General

Conference attendees will please pre-register for one of the following four Working Groups. Note that there will be two Working Group Sessions during the conference.

In June 2007, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation issued a Request for Proposals to establish four Canadian-led international Working Groups whose pre-conference research is designed to stimulate conference discussions about innovative policies and best practices designed to broaden access to post-secondary studies. These groups will present Discussion Papers on four themes: institutional strategy & practice; the role of partnerships; the role of career development; and, strategies for system-level change.

The four Working Groups will also work collaboratively prior to the conference to integrate their findings and they will play a key role at both the April 6-8, 2008, international conference and the April 9th Canadian policy summit (by invitation). They will also contribute to the final conference report.

Working Group I

Increasing the Odds of Post-Secondary Access and Success through Institutional Strategy and Practice

Post-secondary institutions have a lead role to play in improving access and increasing success of underrepresented groups. This includes strategies and practices touching on outreach, recruitment, financial aid, curriculum reform, student support services and pedagogical innovations. The team will present a discussion paper based on its international survey of institutional practices designed to increase access and success for underrepresented populations, with specific reference to first-generation students and Aboriginal populations.

Download Discussion Paper

Biographies

Dr. Alan Wright - Vice-Provost, Teaching and Learning, University of Windsor (Lead)

Before assuming his current duties at the University of Windsor, Dr. Wright worked for several years as a dean and program director in the Université du Québec system as well as for Dalhousie University, where he was the founding director of the office of instructional development and technology. Both the University of Windsor and the University of Quebec have made strong commitments to broadening access to postsecondary studies in English and French Canada, and Dr. Wright has been a part of this movement. He has been an active member of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) for over fifteen years, and is the editor of a pedagogical series known as the Green Guides, published by the Society.

Dr. Wright was one of the researchers on a team which recently completed a Major Collaborative Research Investigation (MCRI) five year study of the evolution of teaching personnel in Canadian schools sponsored by SSHRC. This investigation gave Dr. Wright practical insight into recent Canadian school policy, including provincial and national policy efforts to promote school success as a major issue. Together with Dr. Sauvé, Dr. Wright has been actively contributing to research projects on access and student success for several years. He has experience as a teacher in the public schools and served as the director of high school curriculum for the entire Quebec school system (English-language and French-language boards).

 

Dr. Louise Sauvé - Professor emeritus in Educational Technology at TELUQ (UQAM)

Dr. Louise Sauvé is the Director of the Centre d’expertise et de recherche sur l’apprentissage à vie (SAVIE) (Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning) and Professor emeritus in Educational Technology at TELUQ, the distance education university of l'université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM). Her contributions to the advancement of Quebec culture have earned her the Médaille de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec (recognition by the National Assembly of Quebec).

A prolific author on distance education and the information highway, Dr. Sauvé’s research always has practical implications for the field. Her areas of research and expertise focus on adult education in community environments, the development of learning profiles and competencies for the individualization of studies at a range of educational levels, online student support systems promoting success and perseverance in studies, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, and educational games and simulations. Dr. Sauvé is involved in several pan-Canadian research projects, and she is uniquely suited to helping to orient the team towards the most significant and practical initiatives in support of student access and success. Dr. Sauvé and her research team (including Alan Wright) earlier this month submitted a research report of over 150 pages on L’abandon et la perseverance aux etudes postsecondaires to the Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture. The research team drew upon over 100 references in preparing the report.

 

Dr. Clayton Smith, Vice Provost, Student Services and Registrar, University of Windsor

Dr. Smith has over 20 years of broad experience in enrolment management. He currently serves as Vice-Provost, Students and as Registrar at the University of Windsor, where he serves as Chief Student Affairs and Enrolment Management Officer, and Secretary of the Senate. Dr. Smith's enrolment management experience includes positions encompassing admissions, advisement, international student affairs, marketing, orientation, registration, and student retention at a variety of public higher educational institutions in Maine, Florida, New York, and Ontario. He has successfully led institutions through the development and implementation of strategic enrolment management plans, and participated in the development of institutional and inter-institutional strategic plans. In recent years, Dr. Smith has focused his professional practice on meeting the student support needs of a wide array of underrepresented student populations, including first generation students, new Canadians, disabled students and Aboriginal students.

