Ontario Perspectives on Getting Value for Money in Postsecondary Education

1. Ontario Perspectives on Getting Value for Money in Postsecondary Education Philip Steenkamp Deputy Minister Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities July 2007

2. Presentation Overview • Roles and Responsibilities for Postsecondary Education • Recent Trends in Public Funding for Postsecondary Education • Ontario Perspective • Accountability: Measuring Value for Money

3. Roles & Responsibilities for PSE • In accordance with their responsibility for education and in recognition of the importance of postsecondary education, provinces and territories have made significant investments in PSE in recent years. • Most provinces and territories have undertaken extensive reviews and consultations aimed at ensuring high quality, accessible systems. These reviews can be found on the websites of many of Canada’s provincial and territorial governments. • While provinces and territories in Canada have constitutional responsibility for postsecondary education, the federal government also has an interest in maintaining and improving postsecondary education throughout the county. • For decades up to 1995, the federal government partnered with the provinces and territories by providing significant funding support to help them sustain and develop postsecondary education.

4. Recent Trends in Funding for PSE • In 1995, the federal government dramatically cut its cash transfers to provinces and territories. As a result, federal cash transfers for postsecondary education are lower today than they were in 1994-95. • The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, and Canada’s premiers have repeatedly stressed the importance of enhanced financial support for postsecondary education. • In its Budget 2007, the federal government committed to increase federal support for postsecondary education through the Canada Social Transfer. • At the same time, it announced that the federal government will engage provinces and territories on how best to make use of the federal enhancement to the Canada Social Transfer funding prior to 2008-09 in order to ensure appropriate reporting and accountability to Canadians for postsecondary education. • No further details have been given on how or when the federal government will engage provinces and territories.

5. Ontario’s Vision • The Government of Ontario believes that education and skills training are foundations for an engaged citizenry and a strong democracy. They enrich the enjoyment of the lives of Ontarians and are essential to the economic success of the province. • The Province agrees that: • Ontarians should have a high quality, accountable and accessible postsecondary education system with effective and relevant skills training and other labour-market services; • Ontarians should have every opportunity to learn and to succeed. The more learning opportunities created, the more success Ontarians will enjoy and the stronger our province will be; and • In order to build the province’s competitive advantage, Ontario should have the most educated people and highly skilled workforce in North America and should be a leader in research and innovation.

6. Putting Ontario’s Vision into Practice • The Government of Ontario is supporting its vision with multiple strategies: • The Reaching Higher Plan, introduced in 2005, represents $6.2 billion in investments for postsecondary education and training by 2009-10. It is the most significant multi-year investment in Ontario’s higher education system in 40 years • The centrepiece of Ontario’s new approach is Employment Ontario, launched in January 2007. It will provide seamless and coordinated training, apprenticeship and other employment services. The Province has increased funding for its services to nearly $1 billion annually through the transfer of $525 million in resources under the Canada-Ontario Labour Market Development Agreement • Together with researchers, universities and entrepreneurs, the government is also working to expand research commercialization and outreach programs and is investing $1.7 billion over five years by 2009-10

7. The Reaching Higher Plan • In response to the findings of the postsecondary review, The Reaching Higher Plan: the McGuinty Government Plan for Postsecondary Education was introduced in the 2005 Budget. • The Reaching Higher Plan will result in a cumulative investment of $6.2B in the post-secondary education system by 2009-10, including: • $1.5 billion in new investments in student financial assistance; • $4.3 billion in new investments to colleges and universities; and • $0.4 billion in new investments in other initiatives, including training and apprenticeship. • By 2009-10, the government will be providing an additional $1.2 billion in operating grants to colleges and universities, or 35% more than the base in 2004-05. • In return for this massive investment the government expects more access, higher quality and better accountability.

8. The Reaching Higher Plan: Access • Student Assistance: Investment of an additional $192M in 2005-06 climbing to $358M by 2009-10. New grants will be available for low and middle income students and student loan programs will be further enhanced. • Regulated Tuition Framework: The government introduced a new tuition framework in 2006. The framework allows for tuition fee differentiation based on program and program year for all publicly funded programs. Institutions can not increase tuition fees unless they agree to participate in the Student Access Guarantee. • Enrolment: $75M in 2005-06 growing to $157M in 2009-10 to increase enrolment in college and university programs with the goal of increasing full-time enrolment to 86,000 by 2009-10. • Participation: Focus on expanded opportunities for under-represented groups such as Aboriginal People, Francophones, persons with disabilities, and “first generation” students. This initiative includes $10M in new funding in 2005-06, rising to $55M by 2009-10 for new programs and outreach.

