University Grads May Earn Higher Income than College, Trade School Grads

Newswise — It’s a mantra heard by nearly every Canadian teenager: get an education and you will make more money in life. But when it comes to getting more bang for the education buck, a university degree may reap greater financial rewards for graduates, say researchers from Ryerson University and the University of Guelph.

“Provincial governments in Canada invest a great deal in post-secondary education,” says Ryerson University economics professor Vicenzo Caponi and co-author of a study published in the August issue of the Canadian Journal of Economics. “Our country also has the largest share of non-university education, such as trade schools and colleges, among developed countries. This leads to the question: what type of education has more earning potential?”

To assess the impact of education level on income, Caponi and his co-author, Miana Plesca of the University of Guelph, used data from Statistics Canada to examine the profiles of 3,200 Canadians with similar personal and family characteristics but different levels of education. Among the factors that the researchers looked at were the level of education achieved by the parents of the study’s respondents and the number of children in the family. Both can influence a student’s choice of a course of study or, in some cases, the economic feasibility of continuing their education at the post-secondary level. These individuals in the study completed a high school, trade, college or an undergraduate university education. (Adults who earned a graduate degree or who did not finish high school were excluded from the study.)

The researchers found that university graduates earned, on average, 20 per cent more than those with a college education. Men with a college education earned 14 per cent more than those who completed high school. Women who graduated from a college, on average, made 21 per cent more than females with a high school education.

“In conclusion, our finding does suggest universities may provide a higher return for its graduates,” says Caponi.

Ryerson University is Canada's leader in innovative career-focused education, offering close to 100 PhD, master’s, and undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Arts; the Faculty of Communication & Design; the Faculty of Community Services; the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science; and the Ted Rogers School of Management. Ryerson University has graduate and undergraduate enrolment of 25,000 students. With more than 68,000 registrations annually, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education is Canada's leading provider of university-based adult education.