Fifty years ago, the Government of Ontario began to invest in the university sector, increasing the number of institutions and the spaces available to qualified students. This has allowed us to make huge gains in access and quality. But now, we’re on the precipice of undoing a half century of accomplishments. Ontario’s per-student funding for …
TORONTO – The 2015 Ontario Budget repeatedly acknowledges that universities are vital to economic prosperity, yet does not make any new investments in public funding for higher education institutions. In fact, under the current plan, per-student university funding will reach its lowest level since the 1960s. This has professors and academic librarians questioning the government’s …
OCUFA launched its election website last week with the goal of educating and empowering Ontario voters and highlighting the importance of higher education in the election campaign. It offers a Take Action feature which allows voters to call on party leaders and local candidates to prioritize higher education in this election and to invest in the quality, …
The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) has released a piercing critique of Western’s budgeting practices. Titled “Every budget is a choice,” the report highlights how Western’s administration puts the accumulation of assets ahead of funding core activities, such as teaching. “Western is not poor,” said UWOFA president Alison Hearn. “The resources are there to …
OCUFA has responded to the unfortunate new report on faculty productivity published by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. The response can be read on the Globe and Mail, or below. Do universities have a productivity problem, or do they have a quality problem? If you believe a new report by the government-funded Higher Education …
March 18, 2014 New data shows that average class sizes are on the rise at Ontario’s universities, threatening the quality of education received by students. Ontario needs to start hiring more full-time professors to address this problem. Read More .
I am writing to advise you that the administration of King’s University College has withdrawn the ban it had imposed on Prof. Ken Luckhardt. Accordingly, CAUT will not be proceeding with censure of the administration of King’s at the spring Council. The entire matter arose in late January 2012 in response to a letter and …
On Friday, November 29, 2013, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) released its policy framework for differentiation in Ontario’s university and college sector. According to the document, MTCU views differentiation as “a primary policy driver for the system.” As such, the framework will be used to inform the Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) process and …
The term “program prioritization” has been making headlines recently, as several Ontario universities have begun this controversial rationalization process. Program prioritization involves ranking every academic and administrative program according to set criteria, and then directing more resources to highly ranked programs while marking poor performers for cuts and closure. Program prioritization is based on a …
Contract Academic Staff at Wilfrid Laurier University reached a tentative deal last Tuesday after a mediation session with William Kaplan. The ratification vote is scheduled for Monday, December 2, 2013 and will run until December 6th. OCUFA Report will have more details after the vote is complete. As part of the bargaining strategy, the faculty …