This afternoon, representatives from OUSA will meet with bureaucrats at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to discuss the future of Multi-Year Accountability Agreements (MYAAs). Leading the discussion from the student perspective will be Dan Moulton, Rob Lanteigne and Justin Williams, student leaders at Western, Brock and Waterloo, respectively.
Over the past few weeks, OUSA’s vision for a new iteration of MYAAs has solidified into concrete recommendations covering everything from the process for negotiation to specific issues that should be included in the accountability framework.
In a single sentence, OUSA’s vision can be summarized as follows: MYAAs should combine government priorities with institutional strategic plans and seek to hold institutions accountable to openly negotiated objectives and measures, approved by the government and the highest levels of institutional governance, and based on a balance of overarching provincial goals and the local mission and circumstances of the institution.
In addition to specific recommendations for the MYAA framework, OUSA’s vision covers broad issues such as differentiation and data collection and transparency.
The most pressing concern for our students, however, is the lack of student input on previous MYAA negotiations. At Brock University, the Brock University Students’ Union requested to be included in the MYAA process but heard nothing back from their administration. The administration at McMaster University expressed surprise that the McMaster Students Union had even heard of MYAAs. And at Waterloo, the message from the administration has been that MYAAs are meant to be between the institution and the government only.
Students are paying nearly half of the operating budgets of their universities through tuition fees. It’s time to recognize the important role students should play in ensuring the accountability of our institutions.
-Alexi White
Executive Director
Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA)
[...] a previous blog we noted the lack of student input in the MYAA process. Perhaps if students were actively involved, [...]