McMaster reversing a ’90s trend

A decline in full-time faculty during the nineties prompted an increase in part-time faculty teaching at McMaster, but University provost and vice-president academic Harvey Weingarten says that trend is now being reversed.

“The goal now is to teach students with full-time faculty members. It's turning around,” Weingarten is quoted in today's Hamilton Spectator.

The story, by Jon Wells, focuses on a Statistics Canada report released on Aug. 6 which highlights a 9.7 per cent national drop in full-time university professors from the 1992-93 to 1998-99 academic years. In Ontario, the drop was 11.7 per cent.

Weingarten says Ontario's declining numbers reflect cuts to universities. “After 1995, following government cuts, our full-time faculty declined 10 per cent in two years.”

The student-to-teacher ratio in Ontario is 21.1, the highest in the country.