The ratio of full-time students to full-time faculty in Ontario increased to 25 from 17 in the years between 1988 and 2008. More collective agreements establish a standard teaching load of two courses per semester, down from three a generation ago. Despite this, faculty incomes have outpaced both inflation and government grants per student.
We are getting less for more. Teaching is getting short shrift; more students are graduating, but not enough are leaving school with the skills they need for success in the real world.
Classes of 500 students or more taught by an emerging cohort of indentured PhDs who carry a growing share of the teaching “burden” but have little hope of long-term employment. Professors who get “relief” from teaching obligations to pursue research. Classes and courses of study that prize particular academic disciplines rather than make the connections among disciplines that are so crucial to learning.
For students, it's unacceptable; for taxpayers and families who spend tens of billions of dollars each year, it's unsustainable.
The reformist wave that is transforming health-care delivery in Canada must now reach undergraduate education at our publicly funded universities.
Read the full article here
