Order up the buses!

It looks like we’ll be heading up the road again.

A confidential source informed me that one of the 29 recommendations contained in the P&P Report is to create three Institutes of Applied Learning and Training which are to be corporate entities, owned jointly by a university and a community college, with an independent oversight board.

And keep in mind that the TJ article reprinted below noted that the working group also proposed “that more university-level courses be offered away from the four traditional institutions.” If courses normally taught at a primarily undergraduate institution like UNB Saint John (one could also add STU and MtA with qualifications), what need is there for such an institution?

Sounds like the polytechnic is back on the front burner and we’re on the chopping block. Sorry for the kitchen metaphors. But don’t worry. Ed Doherty says none of these changes will be in place before 2009!

Don’t we all feel somehow sold out?

 

Where to begin?

The TJ is just full of info (?) on the leaked P&P report. From Doherty’s feigned indignation over the leak, to an article on student concerns, to an editorial on the need for government leadership as opposed to the inaction of late — at least on the PSE front. The TJ editor attempts to make a connection between self-sufficiency and PSE reforms — saying that students want self-sufficiency — although it is not clear from the comments what ss is. Nor is it clear what students think about ss. Certainly there has been no attempt to talk to the students at UNBSJ. The article on student reaction to the leak does not include comments from a student at UNBSJ — presumably the campus most affected by the impending changes, whatever they may be. It’s all well and good to have an issue on the front page, but it would be better to have more investigative reporting and fewer opinionated musings from the major daily. See below.

“Not giving it up; Report: Although details are out, irked minister refuses to release higher education document,” Daniel McHardie (Jun 13/08)

The Liberal government will hold on to the special working group report on post-secondary education that proposes spending nearly a half-billion dollars to create even more bureaucracy, and its formal response, for a “few weeks.”

Post-Secondary Education Minister Ed Doherty said he was extremely disappointed that a leaked copy of the working group on post-secondary education appeared in the Telegraph-Journal on Thursday but he refused to release either the report or his government’s response, insisting he needed more time to study it.

Read the rest. And there is more…

“Students want higher education plan to show them the money,” Megan O’Toole (June 13/08)

Students across the board have panned the findings of a special working group on the province’s post-secondary education system.

The government was still refusing to release the report and its response to the recommendations within, but a copy leaked to the Telegraph-Journal revealed a $466-million plan that would add six layers of bureaucracy to the system.

“We’ve very concerned and disappointed by the actual student-centredness of the recommendations,” Duncan Gallant, president of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, said Thursday. “We see very little detail and attention paid to accessibility and affordability.”

Read the rest. And the icing on the self-sufficiency cake…

“Where’s the plan for education?,” (Jun 13/08)

When the Graham government announced it would launch a commission into post-secondary education, New Brunswickers had high hopes. It seemed the province’s universities and community colleges at last would be retuned to meet the needs of students in a changing economy.

A year and a half later, zero progress has been made, despite two reports, reams of public commentary, and some very appealing alternative proposals, including suggestions that New Brunswick could become a national destination for trades training and medical education.

Read the rest.

 

Where is a plumber when you need one?

Yes, there was a leak in Fredericton today — well maybe more than one… Just in case you missed them in the T-J, here they are, in all their glory:

• “High-priced education: Academic administrators would add six layers of bureaucracy to province’s post-secondary system, spend $466M,” Daniel McHardie, Telegraph-Journal (June 12/08).
• “‘Consortia’ part of new proposal,” Telegraph-Journal (June 12/08).

 

We passed on the stairs

Another college achieves university status, this time Kwantlen College University in B.C.

Heidi Chik, who graduated in 2006, said the new designation will help future students when they apply for jobs outside of Canada.
“In Asia they value the name, ‘university,’” she said. “They don’t know Kwantlen in Hong Kong. Now you can bring your degree and they’ll see ‘university’ on it and recognize it.”

Hey, they keep telling us it’s all about the branding.

 

The front door’s locked so come in through the back

Am I and the lovely Dr. Lindsay the only ones getting anxious about all this Michael Shattock enthusiasm? I mean, just read this.

 

Will we be next?

As reported in the Times Higher Education Supplement (Jan 24/08), the plans introduced two years ago to offer students in the UK compressed degrees, funded by the private sector, are expanding beyond Derby, Leeds Metropolitan, Staffordshire, Northampton, and Medway Partnership:

In the annual grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, John Denham, the Universities Secretary, set out his “ambitious and groundbreaking” plans for the sector.

