Education/training
Quality of undergrad studies at riskThe provincial government must "reach even higher" and invest billions of additional dollars in post-secondary education if it's going to stem the tide of deterioration in universities, a new report warns. |
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 [ 2007-08-08 ] |
"The McGuinty government has made a significant investment in post-secondary education through its Reaching Higher plan, but it isn't sufficient to bring us up to the level of excellence," says Michael Doucet, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association (OCUFA). "We'd like the government to reach higher still."
The provincial government's five-year, $6.2-billion initiative was unveiled in 2005 to boost student financial assistance, enlarge the post-secondary system and improve its quality. And its benefits can be measured daily, maintains Chris Bentley, minister of training, colleges and universities.
"The OCUFA report underlines the extent to which the funding gap grew from 1991 to 2003," Bentley says. The Reaching Higher plan is the biggest funding commitment to post-secondary education in 40 years and has ushered in an additional 86,000 students, more professors and significant increases in operational funding, Bentley notes.
While compiling its research paper -- released in May -- OCUFA was dismayed to uncover several surprises. "We were so busy dealing with the funding shortage that we didn't realize how far we had sunk compared to other Canadian jurisdictions," Doucet says.
Ontario had a ratio of 27 students for each full-time professor in 2005-06, while its Canadian counterparts had a ratio of 18-to-one -- numbers Ontario hasn't seen since the mid-1990s, OCUFA reports.
Enrolment continues to increase. "The number of students coming to university exceeds by tens of thousands the numbers used by the McGuinty government in its Reaching Higher plan," Doucet says.
OCUFA estimates that Ontario needs 11,000 more professors by the end of the decade. But the time it takes to become a qualified university professor is considerable: four years of undergraduate study, one or two years to complete a master's, and another three to five to complete a PhD, depending on field of study.
More and more universities are hiring part-time and sessional professors to bridge the gap. "It's cheaper, but the downside is that, as good as those individuals might be in the classroom, they have no obligation to do research or committee and other work that makes universities run," Doucet says. "They're just not a presence on campus ... In some literature, they are referred to as 'roads scholars.' Some also call them 'gypsy scholars.'"
That could impact the variety of elective courses a university can offer, Doucet warns. Both undergraduate and graduate students are impacted by the shortage of professors, OCUFA maintains. "We're ramping up the number of graduate students, who are more demanding of faculty in terms of mentoring."
Approximately 27,000 graduate students are currently completing their master's or PhDs. The government wants to increase that by 12,000 by 2007-08 and 14,000 by 2010.
The status quo is simply not good enough, OCUFA says. "Ontario students are still getting a good education, but we could do better. Our competitors are doing better," Doucet says. "We realize this is a pretty big ask. We're hoping the provincial government gets some help from the federal government."
Bentley says the government is committed to working with partners like OCUFA. "We want to make sure we continue to see an ever brighter future."
QUICK FACTS
In its Quality in the Balance research paper, the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association is calling on the government to:
- Invest an additional $300 million in operational funding annually by 2009-10, to accommodate under-graduate enrolment increases at current student-faculty ratios, and $600 million for graduate education.
-Implement a plan to recruit full-time, tenure-stream faculty.
-Ensure internationally-competitive student-faculty ratios.
-Visit www.ocufa.on.ca to learn more.
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