Ontario

How can universities build a better future for Ontario?

lanthierj — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 13:05:25 +0000

How can universities build a better future for Ontario?

lanthierj Wed, 02/15/2017 - 08:05

Topic

Our Community

President

COU

Survey

Higher education

Ontario

Universities

If you have ideas about how Ontario’s universities can help ensure a bright future for the province, the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) wants to hear from you.

The COU, the voice of the province’s 21 universities, says it wants to see how universities can work with others to help build stronger industries, strengthen growing service sectors, support artists, protect Ontario’s natural heritage and promote good health.

To get the conversation started and the ideas flowing, the COU has created a quick and simple online survey to tap ideas of students, parents and others.

Along with the survey, the COU is also holding one-on-one meetings and roundtables across Ontario with business and cultural leaders, public sector service providers, researchers and municipal leaders.

“We’re asking people ‘what keeps you up at night?’” says David Lindsay, president and CEO of the COU. “Disruptive technology, demographic shifts and globalization bring tremendous opportunities but all that uncertainty can also make people anxious.”

The campaign has the support of university presidents across Ontario, including U of T president Meric Gertler.

“Universities are vitally important to this province and this country,” President Gertler said. “They produce well-educated graduates and prepare them for a lifetime of success. They connect their host cities with the world, and enable these places to reinvent themselves over time. At the same time, they’re an important stabilizing force within their local economies.

“To build on these strengths, and to help us excel nationally and internationally, I’m encouraging all members of the U of T community to get involved. Take the survey or start a discussion on these important issues. We need to know what you think.”

The survey and province-wide discussions will continue until the end of the 2016-17 academic year. The findings will be made public later in the year through online postings, blogs and reports, culminating in a summit on Ontario’s future and how universities can partner to help Ontarians succeed.

Take the survey

Ontario premier tours U of T Mississauga, talks about tuition, Islamophobia

ullahnor — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:20:50 +0000

Ontario premier tours U of T Mississauga, talks about tuition, Islamophobia

ullahnor Tue, 01/31/2017 - 13:20

Cutline

Premier Kathleen Wynne talks to students at U of T Mississauga today

Nicolle Wahl

Author legacy

Nicolle Wahl

Topic

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne visited U of T Mississauga Tuesday, meeting with students and talking about removing financial barriers to higher education.

“I’m touring campuses because it’s important to me to hear about the challenges that you’re facing,” said Wynne. “I’m in provincial politics because I think education is the most important thing that we do…[students] are also important to the current and future economy.”

Wynne was welcomed to U of T Mississauga by Ulrich Krull, interim vice-president and principal, Nour Alideeb, president of the campus' student union, and Alex Paquette, co-president of the campus' association of graduate students.

The premier began her visit in the Hazel McCallion Academic Learning Centre, stopping to chat with students in the RBC Learning Commons.

Giordana De Leo, Kimberly Jagdeo and Emma Russell were studying French together and were shocked to suddenly find the premier standing next to them.

“She asked us what we were doing and talked about the importance of knowing French in your career,” said Russell.

Wynne then headed to the Innovation Complex, where she met with members of the U of T Mississauga's Muslim Students Association. The discussion, broadcast live on Facebook, touched on several topics but focused primarily on the economy, the Ontario Student Assistance Program and Islamophobia. The meeting took on extra significance in the wake of the deadly Quebec mosque shooting on Jan. 29.

“We have to remember that we are not immune to racism in our community. You know that, you have all dealt with that,” said Wynne. “If we want to be a more inclusive society, we have to understand our own biases.”

Ontario Minister of Children and Youth Services Michael Coteau was travelling with Wynne and is head of the government’s Anti-Racism Directorate.

“People have to acknowledge that racism exists,” said Coteau. “We need to do a better job of capturing statistics on hate crimes. There’s a saying: ‘No data, no problem, no solution.’”

On the topic of tuition, Wynne outlined the changes to OSAP that will make higher education tuition free for students from families with a household income of $50,000 or less.

