Research Agenda

Summary of Proposed Research

The proposed study will examine native and immigrant youths’ access to and participation in post-secondary education in Toronto by linking administrative and educational data from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) to administrative data from the Ontario Universities’ Applications Centre (OUAC) and the Ontario College Application Service (OCAS). The resulting data set will allow us to track the progress of youth from high school to application/ acceptance by universities and/or community colleges. 

The Canadian Council on Learning predicts that by 2015, 70% of all new jobs in Canada will require some form of post-secondary education or training. Canada currently lacks a national post-secondary education strategy found in many countries. Without a national directive for education, Canada risks losing its competitive edge in the world economy. The majority of immigrants to Canada in the last 30 years have come from non-traditional source countries, many of whom have recently seen a decline in their economic prosperity. With the importance of educational attainment coming to the forefront of Canadian society – the nature of higher education access and participation for immigrant youth becomes a prominent issue. In order to compete on the international stage, Canada must invest in higher education by identifying any potential barriers that prevent qualified youth from entering post-secondary institutions.

Utilizing information on university/community college applications and confirmations, the research team will examine how factors at three levels each predict chosen pathways: contextual factors such as neighbourhood and school characteristics, structural factors such as socio-economic status, region of birth, and individual factors such as gender, immigrant status, generational status, home language, age of entry into high school, program of study, and academic performance. The researchers will focus on the factors that predict confirmed places in either a university or community college. The data base consists of a unique (longitudinal) Grade 9 cohort in 2000 with a very large sample size of 16,249 students, the majority of whom are children of immigrants. A major advantage of this administrative data base is that it provides ample sample sizes for exploring immigrant sub group differences related to region of birth and home language, and eliminates recall error by relying on actual student records rather than self-reports to measure students’ academic history.

Potential contribution to advancement of knowledge and wider social benefits

Detailed research on access to post secondary education among immigrant children in Canada is urgently needed. This project will contribute to the sociological study of educational transitions by providing analyses of previously unavailable data that can highlight the different pathways taken by different subgroups of immigrants. This exercise will help to better inform the development of programs and policies within the public school system and in higher education to recruit youth to Canadian colleges and universities, and identify any barriers that subgroups of immigrant youth may face. By targeting dissemination efforts to policymakers from government (e.g. Ministry of Education), the project can also provide insight into how immigrants and their families can more smoothly integrate into the Canadian economy. In addition to the academic community, this research will also be made accessible to school boards through the implementation of a website and various workshops allowing educators and school counsellor organizations to become involved. One of the main objectives of this research is to generate and facilitate ongoing dialogue among Ontario school boards.