Dalton McGuinty’s provincial Liberal government will continue with plans to address the myriad issues facing the post-secondary system, following up on this month’s 30 per cent tuition grant.
For much of the last eight years, the province has emphasized accessibility in post-secondary education, creating 200,000 new spaces at colleges and universities across the province. But critics say that the focus on growth has come at the cost of quality. At the same time, the province’s ranking slipped across several key indicators. Today, Ontario’s per-student funding and student-faculty ratios are the worst in Canada. According to a March 2011 poll, only eight per cent of Ontarians believed the quality of post-secondary education had improved under Dalton McGuinty.
The Liberals intend to continue expansion in order to meet the province’s projected needs. In his speech from the throne, premier Dalton McGuinty confirmed a plan to build three new university sites by 2015, taking in an additional 60,000 undergraduates. A September 4 report by the Canadian Press cited Barrie, Milton, and Brampton as probable locations. Others have suggested that the province should be eyeing high-tech hubs that would benefit from an infusion of research money and youthful talent, such as the Kanata region east of Ottawa.
But increasingly, university administrators and other experts have vocalized their desire to turn away from the intensive growth-based model. Issues such as cost and quality of education, neglected during the growth spurt, have now become the focus of attention.
“While we have welcomed this growth, it has not always occurred in a particularly well-planned way,” former Minister of Training, Universities, and Colleges John Milloy told an audience at the Canadian Club this past summer.
“One size does not fit all,” Queen’s University principal Daniel Woolf told The Globe and Mail. Queen’s, Woolf admitted frankly, “has not prospered by a growth-only formula.”
The impetus for growth comes largely from the funding agreements between the province and the universities. That agreement is up for renegotiation this year, and the stakes are high.
“The current funding formula does not place enough emphasis on teaching, does not promote teaching quality, and is needlessly complex,” said Ian Clark, a U of T public policy professor and former president of the Council of Ontario Universities, in an e-mail to The Varsity.
The opportunity to renegotiate funding agreements means that Murray can begin to pivot away from the growth-centric attitude of his predecessors, to focus on other concerns.
Though the minister admitted that he has been preoccupied with the new tuition grant, he recognizes that there is “more need out there” among demographics excluded from the recent grant and promised to work with student organizations to address these needs.
“I see myself as the person negotiating on behalf of the students with the universities,” said Murray in a recent conference call with campus media.
He added that he was “concerned about a number of things” heading into negotiations, including “the flat-rate policy that many universities have introduced, where you pay full-time for a part-time education.” U of T introduced such a policy in 2009 and it remains deeply unpopular among students and other critics with recent international changes to post-secondary education.
“You have to look at our university degrees and our college degrees in an international context,” said Murray.
Murray spoke emphatically about the importance of “the portability of degrees and the transference of credit,” which he believes to be “a real problem in Ontario.” He has been monitoring the ongoing Bologna Process, which seeks to harmonize all higher education across Europe, and is also keeping an eye on Australia’s recent overhaul of its system. If Ontario is to keep pace abroad, the coming years will likely see the introduction of 2- or 3-year degree programs.
“There are some very big challenges that we’re trying to manage, at a period when restraint for government is at an all-time high because of the global economic situation,” acknowledges Murray. “It’s a lot of balls to keep in the air.”