9. The Reaching Higher Plan: Access (cont’d) • Expanding Graduate Growth: $19M in new funding in 2005-06, growing to $220M annually by 2009-10 to expand graduate enrolment by 14,000. $100M will also be invested in graduate fellowship endowment and $25M will be invested in university faculty chairs for research on improving graduate education. • Health Human Resources Development: $95M by 2009-10 to expand first year medical spaces by 15%, establish a community-based nursing pilot program in North West Ontario, and improve the clinical component of health sciences programs. • Capital: ReNew Ontario, the Government’s five-year Infrastructure Plan provides capital funding to support the Reaching Higher Plan: • $550M to support 14,000 university graduate school spaces by 2009-10; • $50M to support a 15% increase in medical school spaces; and • $540M to renew university and college facilities and buy new equipment at colleges.

10. The Reaching Higher Plan: Quality • The government has provided additional funding to increase the capacity of institutions to meet the shared goals of quality and accessibility. This funding can be used for such things as: • Hiring more support staff and faculty so that students have better access to their instructors and support services and providing; • Providing training for faculty and teaching assistants; • Purchasing additional educational resources to enhance and modernize the classroom and teaching environment; • Enhancing and expanding library resources; and • Introducing or enhancing student-centred learning models (e.g. learning commons, first-year seminars). • Internationalization Strategy: Investment of an additional $5M by 2009-10 to deliver a comprehensive internationalization strategy, including funding of an international exchange program for Ontario students and a marketing campaign to advertise Ontario as a destination of choice to prospective international students.

11. The Reaching Higher Plan: Quality (cont’d) • Small, Northern and Rural: New investment of $10M in 2005-06 growing to $20M by 2007-08 to increase access to high quality college programs in northern and rural areas. • The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario: Established as an arm’s length agency, the Council will: • Monitor quality in the sector, access to postsecondary education and the accountability of institutions; • Monitor and report on performance measurement, and guide the postsecondary education system towards improved quality; • Undertake research on quality, participation, and access, and advise government on the best way to measure performance and institutional collaboration; • Develop a quality framework for postsecondary education to facilitate MYAs, including the development of indicators for performance measurement; and • Assess, analyse, report and make recommendations with respect to the operation of the Student Access Guarantee.

12. The Reaching Higher Plan: Accountability • The Reaching Higher Plan committed the government to implementing bilateral Multi-Year Agreements (MYAs) that would ensure that government funding allocated to publicly-funded institutions are achieving the Reaching Higher goals of access, quality and accountability. • To bridge institutions from existing accountability mechanisms to the MYAs, MTCU implemented publicly released Interim Accountability Agreements (IAAs) for 2005-06. • These agreements were signed by the Executive Heads of 22 universities and 24 colleges – and signed back by the Minister. • The IAAs confirmed the institution-specific commitments & results expected from 2005-06 operating grant allocations, including the new quality funding. MTCU selected indicators commonly used by other jurisdictions to measure quality (retention, average class size, student : faculty ratio) and committed institutions to participating in standardized, pan jurisdictional quality measurement tools (see Appendix A).

13. The Reaching Higher Plan: Accountability (cont’d) • On August 4, 2006, the government released Multi-Year Agreements (MYAs) for 2006-07 to 2008-09. • The MYA allows for the multi-year planning horizon needed to progress towards the Reaching Higher goals, including the government’s preliminary multi-year funding allocations for 2006-07 to 2008-09. • This bi-lateral agreement, signed by the President or Board Chair of each institution and the Minister: • Defines the government goals and commitments for access, quality and accountability; • Commits to the strong collaborative partnership needed to achieve the system goals, including the commitment to make necessary revisions to the MYA; • Is supplemented by existing performance & accountability arrangements, including the Key Performance Indicators; • Defines the system-wide commitments and results expected from institutions for access, quality and accountability as outlined in a measurement schematic for 2006-07 to 2008-09 ( see next slide); and • Requires that each institution establish a Multi-Year Action Plan which will outline specific commitments for multi-year strategies, indicators and targets designed to achieve and communicate the system-wide goals and results. These plans will be reviewed annually to confirm that commitments are on track. Based on this review, institutions may be required to submit an improvement plan to MTCU.