The rise of degrees part-funded by employers and tailored to their individual needs; part-time and flexible courses; ‘compressed’ two-year honours degrees; and vocational foundation degrees are the way to meet the agenda, he said.

Mr Denham added that there should be 5,000 degree places partly funded by employers in 2008-09, 10,000 the following year, and 20,000 in three years.

But even if these targets were met, there would still be “a long way to go,” Mr Denham said. “We will look for more substantial growth in this kind of provision from 2011. This in part will mean a new approach to funding … But the need for innovation and cultural change goes well beyond that.”

“Providers will need a growing appreciation of the requirements of employers … to provide and adapt courses swiftly in response to demand (and) to offer provision tailored to individual businesses,” Mr Denham said.

Acknowledging that the next three years would be a period of “controlled experimentation,” he said that there should be 100,000 students on two-year foundation degrees by 2010, and more two-year honours degrees. (Source)

Interestingly, when UK universities first began offering students a compressed option, students were faced with paying double the usual tuition fees for the privilege of taking the “fast track” (see BBC News).

How does this relate to post-secondary education in New Brunswick?

Michael Shattock, one of the UK’s bona fide gurus of post-secondary education, lectured to a crowd at the WU Centre (UNB-F) on 16 April and to another assembly in Saint John two days later on university and community partnerships. He is best known as the former Registrar of Warwick University who headed up the “transformation” of his home institution during the Thatcher cut-and-slash years. He played a big role in transforming a university on the skids into an entrepreneurial powerhouse whose motto is “philosophers interpret the world, the point is to reinvent it” (see Reinventing Education at Warwick). However, as pointed out by Simon Marginson, Warwick’s transformation was made possible by the fact that it had almost four decades of government support before going entrepreneurial and that funding, direction, and institutional stability account for the entrepreneurial success story. As an interesting aside, Marginson also points out that: “A Cambridge approach would not have worked at Warwick; nor can a Warwick or Cambridge strategy create a doctoral university out of a two-year community college in Canada” (Minerva, 44, 2006, 80).

Reviews of Shattock’s work are largely positive, especially his view that academics must be at the core of university governance, but it has been pointed out by someone more knowledgable than I that there is something in his work for everyone — i.e. for those advocating commercialization of the academy and a strong non-academic management team, as well as for those sympathetic to a more traditional view of academic governance. I am, however, a little uneasy with the notion that aspiring university administrators can obtain a master’s degree from the Institute of Education, University of London, due to his initiative, and it gives one pause that his accolades include service in 1987 on a “team established by the University Grants Committee that effectively closed the bankrupt University College Cardiff; [and] in 1994 he chaired a public inquiry into the affairs of Derby College that led to the dismissal of the governing body. He has also been an adviser to the parliamentary select committee on education; see above announcement regarding compressed degrees” (Times Higher Education Supplement, Nov 2/01).

Lastly, (in an already lengthy post) he chaired the OECD panel that produced the “Review of Higher Education in Ireland” (2004) recommending an end to the “Free Fees Policy” for undergraduate education (Recommendation #50). This recommendation reflects his long held view that no government is “able to pay fully for the transition from elite to mass and from mass to near universal education.” (online reprint, THES, 1999).

For those interested in internationalization — and who isn’t in the world of post-secondary education — Shattock has a clear position: “In my opinion setting up overseas campuses is a strategic mistake. They involve a huge commitment of time and resources, and they are a diversion from the core business of running your university.” He and five other academics with experience in China-UK partnerships put together British universities in China: The reality beyond the rhetoric (see AGORA: the Forum for Culture and Education; Anthea Lipsett, “Academics urge caution over Chinese collaboration,” EducationGuardian.co.uk, Dec 6/07). Although they feel an obligation to point out that their arguments do not constitute anti-Chinese sentiment, their disclaimer seems misplaced given that it is crystal clear that their main concern is that the Chinese government is no longer interested in partnerships with second ranked western institutions. The “problem” is that their efforts in China are being rebuffed as top tiered universities cash in on the “customer base” (see “Expert warns ‘naive’ British.” THES, Dec 7/07).

Political issues within Chinese universities are also raised as problematic, but interestingly enough Shattock implies elsewhere that the situation in the UK is not so very different. He warns that whatever happens within academe, we will not return to the 1960s; rather we seem to be moving towards “stronger and more authoritarian internal governance and management structure and greater state control” (J. Ed. Policy 14.3, 1999, 282). He especially dislikes the latter tendency. Who wouldn’t? But as one of the warriors who combatted Thatcherism (successfully) he proposes using incentives to encourage institutional efforts in obtaining external funding, creating a cabinet style governing body, and providing flexibility so as to allow faculty recruitment and remuneration reflective of specific institutional missions (see recommendations 8,9,10,12, 17, 19, “Review of Higher Education in Ireland,” 2004).