Dr. Smith holds a B.A. from the University of Southern Maine, an M.A. from Drew University, an M.P.A. from the University of Maine, and an Ed.D. from Florida State University. He is currently a senior consultant with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers' Consulting Services. Dr. Smith will bring both an administrative and an academic perspective to the project. He is in an excellent position to draw in to our background paper accounts of best practices in student admission policies and support policies from the United States and Canada. What is more, Dr. Smith has recently traveled to several countries overseas to provide coaching and advice to emerging universities in the area of registrar services, recruitment, and enrolment management.

 

Professor Neil Gold, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, University of Windsor

Neil Gold has held a number of posts at the University of Windsor and at City University of Hong Kong: as dean of law (Windsor and Hong Kong), dean of humanities and social sciences (Hong Kong), head of professional legal education (Hong Kong), dean of student affairs and continuing education (Windsor), and as assistant to the vice-president, academic for engineering (Windsor). Professor Gold directed two interdisciplinary clinical legal services offices, one in Windsor, ON and the other in Victoria, BC, both providing legal education to students and the public, along with social work and psychological services, community advocacy and legal services to the disadvantaged.

He has researched, written and consulted on legal education, development and dispute resolution in Asia, the UK, the US, Australasia, South America and Africa. Neil's writing has appeared in Canadian, American, British and Australasian publications. Reports commissioned have influenced legal system and legal education reform in British Columbia, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and England and Wales. Professor Gold has a vast experience in higher education. The key administrative positions he has occupied, coupled with the face-to-face educational and legal services he has provided throughout his career, make him the ideal team member to consider the practical implications of establishing and introducing new policies and initiatives to support underrepresented students at entry and throughout their academic careers. Professor Gold will make the team aware of relevant government policies.

 

Dr. Mariane Frenay, Université catholique de Louvain, Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation, Belgique

Dr. Frenay is an associate professor at the Université catholique de Louvain, Faculty of Psychology and Education. Her research interests are student learning and motivation processes; comparison of instructional environments in higher education. She provides faculty development training sessions for university teachers and is coordinating a transatlantic mobility program on faculty development, together with 6 other European and Canadian partners. She is a senior member of the Unesco Chair of University Teaching and Learning.

In addition to the five core members of the Theme A team, Dr. Wright will consult with the Vice-Provost’s International Advisory Council on the overall project orientation and the most promising pathways for progress at a teleconference meeting planned for this fall. Members of this Council include: Dr. David Kaufman of Simon Fraser University (B.C., Canada); Dr. Joy Mighty of Queen’s University (ON, Canada); Dr. Mary Deane Sorcinelli of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, USA); Dr. Nancy Chism of IUPUI (Indiana, USA); and Dr. Stephen Bostock, Keele University (UK).

Working Group II

The Power of Partnerships- Private & Public Collaborations with Higher Learning Institutions

With labour markets under pressure from demographic trends, increased global competition for highly skilled workers, and the growing challenges of economic and social integration, more and more businesses and community groups are seeing learning partnerships as a means of addressing economic and social objectives. The team will look at a range of successful international models and case studies and their outcomes in increasing the likelihood of access and success at the post-secondary level.

Download Discussion Document

Biographies

Dr. Peter Dietsche - Special Advisor to the President, Research, Mohawk College and William G. Davis Chair in Community College Leadership and Assistant Professor, Ontario Institute for the Study of Education (Lead)

Dr. Peter Dietsche is currently the William G. Davis Chair in Community College Leadership and Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Department of Theory and Policy at the Ontario Institute for the Study of Education/University of Toronto. Prior to joining OISE/UT, Dr. Dietsche was Vice President, Research & Institutional Quality, at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario. He completed master’s and doctoral work in psychology at McGill University and the University of Western Ontario, and earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education/Measurement & Evaluation at the University of Toronto. He has a strong interest in postsecondary student retention, organizational effectiveness, and institutional evaluation, emphasizing the impact of policies and practices on student educational outcomes in Canadian and US.

An educator and administrator for over 30 years, Dr. Dietsche is perhaps best known as the creator of the Freshman Integration and Tracking System (FITS), designed to provide timely and concise information to students, faculty, administrators and student services personnel. Initially paper-based, and now an interactive online questionnaire, FITS can assist students in choosing an educational path and college services based on real information, while it concurrently helps college staff identify self-esteem, career uncertainty or financial concerns among students early in their college experience. In just over a decade, FITS has become a critical factor in new student success at dozens of colleges and institutes and can predict with 80 percent accuracy who will quit their program by mid-term. Used in many Canadian colleges and throughout North America, FIT System information has also been highly valued by external groups such as secondary school counselors and administrators and public policy makers.

