Transcript Slide 1

The Roles, State, and Impact of PSE in
Canada.
Where we are, where we need to go, and why.
Carl Amrhein
Visiting Executive, The Conference Board of Canada
November 5, 2013
conferenceboard.ca
Presentation Overview.
1. The Purpose of Higher Education and Graduate
Studies.
2. Demands and Challenges Facing PSE.
3. Research Agenda Overview.
4. Preliminary Findings: Skills—Where Are We Today?:
Post-Secondary Education and the State of Skills
Production in Canada.
5. Next Steps.
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Value of Higher Education.
• In The Idea of a University
(1891), John Henry Newman
argued that the university’s
function is to develop an
individual’s intellectual culture in
a broad way.
• “It educates the intellect to
reason well in all matters, to
reach out towards truth, and to
grasp it.”
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Value of Higher Education.
• Wilhelm von Humboldt
envisioned a "Universitas
litterarum" which would aim at
a “unity of teaching and
research.”
• “The teacher no longer exists
for the sake of the student;
both exist for the sake of
knowledge.”
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Value of Higher Education.
• The roles defined by Cardinal Newman and
Humboldt remain relevant.
• In addition to pursuing knowledge “as its own end,”
universities educate individuals for the
responsibilities of citizenship, as future leaders and
contributors to all aspects of government, society,
culture, and the economy.
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Value of Graduate Studies.
• Canada’s array and diversity of graduate programs
are essential to fulfilling these roles.
• Graduate education mentors students in the ways of
thinking and investigating that provide a foundation
for advancing human knowledge and contributing to
the economic, social, cultural, and aesthetic wellbeing of Canada and the world.
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Centre for Skills and Post-Secondary
Education.
The Centre for Skills and Post-Secondary Education
addresses the advanced skills and education challenges
facing Canada today.
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Skills Are Broadly Defined.
A skilled person is a person who,
through education, training and
experience, makes a useful contribution
to the economy and society.
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Goals of SPSE.
• Broaden the PSE mission.
• Develop a Skills and PSE Strategy for Canada.
• Foster shared understanding and sense of purpose
leading to action by stakeholders.
• Improve instructional quality, technology and
pedagogy, skills of graduates.
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Goals of SPSE.
• Clarify the mix of structures, investments, and
pathways for learners
• Enhance and demonstrate relevance to innovation,
productivity, health, infrastructure, cities and urban
agendas.
• Track and report on PSE performance.
• Raise public awareness of PSE and importance.
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PSE Facts.
Facts and Figures
2009 annual PSE expenditures
$37 billion
Current estimated expenditures
$40 billion
PSE employees
(includes administrators, instructors, etc.; does not
include supply chain and service institutions)
250,000
Percentage of population who have completed either
university or college (2011)
51 per cent.
Higher Education R&D (2011)
$11.3 billion
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PSE Roles and Impact.
• Discovery and innovation.
• Learning and skills development.
• Expert advice and capacity building.
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Stakeholders and Their Roles.
The stakeholders involved in PSE include:
• Universities
• Municipal Governments
• Polytechnics and colleges
• Business
• Apprenticeship Systems
• Granting Bodies and Agencies
• Skilled Trades Systems
• Accrediting Bodies
• Specialized Adult Education and
Training Institutions
• Communities
• Federal Government
• Faculty/Students
• Aboriginal Groups
• Provincial Governments
Stakeholders can have an impact on teaching, research,
business and the economy, and community.
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Current Demands on PSE.
1. Preparation for employment. Growing demand for more
highly skilled graduates.
2. Societal Role. Continuous need for educated citizens,
leaders, and contributors.
3. Labour Force. Changing needs for workers with updated
skills and training.
4. Immigrants and Non-Traditional Learners. Need for
global credential recognition and new pathways to
education.
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Challenges Facing the PSE Sector.
Operating Environment.
• Student demographic and socio-economic diversity—
many more demands, niches.
