Missing Pieces: An Alternative Guide to Canadian Post-Secondary Education

Missing Pieces: An Alternative Guide to Canadian Post-Secondary Education

The five-part Missing Pieces series is an alternative to the annual university rankings put out in Canada by mainstream media.

Mainstream rankings help students decide which school might suit them best. Missing Pieces looks under the surface by comparing the actual resources available to these schools.

Through its province-by-province approach, Missing Pieces offers a unique cross-country picture, comparing the commitment of each province to higher education quality, equity and accessibility. Topics range from student poverty to the corporate control of research.

In the process, this project reveals sweeping funding and structural changes in Canada's post-secondary education from the 1990s onward. It may inspire future research that reveals the full effects of these changes in the 21st century.

Students, schools and policy-makers can all make use of these reports, which involve multiple authors, proposing solutions from different viewpoints. The Missing Pieces reports were edited by Erika Shaker and Denise Doherty-Delorme. They were published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

There have been significant changes since the most recent Missing Pieces (2004). Still, the range and depth of these national PSE ‘report cards' keeps them relevant today.

To augment Missing Pieces data, consider these tuition-limiting developments:

BC:	Tuition is supposed to be indexed to inflation.
Manitoba:	Tuition freeze ends after 2009-2010 school year.
Saskatchewan:	Tuition freeze expected to end after 2009-2010.
Quebec:	Tuition freeze was lifted in 2007. Quebec still has Canada's cheapest tuition, at less than half the national average.
Nova Scotia:	Recent 7-9% fee cut (depending on statistics) accompanies a 3-year freeze set to end after 2010-2011. Results may drop tuition to Canada’s average.
Newfoundland + Labrador:	Four-year freeze ends after 2008-2009.
PEI:	Fees now cut by 6.6 - 10% (depending on statistics).

To project future fee increases, consider the past 30 years of annual tuition increases in Canada. They roughly average 3% on top of the consumer price index (CPI inflation rate).

Missing Pieces I (1999)

Full Report (160 pages - 816 KB)

Missing Pieces II (2000-2001)

At writing, Debt 101 lacks the full report. It is available in a printed version from CCPA.

News Release (1 page – 36 KB)
Highlights (2 pages – 32 KB)
Rankings (16 pages – 224 KB)