 

Dr. Tony Chambers - Associate Vice-Provost, Students, University of Toronto

Dr. Tony Chambers was appointed in November 2005 to the position of Associate Vice-Provost, Students at the University of Toronto. Professor Tony Chambers has a rich academic and administrative background in the area of higher education research and student life. He joined the Department of Theory & Policy Studies in Education, OISE/UT, as an Assistant Professor effective July 1, 2005. Professor Chambers has an Ed.D Higher Education Leadership) from the University of Florida (1990), an M.S. (Counselor Education) from Illinois State University (1979) and a B.S. (Psychology) from Illinois State University (1978).  Prior to joining OISE/UT Professor Chambers served as Associate Director, National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, University of Michigan, where he was also an Adjunct Professor, Center for the Study of Higher Education and Post-secondary Education (2000-2005).  From 1996-2000 he was the Program Officer at the John Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a non-profit operating foundation that supports the exploration of the relationship between mind, body and spirit. 

Professor Chambers has published and presented extensively in the areas of higher education and the public good, and student life (including leadership, activism).  He is also a member of numerous professional associations including (but not limited to) the Canadian Association of Community Service Learning, the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) and the American Education Research Association (AERA).



Dr. Catherine Drea – Vice-President, Students, Access and Success, Mohawk College

Dr. Catherine Drea is Vice-President Students, Access and Success at Mohawk College in Hamilton. She has extensive experience in the education sector through work in colleges, universities and the Ontario government. Catherine was hired as the founding Project Manager for Canada's newest university, the University of Ontario, Institute of Technology in 2001. In 2004 she became a Vice-President at Mohawk College. In these roles she has taught and developed new programming at the diploma, graduate certificate and university degree levels.

Catherine is a Board Member of the Institute for the Advancement of Teaching in Higher Education and is on the Editorial Board of the Ontario college journal - College Quarterly. She is a member of the Institute for Public Administration of Canada and the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. She is a recipient of the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Contribution to the Field of Community Colleges from Central Michigan University and her doctoral thesis was nominated for the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education's George Geis Dissertation Award. Catherine holds a Doctor of Education degree in Theory and Policy Studies, Higher Education, from the University of Toronto. Her research focused on Ontario government policy on accessibility to Ontario's colleges.

 

Dr. Watson Scott Swail - President and CEO, The Educational Policy Institute

Watson Scott Swail is the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Educational Policy Institute, a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to policy-based research on educational opportunity for all students. With offices in Virginia Beach, VA, Toronto, Ontario, and Melbourne, Australia, the mission of EPI is to impact the development and implementation of public policy and educational practice through high-level research and analysis. With this information, it is our earnest hope and belief that policymakers, researchers, and practitioners will make prudent decisions to enhance educational opportunities for all students, especially for low-income and other historically under-represented students at the postsecondary level.

Prior to establishing EPI, Dr. Swail served as the Founding Director of The Pell Institute and Vice President of the Council for Opportunity in Education in Washington, DC. He previously served as senior policy analyst with SRI International and associate director for policy analysis with the College Board. While with the Board, Dr. Swail co-directed the Trends in College Pricing and Trends in Student Aid reports released in the U.S. each fall. He is a former technology teacher and taught at Victor Wyatt School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and also At Benjamin Syms Middle School in Hampton, Virginia. In addition to his research and writing, Dr. Swail teaches educational policy and research at The George Washington University in Washington, DC, where he received his doctorate in educational policy. He earned his Master's of Science from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and Bachelor's of Education from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 

 

Working Group III

The Role of Career Development in Building Pathways to and from Post-Secondary Studies

Team members will use a stimulus paper outlining specific issues and challenges associated with post-secondary participation and the use of career development as an instrument to broaden participation rates to provide country-specific examples in which comparable issues and challenges are being addressed. The team’s Discussion Paper will be structured around five career development themes focusing on increasing PSE participation and facilitating education to work transitions: research with a focus on the evidence base; service provision and service delivery models; innovative pathways and promising practices; partnership models; and policy directions.