• Demography and changing enrollment levels.
• International competition for students and resources,
fueled by globalization.
• Multiple communities with learning needs.
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Challenges Facing the PSE Sector.
Goals and Changing Expectations.
• Calls to broaden the skills and PSE mission and build a
shared “systemic perspective” on values and outcomes—
but how, with so many interests and jurisdictions?
• Demand rising for better instructional quality (technology
and pedagogy), and more skilled graduates—but what
skills, for what purposes?
• Increasing expectations to enhance and demonstrate
relevance to other “agendas”—innovation, productivity
and competitiveness; health; infrastructure; cities and
urban agendas.
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Challenges Facing the PSE Sector.
Processes.
• Limited ability of administrators to authorize and direct
institutional change.
• Conflicting interests/claims of employee groups and
stakeholders, including unions, professors, staff,
students, communities, business, governments.
• Inhibiting impact of government funding models on
change processes.
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Challenges Facing the PSE Sector.
Resources.
• PSE viability and performance threatened by funding
freezes/cuts, competition, and caps on tuition increases.
• Research funding limitations.
• Rising infrastructure and overhead costs; indirect costs of
research—not fully funded in long-term.
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Challenges Facing the PSE Sector.
Professoriate in Demand.
• Intense global competition for top talent results in
spiraling costs to attract/retain leading experts.
• Many institutions lack the financial capacity to compete
against top international universities and private, strongly
endowed institutions.
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Challenges Facing the PSE Sector.
Metrics.
• Performance needs to be measured in order to
demonstrate value of investments made in the system
and to attract funding.
• Most data are inputs/outputs: resource inputs,
participation, graduation rates.
• Limited performance outcomes data: Research
relevance/impact; innovation; successful careers.
• Few measures of ROI, value-added.
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Research and Dialogue.
Need for Diagnosis and Solutions.
• What are/should be the system’s objectives?
• How well is the system performing?
• What impact is it having on skills development, economy,
society, health, and community?
• What explains good vs. weak performance?
• What can be done to improve performance?
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SPSE Activities.
The Centre for Skills and Post-Secondary Education will
help to provide the necessary diagnosis and facilitate
discussion on solutions.
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The Conference Board Advantage.
• Facilitates dialogue and collaboration among the investors,
stakeholders to achieve its mission.
• Experience bringing together groups of like interest to build
partnerships.
• A reputation for high impact research through our impartial and
rigorous approach.
• Independently funded, non-partisan and not an advocacy
organization.
• Proven track record of influencing the shape of national
dialogue on key issues affecting Canada.
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Convening.
The Board will bring stakeholders together through:
• National Summit on Skills and PSE (Toronto, Nov 6-7, 2013)
• Investors Meetings
• Regional, Institutional, and Expert Consultations
• Multiple Reference Groups
 Quality Network for Universities
 Leaders Roundtable on Immigration
 Roundtable on Indigenous Peoples’ Skills and PSE
 Youth and Student Entrepreneurs
 Council on Education and Training in the Digital Age
• Research-related Working Groups
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Foundational Research Underway.
Understanding the Operating Environment
Policies, Laws, and Regulations Governing Skills and PSE.
• Identify and assess the main PLRs that shape objectives, major
institutions, and affect PSE governance and operations.
• Examine the role of governing bodies/institutions in applying,
and being accountable for PLRs (e.g., Boards, Senates, interinstitutional councils; accrediting bodies).
• Analyze the opportunities/constraints on PSE system change
due to PLRs.
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Foundational Research Underway.
Understanding the Operating Environment
Policies, Laws, and Regulations Governing Skills and PSE.
• Seeks to demonstrate differentiated impacts of PLR models in
skills and PSE system.
• Background research currently underway (literature and data
review).
• Extensive analysis of policy, legislative and regulatory
documentation in progress.
• Interviews with PSE leaders and experts (November 2013).
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Foundational Research Underway.