“We want you to graduate without debt,” she told students.

Wynne also met briefly with members of the Ontario Young Liberals party before sitting down for an interview with the Medium student newspaper.

Her visit was part of a week-long tour of colleges and universities around the province, where she is meeting with students, faculty and staff on other issues such as mental health and the post-graduation job market.

Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter at U of T Scarborough

ullahnor — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:06:41 +0000

Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter at U of T Scarborough

ullahnor Mon, 01/23/2017 - 11:06

Cutline

U of T Scarborough Principal Bruce Kidd (centre) with Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter (left) and West Hill Collegiate Institute Principal Gillian Gibbons (right) at U of T Scarborough event

Topic

Ontario’s Education Minister Mitzie Hunter and University of Toronto Scarborough Principal Bruce Kidd were greeted with applause when they visited with 200 Grade 11 and 12 West Hill Collegiate Institute students recently to talk about access to higher education.

West Hill is an important feeder school for U of T Scarborough. Noting that many of the students likely have friends and maybe even family who are U of T Scarborough students now, Principal Kidd urged them to check out the campus to see what the life of a university student is like.

“It’s your future and you’re in the driver’s seat. There are a lot of resources to help you,” he said, adding that U of T Scarborough’s open house is on Saturday, March 25th. “We’re in the neighbourhood. Why not drop by and see what campus life is all about.”

Hunter, an alumna of U of T Scarborough and MPP for Scarborough-Guildwood, encouraged students who haven’t been considering higher education to keep their options open. She described how the government is changing loans and grants programs in ways that make higher education affordable for more people.

“It is so important to make learning a lifelong endeavor and as a government, we are levelling the playing field and investing in talent and skills so that more students from Scarborough-Guildwood can attend college or university,” Hunter said.

Lining up for government services is so last century, says Rotman researcher

lavende4 — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 15:11:11 +0000

Lining up for government services is so last century, says Rotman researcher

lavende4 Tue, 07/19/2016 - 11:11

Cutline

Ontario Premier William Davis in 1973, the year renewable licence plates were introduced: 43 years later, most car owners still go in person to renew their plates (Reg Innell/Getty Images)

Topic

Breaking Research

Rotman School of Management

licence plates

Ontario

Behaviour

As tedious as waiting in a government services line-up can be, most people still do it, despite having the option of getting their business done online.

In Ontario, only about 10 per cent of vehicle owners renew their annual licence plate sticker via the Internet. Maintaining the overhead to serve everyone else in person costs Canada’s most populous province nearly $36 million a year.

But using study methods drawn from behavioural science, a team of researchers led by Rotman School of Management's Nina Mažar, found that simple, no-cost adjustments to messaging on the envelope and form vehicle owners receive in the mail before their renewal date resulted in a significant number switching to completing the process online. The most successful modification led to a 42 per cent increase in online renewals as well as more owners getting them done on time.

“It was very exciting. We demonstrated the government that applying insights from the behavioural science even in the most mundane places can help increase the likelihood of people going online and thereby lead to big savings that it can then use for more pressing issues,” said Mažar, an associate professor of marketing at Rotman.

The researchers used “choice architecture” (the design of choices with the goal of influencing decisions) to design several different changes to the licence plate sticker renewal form and envelope sent out to more than 626,000 vehicle owners in late 2013 and early 2014. Each new version included changes to the envelope that highlighted the ease of online renewal. Two of those conditions also changed the text on the back of the renewal form. One emphasized the downsides of not renewing online. The other detailed the benefits of renewing online.

The form that highlighted the upsides of online renewal was most successful. Online renewals rose from 10.3 per cent to 14.7 per cent. The change also led to a five percentage point increase in on-time renewals. It was made a permanent part of Ontario’s renewal form in 2015.

Calling the low uptake in online services a missed opportunity, researchers noted their relatively short, limited experiment resulted in a $28,000 government savings, which could lead to savings of more than $600,000 a year.

