There’s No Canadian Harvard, and That’s A Good Thing

Source: National Post via Academica

“There is no Canadian equivalent of Harvard, with its prestige, limited enrollment and its $60,000 tuition. And really, it’s just as well,” writes Stephen Gordon for the National Post. Gordon argues that while some Canadian universities and programs have high entrance standards, gaining admission into one of these programs is “nowhere near as difficult as entering an elite U.S. college.” Gordon sees this characteristic of Canadian higher ed in a positive light, arguing that that social mobility is likely enhanced by the fact the the country’s higher education institutions are not as rigidly stratified as those in the US. “If—as available evidence suggests—Canadian social mobility is significantly greater than it is in the U.S., then much of the credit goes to the fact that there is no Canadian university that plays the prestige-signalling game that Harvard does,” concludes Gordon. “A ‘Harvard of Canada’ is the last thing we need.”