Student Affairs: Experiencing Higher Education

Emily Walters Gregor is a graduate student in 20th-century American
literature and an ESL writing tutor at the University of Minnesota.

As higher education becomes more and more necessary to ensure vocational
and financial stability in Canada and around the world, fair and
equitable access to higher education becomes more and more central to
discussions of social and economic equality across race, class, and
gender lines. This collection of essays by primarily University of
British Columbia faculty, staff, and students investigates the problem
of equal access to the benefits of higher education from the perspective
of integration into the academic institution. How well students become
engaged with the intellectual life of the school they attend, the book
proposes, directly correlates with their prospects for success within
and after university.

The essays cover traditional and non-traditional students;
undergraduate, graduate, and professional education; and many
under-represented groups of students, including the hard of hearing and
international students. Lesley Andres, in the introduction, provides an
overview of existing research on the subject of access to higher
education. In her conclusion, Finola Finlay presents an action plan to
improve inclusion within the university for all types of students.
Sharon Liversidge and Donna McGee Thompson describe the difficulties
mothers returning to school face in balancing the demands of school,
work, and domestic life. Michael Marker assesses recent efforts to
improve the education experience for First Nations students. Garnet
Grosjean discusses the benefits and drawbacks of co-op education.

Student Affairs provides a valuable survey of the importance of access
across what have traditionally been boundaries to higher education and
introduces a unique perspective on the issue by bringing student
involvement with the institution to the forefront. The articles,
however, are quite specifically focused on a particular population or
case study. Consequently, the book functions more as a reference source
for an academic audience than as a general overview of access to higher
education in Canada appropriate for the general public.