.21 This trend clearly indicates that rural students are interested in the benefits of a post-secon [...] As a result of distance to university, cost of a degree, perceived value, and the lack of university-educated role models, these four factors combine to limit the access of a university education to rural and northern students.
health higher education education school curriculum canada accessibility distance education rural schools student aid students transport university educational attainment college special needs further education college attendance postsecondary education student financial aid education in canada ontario education, higher educational attainment in the united states graduate school canada millennium scholarship foundation council of ontario universities ontarians north american indians contact north

Authors

Lanteigne, Rob

Pages
16
Published in
Canada

Related Topics

All