A couple of years ago, I wrote a cover story for the Georgia Straight pointing out that on balance, data suggests that a postsecondary education pays off financially.

I'm grateful to UBC economist Craig Riddell for highlighting two key points:

• University graduates make significantly more money over the course of their lifetimes than those who don't have a degree.

• University graduates endure shorter periods of unemployment when they lose a job.

This second point is an often under-appreciated benefit of slogging it out at one of B.C.'s universities.

But a new research paper by CIBC indicates that there are still some serious issues that need to be addressed.

• The bank reports that half of all of those with degrees from outside of Canada earn less than the median income.

• Approximately 30 percent of those with degrees from Canadian institutions earn less than the median income.

• The unemployment rate is 1.7 percent lower among those with bachelor's degrees compared to those with high-school diplomas. In the 1990s, this gap spiked at five percent.

• The gap in unemployment is only 0.7 percent between college and university grads, whereas it was higher than three percent in the early 1990s.

"A higher education may be a necessary condition for a good job in Canada, but it is no longer a sufficient condition," the bank states in its report. "Narrowing employment and earning premiums for higher education means that, on average, Canada is experiencing an excess supply of post-secondary graduates."

Part of the problem in B.C. is a lack of coordination between institutions.

For example, once upon a time SFU was the only school offering a criminology degree. Now, those degrees are also available at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and University of the Fraser Valley, which is also offering a master of arts in criminal justice.

This type of replication is occurring in numerous other programs at various postsecondary institutions, whether the topics are film studies, journalism, health care, or the performing arts.

Former attorney general Geoff Plant's 2007 report on postsecondary education, Campus 2020, was supposed to bring about a more coordinated approach.

But in some instances, the B.C. government ignored Plant's recommendations—such as on the number of regional universities or his call to prohibit colleges from issuing degrees.

For example, Douglas College offers numerous bachelor's-degree programs.

At the time, the minister responsible for postsecondary education, Murray Coell, defended B.C.'s loosey-goosey approach by declaring that a bachelor's degree added $500,000 to a person's income over their lifetime.

The next year, there was a global economic meltdown. And the new CIBC report suggests that Coell's estimate is now far off the mark.

Students don't live near institutions

Another major concern in the Lower Mainland is the huge discrepancy between where students live and where colleges and universities are located.

The vast majority of postsecondary institutions are north of the Fraser River. But the largest growth in young people is taking place in communities like Surrey, Langley, North Delta, and Abbotsford.

Kudos to SFU for creating a campus in Surrey Centre. And UBC has increased its medical-education in Surrey. But it's not nearly enough.

That's why Kwantlen Polytechnic University and University of the Fraser Valley are able to cream off so many degree-seeking students. They don't have to travel so far to get to school.

If only things were so easy for Langara and Douglas College, though Douglas has created a campus in Coquitlam to serve the Tri-Cities, which has a rapidly growing population of young people.

This is a serious issue warranting much greater attention from the provincial government. Rather than allowing a laissez-faire approach to letting institutions grow and compete with one another for students, there needs to be a minister who's willing to step in and offer more direction.

In the absence of much input from provincial politicians, some institutions are collaborating on their own to address the chaos. Langara, in particular, has been a leader in this area, thanks in part to Bradley O'Hara, the school's vice president of academic affairs.

B.C. benefited from collaboration after release of the 1963 MacDonald Report on Higher Education, which charted a large expansion in community colleges. That was the right decision for the times, and it created wonderful opportunities for students to obtain more affordable postsecondary education at the college level. They could then transfer these credits toward a university degree.

Similarly, Plant's Campus 2020 report included a useful roadmap to the future. And some of the recommendations are being followed, which is resulting in more aboriginal enrollment, for instance.

But recent B.C. premiers have been changing advanced education ministers too quickly, disrupting any continuity.

Since Christy Clark took over in 2011, she's named three ministers to oversee colleges and universities: Naomi Yamamoto, John Yap, and Amrik Virk. Virk was on the board of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, so even though he's a politicial rookie, he has some insights into the issue.

Nevertheless, Clark still treats the Ministry of Advanced Education like it's a junior portfolio for inexperienced members of cabinet rather than putting a veteran in charge. It's the key to the province's economic future—and you could never imagine her putting a neophyte in as the minister of finance or the minister of energy.

It's worth noting that this year, she cut the budget for postsecondary education, which was a contributing factor behind her recent defeat in Vancouver–Point Grey.

Let's hope this CIBC report serves as a wake-up call for her and the rest of the cabinet to stop looking at colleges and universities as political footballs or training grounds for rookie ministers. There's a high economic price to be paid for not taking this issue more seriously.