Perspectives (Volume 3, number 6) - Allen Report (fwd)

[Richard Plant]

Hello All:

Here's the latest issue of "Perspectives" from HSSFC.

Richard Plant
Dept of Drama, Queen's University
and
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama,
University of Toronto


PERSPECTIVES
An electronic newsletter on research and science policy.  A pilot project
of the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada.

PERSPECTIVES will appear at regular intervals throughout the year and will
be posted on the Federation web site:
http://www.hssfc.ca/Pub/PublicationsEng.html.  Please address your comments
and suggestions to Jacqueline Wright, Executive Assistant, at:
jawright at hssfc.ca.

PERSPECTIVES (Volume 3, Number 6)
January 17, 2000

Editor: Wayne Kondro

Table of contents:
1)      Highlights
2)      Dispelling myths
3)      The numbers


NEW STUDY CONCLUDES HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES EDUCATION INTEGRAL TO ECONOMY
U.B.C. Economist Dispels Myth that Trade Training is Superior

Analytic skills taught in the humanities and social sciences are as
valuable to the knowledge-based economy, if not more so, than an education
focused on the production and operation of new technologies, concludes a
Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council-commissioned study released
December 6, 1999.

"Education in the humanities and social sciences is meeting the needs of
the Canadian economy because the widespread utilization of computers and
information technology has revolutionized the organization of business and
government bureaucracies," U.B.C. professor of economics and current
visiting professor of economics at Harvard University Dr. Robert C. Allen
argues in a report entitled 'Education and Technological Revolutions: The
role of the Social Sciences and the Humanities in the Knowledge-Based
Economy'.

The changes wrought on the economy by information technology increase
demand for "general intellectual abilities" developed in humanities and
social sciences programs, such as the capacity to "understand the
information generated by computer systems, analyze it, relate it to the
world, and act on it."  In sectors transformed by information technologies,
such as manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, finance, business
services and the government, the necessary skills of workers have
"profoundly" changed.

Allen adds "The issue is not whether an employee knows how to operate
Excel, so much as it is whether the employee can apply a model to a
problem, deal effectively with clients and members of a management team,
write and speak clearly, and make informed and independent judgments. The
reason these skills are in high demand is because business organization has
been revolutionized to take advantage of cheap information. That revolution
increases the demand for social sciences and humanities graduates."

DISPELLING MYTHS
Dispelling so-called " technik" arguments that there's a greater economic
need for technically trained graduates (such as engineers, scientists, and
students enrolled in one-or-two year trade programs at colleges) than there
is for arts graduates, Allen's study argues the prevailing paradigm of
educational value may be unsuitable to the needs of the modern
knowledge-based economy.

"While techniks are right that the demand for technically trained workers
is growing, the same is true for graduates in education, the humanities and
the social sciences," the study says.

"Contrary to what people say, there is a place for the humanities and
social sciences," adds SSHRC president Dr. Marc Renaud.

Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada president Dr. Louise
Forsyth adds that the findings are an encouraging affirmation of the value
of a social sciences and humanities education.
"An education and research in the humanities and social sciences is a good
way to go to get a job and to make a positive contribution to society,"
Forsyth says.

THE NUMBERS
On the premise that the value of educational programs should be measured by
their contribution to economic development, as determined by the output per
worker in the economy, Allen concludes the rate of return on an investment
in a humanities and social sciences education is as high as that of
sciences and engineering.

Using 1991 and 1996 census data, Allen's study says that unemployment rates
are lower, and wages are higher, for all university graduates than those
holding trade certificates or college diplomas. The same holds true the
higher the level of educational attainment, with Ph.D graduates finding
more and better-paying jobs.

While graduates in nursing, health, education, engineering, physical
sciences, in the 25-29 age group, are more likely to hold professional or
managerial jobs, (all over 80%), graduates in the humanities and social
sciences have an equal chance as those in commerce or the biological
sciences (roughly 70%) of holding such positions. But as they age, "arts
graduates often catch up with, and then surpass, people in other fields."

Allen's study also indicates that average incomes for both men and women
with university degrees are higher than for those holding college diplomas.

However, there continues to be an enormous disparity in the income earned
by university-trained men and women. In engineering, that gap is about
$20,300 less per year for women undergraduates. In commerce, the gap is
about $17,800, while in the social sciences, it's about $11,500.

That continuing gender discrepancy is "extremely disturbing," Renaud noted.
 "I had thought that was slowly being solved."


Editor:
Wayne Kondro is a freelance writer based in Ottawa.  The former Editor of
the "Science Bulletin", an independent newsletter on national S&T policy,
he is currently a regular contributor to such publications as "Science" and
"The Lancet".