Ah… our future unfolds before us. We’re reliving the Thatcher years!

 

Rumblings

From the desk of our Premier, via the Mirimichi Leader:

The recommendations of Benefits Blueprint dovetail with the priority reforms currently being undertaken by government. In order to ensure New Brunswick is making the most of the opportunities ahead of us, we are focusing on change in health care, education, post-secondary education, taxation, and local governance.…

This spring we look forward to receiving input from the Working Group on Post-Secondary Education, and during this legislative session we will respond with the most significant overhaul of post-secondary education in 40 years.

I think this government is missing a huge chunk of its job description, if not the whole thing, and gotten it mixed up with that of the Chamber of Commerce or the Board of Trade.

Update (15/4/08): I take that last bit back; the Board of Trade, or at least their outgoing chair, is a lot more sensible than this government.

 

Today’s

editorial in the Telegraph-Journal opens:

Since new businesses tend to cluster around strong university research programs and easy access to investment capital, strengthening New Brunswick’s capital markets will not be enough to spur significant economic growth. The province also needs to expand its research capability.

This idea was articulated recently by venture capitalist Leonard Brody. We believe many New Brunswickers would agree, including Dr. Rodney Ouellette, president and CEO of the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute, UNB’s president, John McLaughlin, and all those at Université de Moncton who are trying to encourage health care research in conjunction with the university’s medical program.

New Brunswick’s universities can become major research centres, if the provincial government makes research and development a budgetary priority.

 

Is it … ?

 

Post-secondary education: the Benefits Blueprint

From the Office of the Premier:

Sixteen recommendations, including the following on post-secondary education:

• Launch an Energy Skills Centre of Excellence that will conduct research; showcase and test new technologies; incubate new energy sector businesses; and grant degrees, certificates/diplomas, and licenses for sector-specific skills.
• Establish a Construction-Skills Training Program at the NBCC Saint John campus to extend and strengthen technical training, attract more women to the trades, and improve capacity

Response from John McLaughlin, president of the University of New Brunswick: “UNB supports all of these recommendations, and is particularly pleased to see reference to the development of an Energy Skills Centre of Excellence.”

 

Status report

There are contradictory stories in the N.B. media today: one T&T story describes a rise in Liberal support and includes the following, “In recent months, the Grits were hurt by uncertainty surrounding the future of the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John campus. The government has since distanced itself from calls for major changes at the school, which drew mass protest.” The implication here is that Graham and the Liberals dodged a bullet, whew! (though chances are good that the Saint John MLAs are not feeling quite so comfortable). Yet someone must have missed a meeting because the Daily Gleaner takes the Liberals to task for continued inaction: “There was the post-secondary education report which still awaits decisions, barring one comment in the premier’s state of the province address saying the University of New Brunswick Saint John campus would not become a polytechnic.” This sounds more like it: the premier made his heroic announcement that the campus that he himself was threatening would be saved, went on to make comments that reproduced the language of the CPSE lobbyist wishlist report, promised two forthcoming initiatives — the long-awaited report of the working group of presidents and principles, and the new idea of a bi-campus UNB commission — and then … nothing.

Meanwhile, UNB Saint John is losing faculty: people who started looking elsewhere during the height of the crisis are now being made offers, and as the situation on campus is still uncertain, some are taking them. Worse, without the budget inequities between the two campuses being redressed, UNB Saint John is still under a hiring freeze and will continue to be unable to fill vacancies, new or longstanding, in the foreseeable future. Vacancies in the Liberal Arts, that is. An announcement about some applied programme or other would hardly come as a surprise. But without support of existing programmes in the arts and sciences, that would be nothing more than the Miner/L’Écuyer polytechnic through the back door.

Deep relationships with business indeed.

So it’s not over, UNB Saint John is still being damaged, and we are still waiting.

 

Our readers

will find this ironic: according to the Toronto Star, “In a $2 million attack on Baby Boomers’ snobby obsession with university, Ontario’s community colleges have launched a fake ad campaign to get parents to let their kids consider more hands-on higher learning.” Colleges Ontario, an advocacy group, has implemented a series of “provocative” teaser ads about a fake medication called “Obay” with tag lines like, “My son used to have his own hopes and aspirations. Now he has mine. Thanks, Obay!” The ads ran for awhile and then were plastered with yellow stickers that said “Obay isn’t real. Your kids should be able to make their own decisions; explore all the options on collegesontario.com.”