14. Reaching Higher Goal Objective Performance Measure Results * Strong People, Strong Economy: A prosperous economy depends on a well-educated and highly skilled work force Access More Students Attending PSE Increased Enrolment - Increase university and college full-time enrolment Increased Participation - Increase participation rates of 18-24 year olds - Identification and attainment of institution specific targets for increasing the participation of under-represented students - Compliance with the Student Access Guarantee - Development of system measure to track participation of under represented students - Tracking and improvement of participation by mature students Quality Learning Environment - Identification and attainment of institution specific targets related to improving Student Faculty Engagement - e.g. faculty hires, contact hours, class size – as well as improving Teaching / Faculty Ratio – e.g. books per student, computer access, # of PHd’s teaching Quality More Students Succeeding in a Relevant and Responsive System Student Engagement / Satisfaction - Ongoing college participation in student, employer and graduate survey and initial participation in the College Student Engagement Survey to identify targets - University participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Graduate Professional Student Survey (if applicable) to identify targets for engagement / satisfaction Student Success - Identification / attainment of institution specific targets for retention - Maintain or improve grad rate of 60% for colleges and 74% for university - University participation in the Consortium on Student Retention Data Exchange to identify sector targets for retention Accountability Stronger Accountability Framework - Commitment to deliver on this Measurement and Results Schematic as part of the Multi-Year Agreements - Public communication of results Measurement and Results Schematic for 2006-07 to 2008-09

15. Reaching Higher Performance Indicators • The preceding schematic (Appendix A of the MYA Agreement) confirms the indicators that will be used to report on the Reaching Higher results: • Full-time enrolment • System wide participation rates of 18-24 year olds • Participation of mature students at colleges • Institution specific targets for the participation of under-represented groups • Institution specific targets to improve student faculty engagement (e.g. contact hours, class size, hires) • Institution specific targets to improve Learning Quality (e.g. Books per student, computer access, numbers of PhD’s teaching, student advising, library enhancements, student centred learning models) • Institution specific retention targets • System wide graduation rates of 60% for colleges and 74% for universities

16. Quality & Accountability: An Evolutionary Process • Signed MYAs will be made available to the public on each institution’s web-site. • The government appreciates that implementing this MYA and future agreements will be part of an evolutionary process which will require a strong collaborative partnership between institutions and MTCU. • In partnership with institutions, MTCU is committed to reviewing and revising the MYA as needed on an annual basis to reflect maturing consensus on measuring and encouraging access and quality. • Advice from and research undertaken by HEQCO will also inform the ongoing evolution of the MYAs. HEQCO will play a significant role in the development of a quality framework for postsecondary education in Ontario to facilitate multi-year accountability agreements with institutions, including the development of indicators for performance measurement and monitoring the Student Access Guarantee.

17. Appendix A: Quality Measurement Tools • Universities: • The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is administered at the University of Indiana and has been measuring a range of activities in the provision of higher education from student: faculty interaction to student campus experience since 1999. NSSE is specifically designed to assess the extent to which students are engaged in empirically derived good educational practices and what they gain from their university experience. The results of the survey yield useful information about the quality of undergraduate learning environment. More information is available at: http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm. • The Graduate Professional Student Survey (GPSS) was initially developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Duke University, which consolidated pre-existing surveys from Duke, Rutgers and the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium. This tool is currently being retailored to meet the needs of Ontario universities. • Consortium on Student Retention Data Exchange (CSRDE) is administered at the University of Oklahoma, and has served the higher education community since 1994 by coordinating the cooperative sharing of retention and graduation data from four-year institutions. The CSRDE then uses this data to develop benchmarking reports and customized peer reports for its member institutions. For more information: www.ou.edu/csrde. • Colleges: • The College Student Engagement Survey replicates the Pan-Canadian study administered in 2005-06 to college students across Canada. The aim of the survey is to identify the key determinants of student academic success and persistence. This initiative is overseen by a Steering Committee, which is made up of MTCU staff, students and college representatives.