Campus Confidential: 100 startling things you don't know about Canadian universities (Second Edition)

by Ken S. Coates, Bill Morrison

Overview

In 2011, the first edition of Campus Confidential sparked a lively debate about what is really going on inside our colleges and universities. The media and readers alike welcomed this readable, honest book. University authorities didn't. They took the authors to task for spilling the beans. In this second edition, Ken S. Coates and Bill Morrison pick up where they left off, adding new and up-to-date information for students and their parents to consider.

Among the questions they address:

• Why more students should consider the skilled trades
• Whether a BA is ever worth the paper it's printed on
• How roving administrators are undermining universities
• Why we over-produce graduate students
• What's right (and wrong) with what's happening on campuses in Quebec

Now that nearly everyone goes to college or university but only a small percentage of graduates actually find employment in their chosen field, understanding what's really going on in Canadian postsecondary institutions is more important than ever. Readers can count on Ken S. Coates and Bill Morrison for unexpected insights and lots of fresh new ideas and information.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459404366
Publisher:	James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
Publication date:	04/01/2013
Sold by:	De Marque
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	801 KB

About the Author

KEN S. COATES is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan. Formerly, he was Dean, Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo. He lives in Saskatoon.

BILL MORRISON was a professor and administrator at universities in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia and a visiting professor in the United States before he retired in 2010. Morrison has published fourteen books, twelve of them in collaboration with Ken S. Coates. He lives in Ladysmith, BC.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Second Edition
Introduction to the First Edition

I. A Student's Guide to University
1 University Isn't for Everyone
2 Should Tuition Be Free?
3 Consider the Skilled Trades
4 University Tuition Is a Bargain
5 No One Agrees on What Students Should Know
6 Universities Don't Like Victory-Lap Students
7 Your Grades Will Drop
8 What to Look for in a Prof

II. Planning for University
9 The Million-Dollar Promise
10 You May Need Two Degrees
11 Ask for Help If You Need It
12 First University, then College
13 The Specialist Degree
14 Universities Detest Helicopter Parents
15 It’s About Careers, Not Education
16 Educated and Underemployed
17 University Fees are Discriminatory

III. Inside the Ivory Tower
18 Not Every University Is “World Class”
19 Our Universities Need a Proper Admissions Test
20 Our Math Students Just Can’t Compete
21 Killing the Traditional Disciplines
22 The Sad Decline of University Outreach
23 A Nasty Secret
24 Gypsy Administrators
25 We Aren’t Producing Engaged Citizens
26 Medical Students Are Getting a Free Ride
27 Toronto Rules the Canadian Academic World
28 Sports Rule
29 Our Universities Are Eurocentric
30 Engineers Are a Hot-Ticket Item
31 Business and the University
32 Do Grade 2 Teachers Need Five Years of Post-secondary Education?
33 The Science Tsunami
34 The Public Doesn’t Get Academic Research

IV. Do Canadian Universities Work?
35 Putting Bums on Seats Is the Number-One Priority
36 The Perils of Athletics
37 University Education Should Be Co-ordinated Nationally
38 Governing the University
39 The Three-Year Degree
40 Universities and Colleges Are Fighting Tooth and Nail
41 Graduate Student Over-production
42 The Good Old Days
43 Are the Fine Arts Undervalued?
44. The “Man” Problem at Our Universities
45. Perhaps Men are Right

V. The View from the Front of the Class
46 Students Aren’t Interested in Book Learning
47 Campus Idealism Is Dead and Buried
48 Part-time Student Work and the Beer Index
49 Students Are No Longer in Awe of Their Professors
50 The Entitlement Generation Has Changed the Game
51 Eighteen Is the New Fifteen
52 A Different Philosophy of Education
53 We Should Demand More, Not Less, from Our Students
54 In Praise of Single Parents
55 Eighteen-Year-Olds Control Our Universities
56 Aboriginal Students Put Their Communities First
57 Cheating and the Internet
58 Students Are Unwilling to Study Abroad
59 Residence Life

VI. A Professor’s Life
60 Too Much Research?
61 A Teacher’s Lament
62 It’s Almost Impossible to Fire Profs
63 It’s Hard to Get a Faculty Job
64 Your Prof Doesn’t Take the Summer Off
65 Tenure Terror
66 Your Professor Is Not Overpaid
67 The Days of Academic Conferences May Be Numbered
68 The Surprising Future of Libraries
69 Faculty Unions
70 The Shame of the Sessionals
71 The Strange Economics of Scholarly Publication
72 PhDs Don’t Drive Taxis

VII. Universities in Canadian Society
73 There’s a New Quiet Revolution in Quebec
74 Academic Freedom Is Endangered by Neglect
75 Language Study Is in Decline
76 Successful Universities Need a Ton of Money
77 Universities Need Core Courses
78 Academic Fraud Is a Reality
79 Guaranteeing Basic Competency
80 A Nationally Uneven System
81 Quebec’s Funding Fiasco: Building Provincial Mediocrity
82 Almost Everyone Is Eligible
83 Don’t Mock the Social Sciences
84 The University Myth
85 Will Universities Lead the Innovation Economy?
86 Universities Are Like Post Offices
87 Core Courses Won’t Work
88 The Mandate for Universities Is Confusing
89 Popular Culture Distorts Our Perception of University Life
90 The Death of the Holistic University Experience
91 Canada Needs More Science and Tech
92 We Need a Steady Supply of International Students
93 Some of Our Best Grads Are Leaving
94 Struggling with English
95 Digital Technologies
96 Lower-Income Families and Universities
97 Do Our Business Schools Have a Future?
98 Is There a Student Debt Crisis?
99 Top Priority: Teaching and Learning
100 Our Universities: A Global Success Story

Epilogue: Twenty-One Recommendations for the Future
Sources