Thousands of first-year students on Ontario campuses will be asked to take an international test in math, writing and solving problems this fall, in a bold experiment to see whether higher learning actually boosts these skills.

And by giving the same test next February to graduating students at those same institutions, results should show how much the programs are prepping students for work, beyond just their field of study.

The pilot project across at least 10 institutions marks the first time Canadian colleges and universities will give students a standardized test to gauge how well they are gaining the “soft” or “transferable” skills employers often claim graduates lack.

“It’s almost a revolution in what we think higher education is about; a shift from drilling information to the application of skills,” said Harvey Weingarten, executive director of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO), the province’s advisory body on post-secondary learning.

While the breezy online quiz based on everyday problems won’t affect their marks, each student will learn immediately how they did (and could include the score on future job applications.) Privately, each institution will receive its own scores as well as those of the group as a whole, to see where it might do better.

“It’s kind of nice to know where you actually stand – like: Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?” said George Brown practical nursing student Tiffany White, who said she won’t mind if she’s one of the 350 final-year students at the college who are asked to write the test this winter.

“I can guarantee a lot of students aren’t going to like the test – nobody likes writing a test if they don’t have to – but these are basic, practical skills we all need for our careers, so it’s good to know if we’re gaining them or not.”

Weingarten said the test is not meant for ranking institutions, because some draw students with more academic and socio-economic challenges than others. York University’s associate vice-president Alice Pitt said many York students must work at a paying job for more than 20 hours a week, which adds extra challenge and makes comparisons unfair with schools where students don’t work as much.

“It’s not the selectivity of your students that should count; it’s what you do with students who come,” she said.

And those institutions where students’ skills don’t improve over the course of the program might consider student mentoring and staff professional development, suggested Weingarten.

“Surely to God literacy and numeracy and problem-solving are important, and if we find they’re not being developed to the level we’d like (during college or university) then we have to address how to improve them.”

Eight community colleges and two universities are taking part so far, with nine more in the process of signing up. Each will ask 350 students from a range of programs to write the test during the first few weeks of school, and another 350 graduating students to write it in February. The Education and Skills Online assessment was designed by Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development officials and is used widely around the world.

Weingarten said schools that see steep improvement between first- and last-year students could even be rewarded through funding. The Ontario government has stated it wants to have post-secondary funding reflect not just the number of students, as it has for more than half a century, but also a school’s student performance or ‘outcomes.’

“Look, we’ll see if this trial starts producing the kind of evidence we need to make an intelligent funding formula based on student outcomes,” said Weingarten. “The main goal is quality improvement.”

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Brenda Pipitone is Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at George Brown College, and said she isn’t worried about student performance playing a role in future funding.

“I think it’s a good discussion to have. If someone doesn’t have the skills coming in, it’s on us to make sure they get that before they leave.”