On Wednesday, August 29, 2012, OCUFA President Constance Adamson met with Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities Glen Murray. The purpose of the meeting was to follow-up on the recently completed consultations around the discussion paper, Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation, and Knowledge.
The Minister indicated that the government hopes to announce its plans for higher education in later fall of 2012. This will likely coincide with the completion of the Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) process. The SMAs, announced in a July memo, will replace the multi-year accountability agreements and asks each university to state their priorities and how these priorities fit with the government’s objectives. It remains unclear what, if any, funding implications will come with the SMAs.
OCUFA reiterated its expectation that the feedback received during the consultations will be incorporated into any policy proposals going forward. President Adamson also highlighted the need for collaborative reform that makes use of the front-line knowledge of faculty and students.
OCUFA will be formally responding to the discussion paper in a written submission, to be published at the beginning of October.
This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.