On October 3, 2012, the OCUFA Executive met with Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities Glen Murray to discuss our submission in response to the government’s recent discussion paper. Members of the Executive highlighted OCUFA’s concerns with the assumptions and proposals contained within the discussion paper. We believe that, taken to their logical conclusion, they would lead to […]
ontario
This week, OCUFA released its response to the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities discussion paper, Strengthening Ontario’s Centres of Creativity, Innovation and Knowledge . Our submission, titled Growing Ontario’s Universities for the Future, was officially launched at a press conference this morning alongside responses from the Canadian Federation of Students , The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) . The OCUFA response highlights our concerns with […]
Despite the claims of some observers, Ontario’s professors are teaching as many students as they did a decade ago, and face mounting workload pressure. Claims that faculty members are teaching less – made by a small collection of policy merchants — are based more on anecdote than observation. More to the point, they are misdirected. The […]
A new study by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) suggests that three year degrees are not the productivity fix that many politicians think they are. In The Three Year Bachelor’s Degree: Reform Measure or Red Herring ?, the AASCU argues that the three year option does not meet student needs and is not likely to prove a popular educational option. In […]
When it comes to an employee’s progress through a salary grid, the answer is “always.” This is a hard truth that the Government of Ontario has now forced on elementary and secondary teachers. The estimated 40% of Ontario teachers who have not yet reached the maximum level of their salary grid, and who forego their grid-steps for […]
Ontario’s professors and academic librarians are questioning why Ontario has one of the least affordable university systems in Canada, as revealed in a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The report, Eduflation and the High Cost of Learning , compares university affordability for students across Canada. “This study shows that students and families have been asked to […]
It should come as no surprise that, in a recent BMO survey , more post-secondary students identified paying for their education as a greater source of stress than their academic success or job prospects. With Ontario leading the way, average tuition increases in Canada have outstripped inflation and the share of university operating funding coming from the pockets […]
There has been much discussion of the Bologna Process – the effort to harmonize Europe’s higher education credentials – in Ontario lately, thanks largely to the Government of Ontario’s desire to create a three-year, Bologna-style credential. Two stories, out earlier this month, suggest that Ontario should be wary of copying the European model. The University World News […]
A recent report from the US Coalition on the Academic Workforce indicates that close to 70 per cent of faculty in the US are members of the contingent academic workforce. Based on a survey of part-time faculty and instructors, it finds that “those increasingly responsible for educating the undergraduates who reap this earnings premium [of an undergraduate […]
Recent Statistics Canada research on the career paths of graduates of Ontario doctoral programs shows that while most are employed, many are not in academic jobs and others are overqualified for their current positions. Of the Ontario respondents surveyed in 2007, two years after completing their studies, almost two-thirds had aspirations of becoming a university professor. […]
A recent Statistics Canada report reveals a worrying decline in the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty members at Canada’s universities. According to the study: “The overall proportion of tenured or tenure-track positions for doctorate holders working full-time in Canadian universities decreased by 10 percentage points between 1981 and 2007, decreasing from 79.8% in the 1980/1981 academic year to […]
On June 29, 2012 OCUFA met with Bill Morneau, the Government of Ontario’s advisor on joint asset management, to present its brief on pooling the assets of Ontario public pension plans . The brief highlighted seven principles OCUFA believes are essential to any asset consolidation process: The interests of plan members must be of primary consideration. The ultimate scope of a pooled asset management system […]
New Statistics Canada data reveals that a university education continues to insulate grads from economic shocks. However, grads are not immune to pressures in the labour market—the number of workers with a university degree grew faster than the number of employed university graduates. An earlier edition of Data Check reported on Canadian and international evidence showing […]
The most recent data indicate that operating funding provided to Ontario universities by the provincial government is in a holding pattern when compared to other provinces. For 2010-11, per student funding was 34 per cent lower than in the rest of Canada, the same gap as 2009-10. Ontario remains dead last in terms of public […]
It is not cheap to provide a high quality university education online. At first glance, the operating expense per student appears lower at the Télé-Université du Québec (TÉLUQ) and Athabasca University than at traditional universities. Accounting for enrolment profile, the same is true for Thompson Rivers University (TRU) in BC, which has a physical campus […]