Mažar calls the results the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential improvements to public processes using behavioural science insights.

The project was a first-of-its-kind collaboration between members of the Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman centre (BEAR), which Mažar co-directs, and the Ontario government’s Behavioural Insights Unit (BIU). BEAR designs solutions to social and economic problems by using behavioural science approaches to achieve behavioural change. Together with the Ontario BIU it has also done work on increasing the rates of organ donor registrations and efficiency in tax collection.

The paper was published in a recent issue of Behavioral Science & Policy, the journal of the Behavioral Science & Policy Association.

U of T has flagship role in Ontario post-secondary education, says provincial report

lavende4 — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 14:20:37 +0000

U of T has flagship role in Ontario post-secondary education, says provincial report

lavende4 Tue, 07/12/2016 - 10:20

Topic

Our Community

Post-secondary education

Ontario

University of Toronto

Meric Gertler

HEQCO

The University of Toronto has a “powerful flagship role” to play as Ontario’s one internationally ranked top-tier university, says a new report by the provincial agency dedicated to improving the quality of higher education.

The new report by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario takes stock of provincial efforts to establish clear distinctions among the province’s 20 universities and recommends further action to differentiate the research and teaching efforts of individual schools.

The Ontario government has made differentiation a key policy, negotiating strategic mandate agreements in 2014 with institutions that ask them to identify factors that make them unique in the system.

The new report urges the Ontario government to “move strongly and boldly” to encourage greater differences among schools, and singles out U of T as an important resource for the whole province. Having a top-tier university, “reflects well on the entire system and, like a rising tide, lifts all boats,” the report finds.

Read the HEQCO report here

U of T president Meric Gertler welcomed the report’s findings.

“This analysis confirms U of T’s flagship position within the Ontario system, as an institution of research and teaching that is recognized around the world,” he said. “We need to do all we can to attract the best minds to our campuses, to provide the best learning environment to our students and give them the kinds of opportunities that prepare them well for lifelong success. This report acknowledges that a one-size-fits-all funding model makes it increasingly difficult for us to deliver on this commitment.”

The report recommends “seizing the opportunity to restructure funding and enrolment expectations to ensure that Toronto continues to be able to play its unique and powerful flagship role for Ontario.”

In addition to U of T, the report singles out six other “research-intensive” universities, and groups four others as “in-between” or regional institutions. Nine others it describes as “mostly undergraduate” institutions that emphasize teaching and learning.

It concludes that “the most promising strategy is to concentrate research resources – infrastructure, sponsored funding and graduate education – into the already more research-intensive universities that attract the greatest student demand.”

The new report also looks at differences in the “teaching mission” of individual universities using measures such as equity of access, graduate outcomes and demand. It concludes that schools that serve student bodies with more complex needs should get the support needed to meet that demand.

“In a differentiated system, institutions build on their areas of expertise, allowing each to make its optimal contribution,” HEQCO president and CEO Harvey Weingarten said in a statement. “Ontario has the opportunity to show international leadership in building a postsecondary system that is more cohesive, more sustainable and of higher quality.”

The report cautions that the distinctions it makes are not a form of ranking. “Differentiation describes how institutions are different, not which are better,” it states.

In a time of budget restraint, the report sees differentiation as a way to increase choice, leverage institutional strengths and avoid expensive duplication. “Differentiation is a strategy for spending existing resources with greater impact and better outcomes,” it states. At the same time, it is critical of the provincial funding formula that is based on per student funding and as such only rewards enrolment growth.

Such a standardized approach is the “conventional default in public-sector funding schemes,” because it is easy to administer and easy to defend as fair, but “is not a particularly powerful approach to driving differentiation,” it finds.

The report, ‘The Differentiation of the Ontario University System: Where are we now and where should we go?” was written by Martin Hicks and Linda Jonker and builds on the research done by HEQCO on this topic over the past six years. HEQCO was created by the Ontario government more than a decade ago to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system and provide policy recommendations to the province.