The Economic Impact of PSE in Canada.
• Quantify economic impacts of the PSE sector at the individual,
organizational, community, provincial, and economy-wide levels.
• Characterize the ROI of the PSE system as a whole (including
successes and failures) and impacts generated by different
parts or sub-sectors of the PSE system.
• Compare the impacts on different demographic groups (e.g.,
women vs. men; Aboriginal vs. non-aboriginal) and communities
(e.g., urban vs. rural; differences by province).
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Foundational Research Underway.
The Economic Impact of PSE in Canada.
• Show differentiated impacts that are relevant to current
strategies of institutions.
• Background research currently underway (literature and
data review).
• Interviews with PSE leaders and experts (November
2013).
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Foundational Research Underway.
Skills—Where Are We Today?
PSE and the State of Skills Production in Canada.
• Highlight the importance of skills for economic and social wellbeing of Canada and individuals.
• Map and characterize the PSE system in terms of major
institutions and roles in skills development.
• Provide an overview and analysis of the state of skills in the
adult Canadian population.
• Identify and discuss the weaknesses in, and challenges to,
Canada’s PSE system and prospects for future skills
development.
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Foundational Research Underway.
Skills—Where Are We Today?
PSE and the State of Skills Production in Canada.
• Provide an initial baseline/foundation for understanding skills
production performance.
• Background research currently underway (literature and data
review).
• Extensive analysis of OECD’s Adult Skills Survey (October
2013) in progress.
• Interviews with PSE leaders and experts (November 2013).
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State of Skills and PSE—Preliminary Findings.
Importance of Skills and PSE.
• Skills are critically important to the economic, social,
political, and cultural well-being of Canada and
Canadians.
• Attainment of advanced skills by a large proportion of
a country’s population improves economic
competitiveness, and political and community
engagement.
• Also contributes to better employment prospects,
income, and health for individuals and their families.
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State of Skills and PSE—Preliminary Findings.
Importance of Skills and PSE—Labour Market Outcomes.
• Before 2008, Canadians with higher education had
unemployment rate of 4.1 per cent; those without had
unemployment of 9.1 per cent.
• By 2011, unemployment was 5.0 per cent for those
with higher education versus to 11.7 per cent for
those without.
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State of Skills and PSE—Preliminary Findings.
Importance of Skills and PSE—Labour Market Outcomes.
• Canadians with less than high school have an
employment rate of 55 per cent; those with university
or college credentials have employment rates of 82
and 81 per cent, respectively.
• There are differences across disciplines but, on
average, those aged 25 to 64 who have a higher
education credential earn 39 per cent more than
those with only a high school education.
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State of Skills and PSE—Preliminary Findings.
Importance of Skills and PSE—Social/Political Outcomes.
•
Higher education is correlated with:
•
Better health.
75 per cent of those with higher ed versus 47 per cent of those with
less than high school report excellent or very good health.
•
Greater political engagement.
78 per cent of people with a university degree versus 60 per cent for
those with high school or less voted in the 2011 federal election.
•
Higher rates of volunteerism.
58 per cent among university graduates, 45 per cent among other
PSE graduates, 43 per cent for high school graduates, and 37 per
cent for those with less than high school.
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
Higher Education Attainment and Skills in Canada.
• More than 51 per cent of Canadian adults hold a
university or college degree, diploma, or certificate.
• Well above the OECD average of 32 per cent.
• 12 per cent of Canadians held trades cert. in 2011.
• Tertiary education attainment in Canada has
increased 11 percentage points since 2000.
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
Higher Education Attainment and Skills in Canada.
• But OECD Adult Skills Survey (2013) shows that skills
attainment among Canadian adults is middling.
• Canadians rank:
 at the OECD average in literacy.
 below the OECD average in numeracy.
 above the OECD average in using technology to solve problems.
• Given our leading rate of higher education attainment,
we should be doing much better.
