Students whose parents help them with tuition may get lower grades but also have higher rates of graduation.Brad Wynnyk
The best of the web on education from kindergarten to postsecondary, as chosen by Globe and Mail education editor Simona Chiose.
'Spoiled Children'? Not so fast
One of the most widely shared articles of this week (so far) is a study claiming that students whose parents are bankrolling their education have lower GPAs. Something about the study feels morally right – the upstanding who work and save to pay their own freight come out ahead of the "spoiled children.' That conclusion ignores two very important caveats the researcher herself identifies. The first is that when parents not only pay, but talk to their kids about the importance of putting in the time and effort, the effect is weaker. The second is that students are more likely to graduate when their families contribute. As the study puts it, "students receiving high levels of parental aid enjoy an advantage in college completion that, for many, likely outweighs the detrimental effects to GPA."
Academic tribute to Aaron Swartz
Academics have taken to posting their own articles online in tribute to RSS pioneer Aaron Swartz, who was prosecuted for downloading almost five million documents from the JSTOR database. Links to the articles are compiled on pdftribute.net. This after the MIT home page was hacked on Sunday with tributes to Mr. Swartz replacing web pages. Mr. Swartz apparently committed suicide Friday.
USask to review all programs, begins layoffs
The University of Saskatchewan is beginning a review of its budget as it grapples with projections of a $44.5-million budget deficit by 2016. The institution will adopt the program prioritization process that other Canadian universities have implemented and that opens up all programs across the university for scrutiny. Meanwhile, layoffs have already begun.
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