There is something amiss with Ontario’s universities. I am not the first person to come to that conclusion, and will not be the last.
Over the last two decades, Ontario universities have increasingly struggled to maintain a high quality product in the face of the rising demand for postsecondary education. The new reality of globalization has sparked a large increase in the number of young people seeking postsecondary education in order to compete in the new economic environment of the twenty-first century. This problem has manifested itself in larger class sizes, higher student-to-faculty ratios, and higher tuition fees.
The predicament has been exacerbated by the unravelling of the welfare state caused by the budget deficits. To add to this quandary, Ontario has a rapidly aging population that makes large demands on the health care budget. Because of the general apathy among young people, both the provincial and the federal governments have found it relatively easy to sacrifice education funding in favour of healthcare.
This difficult situation is not unique to Ontario. Throughout much of the Western world, overwhelmed postsecondary education systems are the norm.
It is clear that drastic changes need to be implemented in the face of the inability, the incompetence, or the lack of desire of both levels of government to provide an accessible, high-quality postsecondary education to young Canadians.
In order to stimulate the quality of postsecondary education, the government’s virtual monopoly on the postsecondary education system needs to be challenged. It is crucial to make a calculated move towards partial privatization to improve Ontario’s postsecondary education system.
Privatization could be centred on industry-oriented faculties such as medical schools, engineering faculties, and business schools. Within this model, corporations and other private sources would be extensively involved in the funding and administration of these privatized faculties.
The logic behind this model is that by privatizing these faculties, the limited public money that is currently available could be freed up to fund the other faculties within the university. In addition, getting corporations more involved would be a prudent move since they themselves are the primary beneficiaries of the graduates from these industry-oriented faculties.
Consider, for example, Ontario’s current doctor shortage. The reasons for this shortage are complex, but one main issue is that many eager students are being turned away from medical school because of school-imposed enrolment restrictions. A privatized medical school system could address this shortage far more effectively than the current public one, because the private sector model is more conscious of-and responsive to-the market forces of supply and demand.
Some might think that this privatization would give too much power to the corporate sector. To allay these fears, a hybrid public-private system could be created within the industry-oriented faculties whereby courses in ethics would be funded publicly while the technical courses such as physics, calculus, etc, would be run under the private regime. Exposure to ethical practices would thus be ensured, while students would have the opportunity to be educated by their future employers.
In light of the current crisis facing Ontario universities, partial privatization of universities would ensure that the students of Ontario are able to obtain the high-quality education necessary for survival in the competitive global market.
