Quitter la tour divoire Stepping Out of the Ivory Tower

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Quitter la tour divoireStepping Outof the
Ivory Tower

• Le 19 novembre 2003 - November 19, 2003

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Plan - Outline

• Introduction
• Université à lécoute
• Cadre dimputabilité
• Accent sur une formation générale - humanités et
  sciences sociales
• Conclusions

• Introduction
• Responsive university
• Accountability framework
• A focus on liberal arts
• Conclusions

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Introduction
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The Institution what is it?

• From an institutional perspective the University
  is a trinity (James Downey, 2003)
• Corporation
• Collegium
• Community

• Dune perspective instituionnelle, lUniversité
  est une trinité (James Downey, 2003)
• Corporation
• Collège
• Communauté

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Corporation

• Legal corporate entity
• Appoint officers
• Own property
• Enter into contracts, etc.
• Autonomous institution

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Collegium

• Structures that empower the faculty to control
  and conduct the academic affairs
• Programs
• Admission
• Academic regulations and standards,
• Etc.

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Communauté

• Infrastructures
• Immeubles
• Infrastructures de communications
• Infrastructures de transport
• Services
• Ressources humaines
• Professionnels
• Sociaux et culturels
• Formation professionnelle

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The Institution what does it do?

• Major functions of the university
• Learning
• Discovery
• Engagement

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The University Framework

• What we are
• Corporation
• Collegium
• Community

• What we do
• Learning
• Discovery
• Engagement

Need to be responsive
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The Responsive University

• To survive and thrive, colleges and universities
  will have to be responsive.
• Responsiveness is in the eyes of those being
  served
• Students
• Faculty
• Parents
• Governments
• Businesses
• Non-profit organizations.
• Each of these publics will judge the university
  in terms of
• the quality of their relationships with the
  university, and
• the quality of the outcomes of those
  relationships.

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Role of Universities

• Universities have to pursue several missions at
  the same time
• to train students to work effectively in an
  increasingly competitive international economy
• to train more socially-responsible participants
  for national and global citizenship and
• to equip individuals for success in our nation's
  complex workplace

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Corporatization of Universities
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Knowledge Society and Universities

• Current social developments point to a move
  towards knowledge society
• Powered by a knowledge-based economy
• Universities are perceived as central elements to
  this KBE (e.g., innovation agenda and
  commercialization agenda)
• Is this threatening the autonomy and role of
  universities?

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A More Business-Like Approach

• Some of the positive elements
• Corporate governance
• Risk management
• Operational risks
• Enterprise risks
• Performance review
• Revenue diversification
• Value for money

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Towards a Corporate Model
Collegium
Corporate

• Undergraduate education ? research
• Curiosity-driven research ? commercialization
• Primarily govern. funding ? multi-source
  directed
  funding

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• Are universities being responsive to one public
  (business/government) at the expense of another
  (students) ?
• There is a risk need to work with our
  stakeholders to ensure that we meet the
  expectations of our publics

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University Experience

• Are we neglecting one of the key missions of
  universities? Teaching.
• We have an obligation to provide our students
  with a quality university experience

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Who is doing the teaching?

• J. Simpson (Nov. 12, 2003 Globe and Mail)
  research monies pouring into the universities
  may have induced some professors to reduce their
  teaching time, to buy their way out of teaching
  to concentrate more on research.
• Young faculty members are shying away from
  teaching as they enter the profession ? Why
  would anyone not want this job, there is no
  teaching.
• ? Faculty member protected from teaching!
• Administrative responsibilities and research
  efforts are pulling a large fraction of faculty
  members away from teaching.

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Why is this ?

• Perception that teaching is not equally valued as
  research
• Perception that the reward system is focused
  solely on research (tenure/promotion)
• Perception of a corporate university with a
  focus on commercialization of research
• Central role in a KBS/KBE requires that we place
  as much emphasis on teaching as we do on research
• we need to focus on the quality of the
  undergraduate experience, i.e., the quality of
  teaching

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How did we get there?

• While education is part of the social agenda of
  governments
• ? it is not clear if education is meant to
  include post-secondary education ? it is not
  top of mind for Ontarians
• Roger Martins report (1) indicates clearly the
  positive correlation between productivity and
  level of education attainment

• Roger Martin (2003). Missing Opportuniyies
  Ontarios urban propserity gap

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Ontarians Place Less Value on University
Education than Peers
If you had to give advice to a young person about
the level of education they should have , which
one of the following would you advise them to
achieve?
The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity,
Working Paper No. 4, Sept. 2003 Striking
similarities Attitudes and Ontarios prosperity
gap
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Returns of Education
The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity,
Working Paper No. 3, June 2003 Missing
Opportunities Ontarios Urban Prosperity Gap
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Ontario Provincial Funding for University
Education
Per FTE
Per Capita
COU, 2003
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How did we get there ?

• Only additional source of new funding in recent
  years was driven solely by growth in UG
  enrolment
• No inflationary budget adjustments
• Student Faculty ratio (based on FT-UG students)
• 161 in 1996
• 231 in 2003
• Quality Assurance Fund introduced in 2003-04

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Money Gap Left by the Government

• Some have even gone so far as to state
• There is a need for universities to build an
  independent pool of capital private funding
  will have to support 5 to 10 of operating
  budget Bill Brock, former TB deputy chairman
  Globe and Mail Nov. 16, 2003 Gordon Pitts

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Éléments de solutionsSome ideas
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Tiering of University Funding

• As a research intensive university with an
  important fraction of expensive professional
  programs ? highly disadvantaged
• e.g., cost of training an MD students varies
  between 80K-100K per student per year ? current
  grant is 22K per year per student.
• Funding model should reflect the different
  missions of universitiesa) primarily
  undergraduate b) undergrad/graduate c)
  medical/doctoral universities

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Accountability Framework

• While we are autonomous corporate institutions
• Academic freedom and autonomy ? accountability

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Performance-Based Funding

• A component of our funding should be based on
  performance and quality indicators
• Indicators should be
• measurable,
• verifiable, and
• directly related to the quality of the university
  experience (undergraduate and graduate)
• Categories as opposed to ranking

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Return to Basics
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Role of Universities in Building a Civil Society

• The primary mission of a university is not to
  train but to educate, not to do research or
  transfer technology, not to prepare students for
  jobs but to make them more discerning people,
  capable of seeing through the political and
  commercial huckterisms of their times, of
  establishing their own values and finding their
  own meaning in life, of constructing and
  expressing their own compelling
  narratives.James Downey, 2003

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Liberal Arts/Science Education

• A liberal arts/science education is at the basis
  of a university education
• cultivate intellectual creativity, autonomy,
  and resilience critical thinking a combination
  of intellectual breath and specialized knowledge
  the comprehension and tolerance of diverse ideas
  and experiences informed participation in
  community life and effective communications
  skills.Paull Axelrod, 2002

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Liberal Arts and Sciences Basis

• All professional programsmedicine ? law
  ?education ?engineeringbusinesshealth
  sciences
• should be 2nd entry programs, i.e, students
  should be required to have a strong liberal
  arts/science/humanities (multidisciplinary)
  degree

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Conclusions
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Conclusions

• Need to re-focus on the university experience of
  our students
• Revisit the funding models of universities
• Introduce measures of accountability in funding
• Focus on liberal arts and science

Mettre laccent sur lexpérience universitaire
des étudiants Nouveaux modèles de
financement Introduire un cadre dimputabilité
dans le financement Promouvoir les avantages
dune formation générale arts sciences