Ontario needs "academic transformation": Authors

From The Globe and Mail:

Large classes and part-time faculty - that's the make-do solution Ontario universities increasingly are using to make ends meet. But there is a better answer, say the authors of a new book on education reform, which calls on the province to follow the lead of others in Canada and create new universities devoted to undergraduate education.

Ontario's current model - where 19 universities all divide their energies between research and teaching - is simply unsustainable, say the authors of the book, to be released today. The decades-old system is based on the belief that the best undergraduate education comes from professors who are active researchers. The reality, the authors say, is that universities cannot afford to put tenured professors at the front of all their classes.

As well, growing pressures for universities to produce cutting-edge research means that many full-time faculty are spending more time in the lab than the lecture hall. And all this is happening at a time when the province is facing a record deficit and tens of thousands of new students are expected to arrive at Ontario campuses.

See here for more on the book Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education in Ontario.

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