Of course, here in Saint John we have quite the opposite sort of pressure. And not from parents.

(links from Dale Kirby)

 

Andy Scott – the (Liberal) man without an agenda…

Okay, so that’s one mixed message. More to the point, however, is the bundle of mixed messages contained in Actualites (TJ 23 Feb 08). Are New Brunswick politicians drinking Saint John water (or imbibing some other polluted un-potable) these days? I can only attribute the unrelenting debate (so-called) over self-sufficiency, equalization payments, and post-secondary education as indicative of such.

Who are we kidding? New Brunswick without equalization? Apparently because New Brunswick is disadvantaged by the new formula for Equalization payments (EP), a formula that will allocate more federal monies to Quebec and other provinces—even Alberta!—because they will receive payments based on population rather than on the principle that all Canadians, regardless of where they live (or how many of them there are), deserve equal access to social and economic programs/opportunities, the plan is to make New Brunswick self-sufficient so we won’t be in need of those payments. Scott calls this situation ironic. I call it ludicrous.

Why? As stated in the TJ, even the wealthiest provinces are entitled to equalization payments, and while these wealthy provinces contribute more to the pot from which EP are pulled, they nonetheless are (and have been) getting them alongside the have-not provinces. Now it appears that our government has decided that since EP are unfair it would be an opportune time to become self-sufficient so as to not require said payments. Hmmm… it seems to me that the strongest economies are the opposite of self-sufficient. They are inseparable from regional, national, and global contexts. They are the very antithesis of self-sufficiency – at least according to the classic definition. Hmmm…. I wonder if Jean Charest and Ed Stelmach have started divvying up the extra funds yet?

OMG – again! Don’t you just love it when the best our leaders can do is come up with a “cut off my nose to spite my face” strategy viz a viz provincial-federal relations?

Moreover, they vacillate between going cap-in-hand to Harper—making nice so as to obtain federal financial assistance to realize their self-sufficiency agenda—and blowing off the feds with self-sufficiency bravado. Wait a minute: Bravado or obsequiousness? Decisions, decisions.

And then they throw in the post-secondary education issue for good measure. Somehow—although it’s not clear how—they seem to think that post-secondary education will be the vehicle to move this self-sufficiency agenda forward (I like this new lingo – it has much to commend it. It saves the bother of thinking things through so as to formulate ideas using words with meaning.) Not only will Graham “harness the diplomatic relations he has established with Ottawa to reinforce his self-sufficiency agenda,” he should Scott says, create a post-secondary education hub that will have a “renewed emphasis on immigration,” be a centre for “training and research and development,” and “attract foreign professors to work in much larger community college campuses.” Back up the bus.

1. Last time I looked, diplomatic relations referred to relationships between states or nations, not to relationships within and/or between the provinces and the feds—although there are exceptions, for example the period leading up to the American Civil War. There is only one level of Canadian government in the field of diplomacy—and it is not the province of New Brunswick.

2. Is the polytechnic back on the table? Or was it always there hiding behind the salt and pepper? In addition to confusing universities with polytechnics, Scott has forgotten that the international students now enrolled at UNBSJ spoke out loudly against the polytech idea, calling it a “fake university.” Why would those students be attracted to Scott’s new post-secondary education hub? Is it my imagination or have we just seen the genesis of yet another hub? Egads.

the agenda…

Just because Scott is leaving federal politics does not mean he is without “an axe to grind.” All it means is that he will be out of federal politics. I, for one, would like Scott or any other Liberal in the province to explain—in plain English or francais—what self-sufficiency is. I’m guessing that it is a plan to extricate New Brunswick from an overweening dependence on EP—but that is only a guess. And to extrapolate further, I’m guessing it is to somehow become just like those other provinces that are less dependent on EP. However, it is surely not clear from any of the rhetoric we’ve heard that this, any more than raising our own chickens (and eggs) so we don’t have to rely on the poultry counter at the supermarket for our daily protein, is the government view of SS.

Given how difficult it is to tell what the government really means by SS, it is even more difficult to determine how post-secondary education fits in to this brave new self-sufficient world.

 

Haven’t done one of these in awhile …

 

Alec Bruce

takes a clear look at the premier’s remarks at the State of the Province extravaganza, and I don’t like what he sees.

 

Okay, so

what flashes across my screen this morning, before I have had my full quota of caffeine, but a media release from Polytechnics Canada™ asking for more federal funding for the third post-secondary stream (in case you were not aware that there are three post-secondary streams, they are, at least according to Polytechnics Canada™, colleges, universities, and polytechnics).

