According to an unreleased report to Canada's provincial ministers of education in August, obtained by Maclean's , Internet courses, aimed primarily at an undergraduate market and being delivered increasingly by virtual consortiums of American universities, are growing at a rate of 20 to 30 per cent a year. What is more, the Internet may not be the only revolution in the making. A survey of 821 Canadians, conducted for Maclean's between Oct. 22 and Nov. 1 by Northstar Research Partners of Toronto, shows startlingly different interpretations of the role and value of university education between today's young people and their parents' generation. Only 44 per cent of Canadians between 18 and 29 feel that a university education is the best way to get ahead in life, compared with 52 per cent of those over 45. Also, the younger group would be more likely to study in the United States if they had the chance, a sentiment most strongly held in British Columbia where postsecondary enrolment generally is booming.
Sharper divisions exist on the purpose of the university.
Their parents' generation does not share these values to anywhere near the same extent. Older Canadians appear to see the university more as the wellspring of a broad intellectual experience. Their fear of the future, of where the next job will be, is not as palpable. As a result, the focus has been on reinventing the classroom. In the past couple of years, a growing number of Canadian institutions have reinvigorated their internal instruction programs to help professors learn how to teach a generation that has grown up with technology at its fingertips.