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This is just a clusterfuck of stupidity. cbc.ca/news/canada/to…
Every single one of the metrics the government wants to use is either mindbogglingly dumb, or threatens serious perverse incentives. They want to take one of the best postsec systems in the world and destroy it.
Yes, it's true one of students' top concerns when going to university is to get a good job out of it at the end of the day. But that doesn't, in fact, = salary is the sole or even top consideration. Otherwise literally everyone would be aiming to become a CEO.
It's also true universities could do a better job on metrics, and being transparent with data. This is something @AlexUsherHESA has complained a lot about. He's mostly right. But let's look at each of these proposed indicators and think them through for a minute.
"Graduate earnings." Okay. Compared to what? Also, when? Six months out? Two years out? And is the goal merely to benefit schools with, say, lots of engineers? (Yay @UWaterloo!). Does a focus on this make unis better, or will it mean cutting programs (regardless of enrollment)?
"Number and proportion of graduates in programs with experiential learning." What counts as experiential learning? Will this again skew in favour of certain industries? If so, why? (Also, again @UWaterloo will benefit so maybe I should shut up).
"Skills and competencies." Measured how? Is being a good citizen a skill and/or competency? Is knowing how to deconstruct Shakespeare a skill? Or is it gonna all be about knowing advanced calculus? Good luck figuring this one out.
"Proportion of graduates employed full-time in a related or partially-related field." Again, measured how? Poli sci students generally ain't gunning to be politicians. Must they have gov't jobs for this to count? What about those who go on to do PR work, or be lawyers, etc?
"Proportion of students in identified area of strength." Again, what the fuck does this even mean?
"Graduation rate." Ah, now HERE is where we can get into some truly perverse incentives. You want to lower standards at universities? Make 'graduation rates' a key metric for their funding. Absolutely idiotic.
"the student population as a proportion of the local population." What. The. Fuck. Is. This.
Finally, what's the bureaucracy to track all this shit gonna look like? How many tens of millions of dollars are going to go to each university hiring more staff to develop, collect, and track all of these metrics? How many more in the provincial ministry?
