April 2014
A
recent study published by Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO)
has started a debate about whether professors spend enough of their time
teaching. Of the professors polled, a fifth were not active researchers,
contrary to the claims of faculty everywhere that they cannot teach more courses
because they are busy advancing knowledge in their fields.
There is no question that if there is a crisis in higher education in Canada it
is in the quality of undergraduate teaching. Many universities – in response to
cutbacks in funding, debt crises, and mounting costs – have grown their
undergraduate enrollment rapidly and focused their resources on graduate
programs and research. The funding model currently in place puts pressure on
universities to grow class sizes, especially in undergraduate programs, which in
turn dilutes the quality of faculty-student interactions both inside and outside
the classroom.
At
universities that look like the dominant university model, research-intensive
institutions with large undergraduate classes, students are learning less,
professors are being asked to do more, parents are upset with rising tuition
costs, taxpayers are frustrated, and no one is happy.
However, these types of universities are not the only model available to
students in Canada. There are a handful of primarily undergraduate universities
that are dedicated to the undergraduate experience.
I
am a professor at Bishop’s University, a small, undergraduate university with
2400 students, located in Sherbrooke, Que. Professors teach 5 classes per year
(a number quite different than the 1.8 course average), and are expected to
balance teaching, research, and service but without the “publish or perish”
paradigm so prevalent at larger, research-intensive universities. Average class
sizes are 25 students (the Canadian average is 226 students) and 80 per cent of
courses are taught by full-time professors (compared to the national average of
26 per cent). There is no hiding in the back of the classroom when there are six
people in the seminar room. The majority of my colleagues are active
researchers; they strive to engage their students in their particular research
fields through lectures, field trips, debates, and conferences. Research can
take many forms and be extended into the community through public scholarship,
community outreach, the scholarship of teaching and learning, experiential
learning, or the celebration of undergraduate research (for example, I help
co-ordinate an annual undergraduate conference that attracts students from
across Canada and the U.S.). These contributions are harder to measure in terms
of “output” or “productivity” – they are not captured by research grants from
federal councils or journal articles. However, the value these kinds of
activities have on our students’ development is significant and arguably, more
important than traditional ways of measuring research productivity.
Is
every professor cut out to make teaching their primary focus? The demands on our
time and energy are extraordinary. Sometimes our research portfolios suffer with
a heavy teaching load and an expectation of service born out of our commitment
to extend learning outside the classroom. Our desire to put the undergraduate
experience first means that we have to be passionate about teaching and
learning. We have to believe in this model to justify devoting our evenings and
weekends to all kinds of interaction with students from art shows to sporting
events. This is not the ideal model for everyone, and is certainly not the norm
in Canada, but at universities like Mount Allison, Acadia, St. Francis Xavier,
and Bishop’s, this is our way of life.
The
oft cited ratio of how a professor’s job is divided – 40 per cent teaching, 40
per cent research, 20 per cent service – is nowhere to be found in our
collective agreement, and feels to me like a counter-intuitive paradigm:
Separating these three areas suggests they are mutually exclusive.
We
need to start a conversation about how to create universities that look at these
three aspects as pillars that support undergraduate education. If our current
generation is going to have a competitive advantage in the workforce or in
graduate school, they must have our undivided attention and unparalleled
commitment to their development.
Dr. Jessica Riddell is an Associate Professor of English at Bishop’s University.
Globe and Mail, March 19, 2014.
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