Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
An important debate has begun about the quality of undergraduate education in Canada.
The leaders of five of our most distinguished research-intensive universities have recently argued for increased investment in graduate studies and research in their institutions in order to generate the innovation that will be necessary for Canada to remain competitive at the global level.
The heads of these institutions have called for a serious reflection on the need for our universities to have differentiated missions. They assert that Canada would be better served if some institutions are focused on undergraduate education, while others are more research-intensive. Inherent in this argument is an acknowledgment that large, metropolitan universities may not be the optimal learning environment for many 18- to 22-year olds.
The authors of Academic Transformation, a book commissioned by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario and released last week, also make the case for improving the quality of undergraduate education by an increased differentiation of our universities, asserting that the current model of undergraduate education in Canada is no longer sustainable.
The reality for many first-year students in Canadian universities is that they find themselves in classrooms with several hundred students in which the professor does not know who they are, and in which the opportunity for participation is extremely limited.
For first-year students certain about their career paths, the larger environment may work well. But most young adults arrive at university with a less defined path. Many will change their majors at least once, having found their passion in the course of their studies.
These students have the most to gain from a small, primarily undergraduate university, where:
- First-rate teaching in small classes is the highest priority;
- Undergraduate students have the opportunity to be directly involved in faculty-led research;
- A cohesive and caring community encourages students to define who they are and achieve their full potential;
- There are numerous opportunities for students to participate in a myriad of extracurricular activities;
- There is a multidisciplinary approach to academic study that promotes the connections between different disciplines, allowing students to see the world in different ways.
We know this model works.
The United States is home to some of the best names in undergraduate education. Colleges such as Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Swarthmore and Williams (to name only a few) have fewer than 3,000 students and are focused on undergraduates.
In Canada, the small, primarily undergraduate university is a rare breed. Nonetheless, the majority of students that attend these institutions are exceptionally positive about the quality of the education they have received. The Globe and Mail's recent Canadian University Report confirmed that students at smaller universities rate the quality of their educational experience very highly.
So why are there so few of these institutions in Canada?
The answer is clear. The funding model for universities is based on the number of students they enroll. Consequently, there is an almost irresistible temptation to grow undergraduate enrolments in order to benefit from economies of scale and to expand into the higher-funded graduate programs. There are examples in Canada of universities that began as small, undergraduate-focused institutions and grew far beyond that original mission.
So, yes, as the authors of Academic Transformation have argued, Canada certainly needs more small, primarily undergraduate institutions. But creating new undergraduate universities will not suffice if we do not also create a funding model that will sustain them.
As Ian Clark, one of the authors of Academic Transformation, has written, "something has to be done if the university system is to avoid ever-larger classes, greater reliance on part-time instructors, and a slide into homogeneous mediocrity in the face of constrained government spending and student tuition."
Canada must emerge from this debate with a model for higher education that enhances the undergraduate experience and gives each university the freedom and resources to excel at what it does best.
Robert Campbell is president of Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., Michael Goldbloom is principal of Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Que., Ray Ivany is president of Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., and Sean Riley is president of St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S.