Never mind that not all of the seven members of Polytechnics Canada™ are, by their own admission, polytechnics. And never mind that a PR campaign does not a third stream make. Never mind, because I admit that after the events of this past year, I am not rational on the subject of polytechnics.

So never mind all that.

But what I find particularly galling is that an organization that bills itself as being in partnership with business is asking for public money. The press release laments that pure research receives government funding but applied research does not get its fair share.

Could that be because applied research is usually done in tandem with corporations and has the potential to make a s#*tload of money? Money that rarely goes back to the institutions which provide the researcher with credentials and host and support the research, I might add. Could it be that research designed to maximize profits is not necessarily research that seeks to expand knowledge or benefit the public? Could it be that the impartiality of corporate-sponsored research is often compromised? Bottom line: why should taxpayers subsidize corporate R&D?

And why can’t Polytechnics Canada™ put its money where its mouth is? They choose to paint universities as impractical, elitist, and a drain on the public purse, while they are the lean, mean, clear-eyed alternative.

Have at ‘er, then.

 

One thousand words

 

One thousand words

 

Ominous news bites

Premier Graham might encounter some difficulties. There will be groups, among the bureaucracy and elsewhere, that will offer resistance and try to scuttle some or all of the plans. The reversal of the plan to turn the UNB Saint John and two northern U de M campuses into polytechnics provides an example. In that case, it appears that by moving the existing NBCC to a more independent basis and fostering greater interaction with universities, the premier has found another route to the same goal. If so, it’s a creative solution. (source)

The Saint John Board of Trade is pleased that UNBSJ will become a “centre of excellence” for applied courses in the province.

“We are very encouraged with this renewed commitment to existing programs at UNBSJ and focused growth in applied learning in response to emerging economic opportunities,” said Nathalie Godbout, board chairwoman.

In fact, the board proposes to play a key role in providing feedback and guidance to a new commission designed to review the relationship between the UNB campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, she said, and hopes for a “timely response” to post-secondary education reform on matters of both governance and funding for UNBSJ.

“These new announcements suggest that we are moving in the right direction to ensure the business community is prepared for the anticipated economic growth in our region,” she said. (source)

The premier’s stick-handling of the contentious issue is being heralded by one of the individuals who ignited the debate in September.

Rick Miner and Jacques L’Ecuyer led an independent commission that recommended polytechnic institutes be established in Saint John, Edmundston and Shippagan. On Friday, Miner said he doesn’t view the omission of the system of polytechnics from Graham’s state of the province address as a blow to his report.

Miner said the premier’s commitment to injecting additional applied courses into a more integrated system sounds very much like what he recommended - minus the inflammatory language.

“To me, it is not a win or lose, it is what is best for the province,” Miner said. “When you step back and look at it, it looks like what we recommended but the polytech word is not there.”

…

Depending on how this concept is implemented, Miner said these specific missions could have a funding impact on the universities because it could designate specific institutions as the sole schools for research, a distinction that could bring in more funds. (source)

 

The reason the PSE issue seems so complicated

is because it is. There are almost as many agendas as there are people to have them. John Barry’s is laid out squarely in the subtitle to today’s T-J article “Governance of university merits debate: John Barry proposes more local control of Saint John’s post-secondary institutions.” Thoughtfully, no doubt in order to save wear and tear on writers of letters to the editor, journalist Sandra Davis includes rebuttals from Tom Condon, John Wallace, and Kathy Hamer. Between the three, they point out that community colleges and universities are different types of institutions with divergent mandates; that in order to be accredited universities need independent academic governance; that UNBSJ needs to stay part of UNB; and that Barry’s one president/two institutions model would result, to all intents and purposes, in a polytechnic. Barry’s blueprint is suspiciously like the “third way” floated by Cheryl Robertson some time back. In fact, she credited Barry, along with Pat Darrah and Malcolm Somerville, as co-originators of that plan, so in spite of the less-than-enthusiastic response to their “vision” then, it would seem that they haven’t given up.

One point about the UNB Board of Governors: I would suggest that there is a world of difference between “representation” and “control.” The UNB Board of Governors certainly needs more representation from Saint John and we hope and trust that such will be one of the recommendations of the working group. But the Board of Governors is there to safeguard the university, not to bend it to special-interest agendas. It would be nice to see — though we oughtn’t to hold our breaths — new Board members drawn from the non-profit sector. People who don’t conflate business interests with civic interests.

Tell you what, John Barry Q.C.: you can have control over UNBSJ when you let a bunch of Shakespeare scholars and French medieval historians take over the Law Society of New Brunswick.