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
Higher Education Attainment and Skills in Canada.
• Canadians with higher education have weaker skills
scores than OECD average among those with higher
education:
 Canadians with tertiary credentials score 290 in
literacy—versus OECD average of 297.
 Only 3 countries had lower scores—Italy, Spain,
Cyprus.
 Japanese high school graduates scored 289!
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
Higher Education Attainment and Skills in Canada.
• Canadians with higher education have weaker skills
scores than OECD average among those with higher
education:
 47 per cent of Canadians with tertiary credentials
score at Level 3 or higher using technology to solve
problems
 OECD average is 52 per cent.
 Canada ranks 15th of 19 countries on this metric.
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
Graduate Student Outcomes.
• Canadian universities produce thousands of well-educated,
well-trained masters and doctoral students each year.
• Many doctoral graduates hope to find employment in
academia.
• Yet, almost 70 per cent of graduates with doctorates do not
find full employment in traditional academic jobs. (StatsCan).
• North America alone produces almost fifty thousand
doctoral graduates a year, and competition for the relatively
small number of academic vacancies is global.
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
Implications for Graduate Studies.
• If Canada’s universities continue to produce PhDs at
such high rates—and we believe they should—they
need to come to terms with the reality that the most
will need preparation for non-academic employment
settings.
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State of Skills and PSE – Preliminary Findings.
“There have always been fewer jobs [in academia] than
there are PhDs, so PhD students have always had to
adapt themselves. Where we have been slow as
institutions is in recognizing what we can do to help them
adapt, and I think it is a role that more and more of us are
taking on.”
Dr. Douglas Peers,
Professor of History, Dean of Arts
University of Waterloo
Past President of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies
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PSE Needs Systemic Changes.
• Traditional delivery.
• Technology and pedagogy.
• Institutional and jurisdictional silos.
• Sustaining research as a priority.
• From teaching to learning.
• Credential recognition / accreditation.
• Skills and learning roadmaps.
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SPSE Research Deliverables.
• Skills and PSE Strategy for Canada.
• Skills and Learning Pathways Planning Tool.
• Rethinking Universities: New Forms for New Functions.
• Learning in the Digital Age.
• University and Colleges: Pathways to Skills & Careers.
• Advanced Skills for the New Economy.
• Productivity and PSE.
• PSE Pathways to Innovation and Commercialization.
• Capitalizing the PSE Sector: Funding Reform Options.
• International Best Practices in PSE Reform.
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Who Should Invest?
Multiple Stakeholders Should Care Deeply.
• PSE institutions need to show leadership on issues
where their own futures are at stake.
• Employers need talented employees and the PSE system
to deliver world-class results.
• Professors, students, and families all make essential
investments in the system.
• Governments and other investors in PSE institutions
need to help shape and manage system enhancements.
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Investment Levels.
• Foundational Investors $100,000 / Year.
• Champion Investors
$50,000 / Year.
• Partner Investors
$25,000 / Year.
• Participant Investors
$10,000 / Year.
• Associate Investors
$5,000 / Year.
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Current Investors.
Alberta Ministry of Enterprise and Advanced
Education
Association of Canadian Community Colleges
Association of Universities and Colleges of
Canada
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Memorial University
Nova Scotia Dept of Labour & Advanced
Education
Athabasca University
Ontario College of Art & Design University
(OCADU)
Brandon University
Red Deer College
Canadian Association for Graduate Studies
Royal Roads University
Canadian Alliance of Student Associations
Ryerson University
Concordia University
Saint Mary’s University
Dalhousie University
SAIT
Dawson College
University of Alberta
Inspire Nanaimo (Vancouver Island
University/Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce/City
of Nanaimo)
University of British Columbia
University of Ottawa/Université d’Ottawa
York University
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Next Steps.
• National Skills and PSE Summit (Toronto, Nov 6-7).
• Research.
• Your Turn! (We’d like to hear your thoughts in the
Working Session).
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