Download Discussion Paper

Biographies

Lynne Bezanson - Executive Director, Canadian Career Development Foundation (Lead)

Lynne Bezanson has directed numerous pan-Canadian and international initiatives and conducted and managed innovative research and development projects. She directed the nation-wide CAMCRY initiative (Creation and Mobilization of Counselling Resources for Youth), was instrumental in the development of the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners, has initiated and managed three highly successful international symposia on Connecting Career Development with Public Policy and the first pan-Canadian Symposium on Career Development, Lifelong Learning and Workforce Development. Lynne participated in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Thematic Review of Guidance Policies, co-authoring the federal Canadian response, and was a member of the 2-person OECD Study Team for Australia and Norway. She is the co-founder of the Canadian Research Working Group on Evidence Based Practice which has recently published a national study on the state of evidence based practice in Canada. She is on the Executive of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy and is committed to raising the profile of career development on political and policy agendas and increasing access of Canadians to quality affordable career services across the lifespan.

 

Robyn Bergin - Director, Career Development Section, Australian Department of Education, Science and Training

Robyn Bergin has been the Director of the Career Development Section in the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training for over six years, and a public servant for over 20 years. In her current role she has worked to raise the profile of career development in Australia and awareness of its potential as public policy tool. Under Robyn’s leadership, the Career Development Section has implemented a wide range of policy and strategic initiatives including:

• the development of professional standards for career development practitioners
• a national career information and exploration website (funded by the Australian and State and Territory governments), www.myfuture.edu.au
• a feasibility study into a National Institute for Career Development
• Australia’s first National Career Development Week, 4-10 June 2007
• the development and trial of a national blueprint for career development, based on the Canadian Blueprint for Life/Work Designs (on behalf of the Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs)
• the third international symposium on career development and public policy, held in Sydney in 2006

Australia’s involvement in the 2002 OECD Review of Career Guidance and Public Policy has involved extensive consultation and collaboration with professional organizations, Ministerial Committees, academics, and public servants across the national and state governments. Throughout this work Robyn has built strong networks with the international career development community so that Australia can draw on the experience of other countries, and share its own best practice.

Robyn is one of the founding Executive Board Members of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy.

 

Deirdre Hughes - University Reader in Guidance Studies and Director of CeGS, University of Derby, England

Deirdre Hughes is a University Reader in Guidance Studies and Director of CeGS, a specialist guidance research and development unit at the University of Derby, England. She is also Head of the Research & Knowledge Transfer Unit within the Faculty of Education, Health & Sciences. Deirdre has extensive experience of working at a senior level with government policy-makers, managers, researchers, practitioners, trainers and students from within both public and private sectors. Her research interests focus on youth policy, adult guidance and workforce development issues. Deirdre is in the process of completing a ‘PhD through Publication’ on evidence-based approaches to assess the impact and efficacy of careers work. In 2004, she was invited to present written and oral evidence to the House of Commons Education and Select Committee advising on matters related to the National Skills Strategy: 14-19 Education. She is currently working, in association with the Canadian Research Working Group, on research designed to measure the impact of career information and guidance services in the United Kingdom. Deirdre is chair of the Institute of Career Guidance Research Committee. She also acts as External Examiner at Queens University, Belfast; Ulster University; and Paisley University, Scotland.
 Dr. Mary McMahon - Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Australia

Dr. Mary McMahon publishes extensively in the field of career development and is particularly interested in influences on the career development of children and adolescents. Mary was a member of the International Steering Committee for the International Symposium on Career Development and Public Policy that was held in Sydney, Australia in 2006. She is actively involved in the Career Industry Council of Australia.

 

Dr. Ron Saunders - Director of Work and Learning Research at Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN)

Ron Saunders joined CPRN in January 2003. Ron is formerly the Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Communications and Labour Management Services Division at the Ontario Ministry of Labour, where he served in a number of policy positions since 1986.  He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, specializing in industrial organization and international trade. Ron taught for some years at the University of Toronto before joining the Ontario Public Service and more recently taught at the Queen's University School of Policy Studies [2001-2002]. 

Ron’s work at CPRN involves conducting and overseeing policy research on workplaces and labour markets, including the connection between learning activities and labour market outcomes. He is currently overseeing the multi-year project, Pathways for Youth to the Labour Market. This project involves mapping the various pathways that young Canadians take from high school through to regular participation in the labour market and examining the policy and institutional structures that help or hinder the ability of young people to find pathways that lead to sustained employment with decent pay, good working conditions and career potential.

