The Role of Universities in a Changing World
Thanks to Frank Gue for drawing our attention to this article in Macleans Magazine about how universities are helping students with "invisible" disabilities. According to the article, a 2013 survey found that Canadian universities students suffered from the following conditions.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder - 2%
- ADHD or a learning disability - 4%
- Chronic illness such as cancer, diabetes or auto-immune disease - 5%
- Depression - 10%
- Anxiety - 12%
Of course, some students may have more than one of these conditions, but even so it appears that close to a third of Canadian students need to be accommodated in some way by their university.
This reminds me of the Syrian refugee situation. Of course, Syria's neighbouring countries would like to help the refugees, but their numbers are overwhelming and are putting at risk the well-being of the non-refugees. Is it reasonable to ask Canadian universities to accommodate so many students with special needs? Will doing so compromise the universities' ability to serve their students without special needs?
A secondary question is - or maybe it should be the primary question - why do so many Canadian students have special needs these days?
Your comments are solicited.




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