STLHE Opening Plenary

Bob Rae, former Premier of Ontario and candidate for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, delivered the opening plenary at STLHE [abstract + profile]. He mostly addressed the state of higher education in Canada, here are a few jottings:

- the needs of students are so much more diverse than the ability of the people working in the system can respond to. our structures are fixed: calendars, timing, certain ways in which information is traditionally carried through.
- students are looking for a smaller, more user-friendly experience. larger universities can’t quite cope or adapt as quickly. how do we create more innovative ways to transform the teaching and learning experience?
- for the foreseeable future, we have to put education at the forefront, as health has been over the past few years.
- health care takes us an incredible amount of our national energies and that will grow as the population ages. how to we take teaching and learning up to that level of focus?
- the Rae Review was a chance to talk to teachers and faculty about what’s going on & Rae’s conclusion is that there has been a deterioration of the quality of the student experience in Canada over the past 15 years
- shouldn’t underestimate the value of engaging students one-on-one.
- the producer-driven culture is too powerful in universities. not enough emphasis on the student experience
- one of the great complaints we hear from students: they want their educational experience to be far more seamless than it is (e.g.: high school to college to university, etc.)
- according to students, universities are the least reponsive, most bureaucratic, and the most difficult to deal with (compared to colleges & other educational institutions)
- far too little collaboration between universities and colleges, universities and surrounding communities, universities and other local institutions, etc.
- teaching has been downgraded to research. this is dangerous. this disconnects it from the student body, from the learning experience. on the other hand, you can’t have good teaching without research.
- this simplistic differentiation between teachers and researchers is dangerous and does not stand up to closer inspection
- “it doesn’t always matter what the question is, education is always part of the answer.”