Ontario’s Multi-Year Accountability Agreements (MYAAs) are a key policy lever in holding universities accountable to the provincial government. Attaching mandatory multi-year action plans for universities to the MYAAs was an excellent idea, promoting long-term planning on the part of universities for stable multi-year funding on the part of the government. In this way MYAAs are beneficial to both parties.
When “Putting Students First,” Ontario’s new five-year plan for postsecondary educa …read more
Ontario Universities are home to some great minds. Our professors conduct cutting edge research, driving scientific, social and humanitarian change at all levels of society. While this is a vital part of the university experience, students have consistently communicated that it is the quality of the classroom experience that matters most to them. The simple truth of the teaching world at Ontario universities is that no teaching qualification is required. This has always been baffling to students …read more
It is difficult to overstate the importance of effective teaching to student success. A student’s confidence, passion and effort can all be awoken by a lecturer’s ability to engage those students in a way that recognizes their learning styles. Those learning styles are by no means a constant from one generation of students to another, and a lecturer at the front of a classroom is often looking at an audience very different from the one they were a part of during their education.
The provinci …read more
More with less is a rhetoric heard too often in universities in my opinion. This past week the Economist featured an interesting article entitled “How to make college cheaper.” Mr. Schumpter’s piece focuses on a report conducted in Oklahoma on American post-secondary institutions’ growing tuition rates and how to excise bloat from their operating budgets. To start, let me clarify that the article, and the research it is based on, are about the American university system. However, as I re …read more