Ron has worked on a wide range of labour market issues. His recent publications include the following:

• Fulfilling Potential, Creating Success: Perspectives on Human Capital Development, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007 (co-edited with Garnett Picot and Arthur Sweetman).
• Fostering Quality in Canada’s Post-secondary Institutions, Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks, September 2006.
• “Skills Upgrading Initiatives in Canada: Evidence from Alberta and the Northwest Territories,” in S. Giguère, ed., Skills Upgrading: New Policy Perspectives, Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006, pp. 261-310 (with Richard Brisbois).
• Risk and Opportunity: Creating Options for Vulnerable Workers, Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks, January 2006.
• Lifting the Boats: Policies to Make Work Pay, Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks, June 2005.

 

Dr. Raimo Vuorinen - University of Jyvaskyla, Finland

Dr. Raimo Vuorinen has had consultancy role in various in-service programs in the area of vocational and educational guidance from comprehensive education to higher education in Finland. He has active partnerships in national and transnational professional networks in the area of guidance. His PhD dissertation thesis 2006 examined the professional use of Internet -based resources in career guidance. Since January 2006 he has been developing a national research unit focusing on development in lifelong guidance at the University of Jyväskylä. He has been a member in the European Commission Lifelong Guidance Group 2002-2007, and is engaged in establishing the European lifelong guidance policy network.

 

Richard Sweet - President, International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy

Richard Sweet was the Principal Administrator in the OECD’s Education and Training Policy Division from 1998 until 2005. He worked on the thematic review of young people’s transition from initial education to working life. The final report From Initial Education to Working Life: Making Transitions Work was published in 2000. He was responsible for the 14-country review of national career guidance policies. Prior to joining the OECD, he held research positions in fields that including the youth labour market, the transition from school to work and the relationship between education and the labour market. He has been a member of a number of national policy advice and research boards in the fields of education and vocational training. He was also Research Co-ordinator for the Dusseldorf Skills Forum whose agenda was to improve the relationship between education and the world of work. He holds an appointment at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia and is now practicing as a private consultant. He is the founding President of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy (ICCDPP).

Dr. Nancy Arthur – Professor in Applied Pyschology, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

Dr. Nancy Arthur is a Professor in Applied Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary and holds a TriFaculty Canada Research Chair in Professional Education. Her research interests include professional education for cultural diversity and social justice, cross-cultural transitions, and career development. She has published two books, one about counselling international students and co-authored with Dr. Sandra Collins, Culture-Infused Counselling: Celebrating the Canadian Mosaic. She is also a Consulting Editor of the Canadian Journal of Counselling since 1995 and has edited a special issue on multicultural counselling.

Working Group IV

Marshalling Resources for Change – System-Level Initiatives to Increase Access & Success

This team will look at system-level policy initiatives designed to increase access to post-secondary education and attempt to synthesize the key lessons and conclusions from evaluations or assessments of these initiatives. The emphasis is on initiatives at the country level; in the case of decentralized federal systems such as the United States, Germany and Canada, it will look at both national and provincial/state policy initiatives.

Download Discussion Paper

Biographies

Glen A. Jones - Professor of Higher Education and Associate Dean, Academic at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (Lead)

Glen A. Jones is an expert on Canadian higher education policy and governance and has published more than fifty papers in this area. His edited books include Creating Knowledge, Strengthening Nations: The Changing Role of Higher Education (with Michael Skolnik and Patricia McCarney, University of Toronto Press, 2005) and Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance (with Alberto Amaral and Berit Karseth, Kluwer, 2002). An updated Chinese translation of his 1997 book Higher Education in Canada: Different Systems, Different Perspectives will be published by Fujian Education Press, Shanghai, later this year. He is a former president of the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education and a former editor of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education. He is a frequent invited participant in international/comparative research studies on higher education policy, including projects involving the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, the Bertelsmann Foundation, UNESCO, and the Ford Foundation. His Canadian research projects have included work supported by the SSHRC, HRSDC, AUCC, OCUFA, and the Law Society of Upper Canada, as well as provincial government agencies and individual institutions. In 2001, Glen Jones received the Distinguished Research Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education.

Professor Jones’ current research projects focus on government steering mechanisms to promote post-secondary access (he is the principal investigator on a $430,000 research project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities) and changing higher education policy in the context of Canadian federalism. He was recently a member of the Canadian research team (that also included Theresa Shanahan and Claude Trottier) that studied changes in provincial higher education access policies as part of a broader comparative analysis of higher education policy involving research teams in the United States and Mexico.

