I spent Thursday at Wilfrid Laurier University where there was a one day symposium entitled "Re-imagining the University in a Changing World". It was better than most gatherings of this type because speakers were asked to speak for only 5-10 minutes and then engage with the audience for an extended period. This engagement was most intense after Ian Clark's presentation on the cost effectiveness of universities.
Clark is one of the authors of both Academic Transformations and the upcoming Academic Reform, the former emanating from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO). One of Clark's startling arguments is that teaching only undergraduate universities as envisaged by the current government would cost less than research focused universities and would produce surpluses which could then be reinvested into the hiring and training of more "teaching stream faculty".
Another iconoclastic argument was that there is no reliable research that shows any correlation between excellence in teaching and research productivity. Once the audience regained its collective breath he then delivered the coup de grace: there is some indication in his own research, he remarked, that excellent teaching and excellent research are actually independent of each other and bear no relation whatsoever. Check out the following link to another source: http://www.heqco.ca/en-CA/Pages/Home.aspx.
Talk about deconstructing an academic gospel.
Personally I find the arguments a challenge; even moreso when I realize that this separation of two activities which have long been assumed to be inter-relational is driving both the media coverage of undergraduate education in Ontario and government thinking about the postsecondary sector. Not to mention the shift of enrolments from universities to college training programs Have a happy weekend.
Friday 21 October 2011
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Navigating
Sorry for the long hiatus. It's been a busy month what with the start up of the new term and the need to navigate our way through the various drafts of the Academic Plan. A quick update:
All 26 academic units have been visited; we've also consulted with the library, TCSA and college cabinet members, the exec committees of CUPE and OPSEU, as well as the TIP Office. Still to come are the various other stakeholder groups--grad students, student affairs (including the Registrar's Office), TUFA exec, a town hall for all and sundry, and the SEM Committee. The Provost's Planning Group has begun discussing intersecting issues such as the upcoming mandate meetings with government, new program proposals, and the staffing plans for 2012-2013. Kudos to all the colleagues who provided candid and honest input. I especially enjoyed the thoughtful recommendation to abolish all administrators at Trent. Really.
I started drafting the plan from the first day of meetings and as each consultation ended the draft would undergo a variety of revisions. At 35 pages I decided it was time to test the waters with the committee who are now, at my request, critiquing the draft. Once we have a draft that we're comfortable with I hope to post it as a discussion paper on the intranet so that all members of the community can wade into the discussions. We're aiming to have a version ready for initial discussion at Faculty Board in November and/or December, an advanced draft for the Board in early December, Senate (which has exclusive authority over the academic parts) in January. with a final version ready for the Board to approve the fiduciary/financial parts in February.
The title, "Navigating," has been chosen deliberately. The plan is developing in an environment of incredibly radical changes on the horizon. We have government talking of three new "teaching only" undergraduate campuses being built in Ontario; HEQCO is just about to release its second volume on restructuring the post-secondary sector, entitled Academic Reform, and both MTCU and the Council of Ontario Universities are struggling with the complex issue of "learner outcomes". Not to mention mandate meetings between MTCU and the Universities to discuss "differentiation" and possible new funding formulae not based on growth; and being beaten up in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star for not providing a good "return on investment" in the marketplace. Writing our plan in this environment has hardly been a cakewalk; au contraire, it's beena difficult navigation amongst competing interests, colliding expectations, and impinging external and internal pressures. But I digress.
Short version: we have a fantastic community who cares deeply about this beautiful little quirky gem of a university. We have brilliant committee members who are working extremely hard on developing the best plan possible; we have students who are unabated in their passion for this place; and colleagues across the board who really do want this thing to work. As someone very wise remarked today, "I'm beginning to feel optimistic again. Sort of." Stay tuned.
All 26 academic units have been visited; we've also consulted with the library, TCSA and college cabinet members, the exec committees of CUPE and OPSEU, as well as the TIP Office. Still to come are the various other stakeholder groups--grad students, student affairs (including the Registrar's Office), TUFA exec, a town hall for all and sundry, and the SEM Committee. The Provost's Planning Group has begun discussing intersecting issues such as the upcoming mandate meetings with government, new program proposals, and the staffing plans for 2012-2013. Kudos to all the colleagues who provided candid and honest input. I especially enjoyed the thoughtful recommendation to abolish all administrators at Trent. Really.
I started drafting the plan from the first day of meetings and as each consultation ended the draft would undergo a variety of revisions. At 35 pages I decided it was time to test the waters with the committee who are now, at my request, critiquing the draft. Once we have a draft that we're comfortable with I hope to post it as a discussion paper on the intranet so that all members of the community can wade into the discussions. We're aiming to have a version ready for initial discussion at Faculty Board in November and/or December, an advanced draft for the Board in early December, Senate (which has exclusive authority over the academic parts) in January. with a final version ready for the Board to approve the fiduciary/financial parts in February.
The title, "Navigating," has been chosen deliberately. The plan is developing in an environment of incredibly radical changes on the horizon. We have government talking of three new "teaching only" undergraduate campuses being built in Ontario; HEQCO is just about to release its second volume on restructuring the post-secondary sector, entitled Academic Reform, and both MTCU and the Council of Ontario Universities are struggling with the complex issue of "learner outcomes". Not to mention mandate meetings between MTCU and the Universities to discuss "differentiation" and possible new funding formulae not based on growth; and being beaten up in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star for not providing a good "return on investment" in the marketplace. Writing our plan in this environment has hardly been a cakewalk; au contraire, it's beena difficult navigation amongst competing interests, colliding expectations, and impinging external and internal pressures. But I digress.
Short version: we have a fantastic community who cares deeply about this beautiful little quirky gem of a university. We have brilliant committee members who are working extremely hard on developing the best plan possible; we have students who are unabated in their passion for this place; and colleagues across the board who really do want this thing to work. As someone very wise remarked today, "I'm beginning to feel optimistic again. Sort of." Stay tuned.
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