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President's Response to the Postsecondary Review

This fall the Ontario Government gave the Hon. Bob Rae the mandate to review the design and funding of Ontario's postsecondary education system. The University of Ottawa participated actively in the consultation process -- roundtable discussions and town hall meetings. We have submitted our response to the Rae Discussion Paper, which we invite you to read.

Recommendations

• It is important that efforts be made to enrich the program offerings in French, i.e., number and availability of elective courses.
• The bilingual grant for the University of Ottawa should be at least doubled over the next 4 years from its current $17 million in order for us to meet our obligations to the Francophone student population. Any future increases in BIU funding should allow for a proportional increase in bilingualism grants.
• Our Faculty of Medicine’s bilingual grant should be restored and increased to $1 million.
• Government funding could be tied to specific performance indicators and to each institution’s specific mission or role.
• In our view, there is no need for a new independent review body to implement a system of evaluation.
• Universities should be encouraged to develop more college – university articulated programs to address market needs. These are likely to be associated with professional or technology-based programs where colleges and universities have complementary approaches to contribute to students’ educational goals and career aspirations.
• The Government should restore its level of support to universities to ensure we can provide a consistent and sustainable level of high quality education for our students.
• The current regulated-deregulated framework works well. As public institutions, Ontario’s universities should be prepared to accept a degree of control on tuition for regulated programs. Universities should be able to set their own fees for deregulated programs.
• The Government must address the true cost of delivering clinically-based programs, e.g., medicine, nursing, rehabilitation sciences, and psychology in the case of the University of Ottawa.
• Develop a system-wide quality assurance process.
• Link funding to performance and specific mission.
• Differentiation among universities should be encouraged and based upon clearly articulated institutional missions.
• Resources should be assigned to universities on the basis of distinguishing strengths and mission – in our case, bilingualism, health training and research, with a focus on multi-disciplinary studies and a balance between undergraduate, professional and graduate programs.
• The Ontario government should recognize graduate education as a key area of strength for Ontario’s postsecondary education system and thus provide adequate financial support.
• The Ontario government should work with the Government of Canada to create a strong system of support nationally for graduate students in order for universities to be able to replace the increasing numbers of retiring faculty members.
• The Ontario government should enhance significantly its support for the research mission of universities.

Download the University's submission to the Postsecondary Review (PDF 6.1mb)