Going to university changed my life. There’s no other way to put it.
Attending college or university was never a given for me. I knew about the benefits of post-secondary education but there was always one nagging question.
How would I afford it?
I don’t come from a wealthy family. I knew early in life that if I wanted to go to college or university, I’d be paying for it on my own.
So I did the only thing I could do: worked hard in my classes, hoping it would be enough to earn some scholarship money.
And that hard work paid off. My scholarship covered tuition for all four years. A small loan paid for one year in residence and I worked part-time to make up the difference. I paid back the loan just before graduation in 2011.
The nature of my degree made it possible to transition into the work world immediately. I’ve been working in a degree-related field ever since. My salary has gone up every year and I use the skills from my degree every day.
But I know that’s not the case for everyone.
Which is why, in this edition of Worth It?, I wanted to share a few thoughts about post-secondary education – good, the bad and some thoughts on how to make the ugly more attractive.
The benefits of post-secondary education
Having a degree changes your career prospects.
Although I have heard stories about those who found it more challenging to find work because they have a degree, generally, higher education opens more doors than it closes.
There are some jobs that are only available to you if you have the right degree. For example, you can’t be a doctor or an engineer if you only have your Grade 12. Even most trades require more education, particularly if you want to be certified.
More generally, the experience of finishing a degree helps develop other skills employers look for, like time management and critical thinking. Maybe you won’t find work in your field immediately, but post-secondary education can help create a bigger playing field.
Some say post-secondary education is linked to higher earnings. A report from Statistics Canada published in 2014 explored this and found it to be true for the cohort it examined. The author noted long-term outcomes for more recent cohorts were not available so it’s unclear if the results will be similar. It would make sense for it to be true, though.
Better career prospects and the potential for higher earnings are certainly fit into the pro-post-secondary education column.
But there is at least one equally significant drawback.
The problem with post-secondary education
This is simple: the cost.
According to this document published in December 2017, the average undergraduate tuition in Canada is $7,451. Graduate tuition was even higher, coming in at $7,745. Students also spent an average of $800-$1,000 on textbooks each year.
About 54 per cent of students worked an average of 17 hours a week while in school. Still, half of all post-secondary students have debt and average student debt has increased by 28 per cent between 1999 and 2012. In 2014-2015, at least 256,000 borrowers were struggling to pay back their student loans.
Yikes.
This becomes particularly problematic when you consider the challenge of forecasting labour market needs and communicating those with young people.
That’s not to say forecasts should be the only factor a person considers when choosing which discipline to study, but I think it’s important to have an awareness of the challenges associated with getting a foot in the door in your chosen field.
There has definitely been a push for more focus on this area in recent years – the Government of Canada has this handy page on labour market projections, for example – but there is still work to be done.
How do we improve post-secondary education?
My thoughts on this are neither original nor groundbreaking: the key to improving post-secondary education is making it accessible and affordable.
There are many people who are way smarter than I who have explored in detail how to do this (the Canadian Alliance of Student Association put out a great paper in February 2018 that is worth a read) but essentially, something has to be done to make it possible to pursue higher education without having to pay for it for the next 10 years of your life.
We need more educated people, not less. Making it easier to afford post-secondary education opens doors that make that possible.
Final Thoughts
I have complicated feelings about post-secondary education.
On the one hand, I believe higher education benefits both individuals and society as a whole. However, there remains work to be done in terms of increasing access and informing prospective students about labour market needs.
If I had to do it again, would I? Absolutely – if the circumstances were exactly the same. My degree has opened so many doors for me over the last few years and I am grateful for it, but it’s hard to say I would do it again if I had to foot the bill.
What about you – did you go to college or university? Why or why not? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Yep! I had to foot the bill as well. A scholarship paid for a good chunk of the tuition, but I still had to take out student loans. And since I didn’t get a well-paying job straight out of university, I didn’t start paying back my loans immediately and the interest racked up. But I have never regretted my degree and I don’t feel bad that I have to pay a significant chunk of money each month to pay off my loans. I wanted to go to university and it’s the reason I’ve been able to move up in my career.
However, I will never, ever go for my Master’s degree. I have coworkers who are doing the exact same job I am who have their Master’s and it’s hard to understand their thought process. A job in my field doesn’t require anything more than a Bachelor’s degree, so why would I incur MORE debt for a degree I don’t need? Mind-boggling.