Theresa Shanahan - Assistant Professor and Co-ordinator, Graduate Diploma in Post Secondary Education: Community, Culture and Policy, Faculty of Education and Graduate Studies, York University

Theresa Shanahan obtained an LL.B. from the University of Western Ontario in 1988 and was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1990. She completed a Ph.D. in Higher Education at the University of Toronto in 2002 and was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education and Training at the University of British Columbia in 2002-03. Her current research focuses on first generation students and on higher education policy structures that facilitate or inhibit accessibility to post-secondary education. She was recently a member of the Canadian research team (that also included Glen Jones and Claude Trottier) that studied changes in provincial higher education access policies as part of a broader comparative analysis of higher education policy involving research teams in the United States and Mexico. Her recent publications include “Shifting Roles and Approaches: Government Coordination of Post-secondary Education in Canada from 1995 to 2006” (Journal of Higher Education Research and Development, 2007) and Canadian Federal Policy and Postsecondary Education (with Don Fisher, Claude Trottier, Glen Jones, et al, Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education and Training, 2006).

Sylvie Lamoureux - SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Higher Education Program, Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Sylvie Lamoureux is a former teacher, principal, and from 2001 to 2003 she was an Education Officer dealing with French language education policy and programs for the Ontario Ministry of Education. She obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in 2007. Her research focuses on issues of access to post-secondary education for minority francophone populations. Working with Professor Normand Labrie, she recently completed a study of the transition to post-secondary institutions of students graduating from French language secondary schools in Ontario (funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities). She is currently a Visiting Professor at Universität Trier where she is teaching courses on minority language issues in Canada. She will be returning to Canada in early August to begin a new program of research focusing on the effectiveness of Ontario’s recent access initiatives directed towards increasing access for French populations, and reviewing related initiatives at the university and college level.

Lucia Padure - Ph.D. student, Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education , University of Toronto

Lucia Padure earned degrees in economics from Lenin Chinisau University, St. Petersburg State University, and Northeastern University, and a masters degree in public policy from Harvard University. She is the author of a number of articles and reports dealing with higher education in Moldova (in Russian, Romanian, and more recently, English). She is a former University Vice-Rector and Associate Professor (Chinsau, Moldova) and in 2006-07 held a term position in the policy unit of the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities where she conducted research on access to post-secondary education. Her doctoral research focuses on policy reforms in Central and Eastern Europe with a particular emphasis on issues of access, privatization, and the changing role of government.

 

Emily Gregor - Ph.D. student, Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Emily Gregor has completed degrees at the University of Minnesota and Emory University. Her research interests focus on the complex relationships between institutions of higher education and the communities in which they function, and she has a particular interest in state and institutional initiatives that are designed to increase local access to post-secondary education. She is the managing editor of Higher Education Perspectives, an on-line, peer-reviewed journal in the field of higher education. She recently completed a report for the British Council on the role and function of community colleges and issues of college-university transfer and articulation.

 

Peter Maassen - Professor of Higher Education, University of Oslo and the Director of HEDDA

HEDDA is the European association of research centres, institutes and groups with expertise in higher education research, with partners in eight different European countries. Before moving to Norway, Peter Maassen was a founding member and the second Director of the Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. Professor Maassen has been a prolific contributor to the literature on higher education policy, and he has a particular interest in system-level access policy. He is the editor of Higher Education Dynamics, a book series focusing on higher education policy published by Springer. He coordinates the Erasmus Mundus European Masters Program in Higher Education, a joint-degree initiative offered by the University of Oslo, the University of Aveiro (Portugal) and the University of Tampere (Finland). For the last two years he has been coordinating a research project focusing on governing higher education access that involves a comparative analysis of access policies and strategies in four countries (Norway, South Africa, Czech Republic and Portugal). A book based on the first component of the project is currently in preparation. Professor Maassen is currently involved in a national review of higher education policy in Norway.

 

Claude Trottier - Professor Emeritus, Département des fondements et pratiques en éducation, Faculté des sciences de l’éducation, Université Laval

A specialist in the sociology of education, Claude Trottier has recently completed a series of studies of Quebec higher education policy, with a particular emphasis on access policy. He led the Quebec team in the Ford Foundation funded Alliance of Higher Education Policy Studies (the Canadian research team also included Glen Jones and Theresa Shanahan) which involved a comparative analysis of changes in federal and local/provincial policy in Canada, the United States and Mexico. An expert on Quebec higher education policy, he has provided a number of recent presentations based on his analysis to meetings of government officials and institutional leaders. His recent publications include Canadian Federal Policy and Post-secondary Education (with Don Fisher, Glen Jones, Theresa Shanahan, et al, Centre for Policy Studies in Higher Education and Training, 2006).