Peter George’s presentation to Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Activity

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Peter_George_254.jpg” caption=”McMaster President Peter George”]The following transcript is from a presentation made by McMaster President Peter George to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Activity on Monday in London, Ontario. His presentation is part of McMaster's ongoing advocacy in anticipation of Bob Rae's final report on postsecondary education. The panel heard presentations as part of the province's pre-budget consultations.

I would like to begin by thanking the committee for giving me this opportunity to present some thoughts about postsecondary education and research in Ontario.

In the next few weeks Bob Rae will be tabling his review of postsecondary education in Ontario. Mr. Rae will be making recommendations that if adopted will have a profound impact on Ontario's economic development, social system and civil society for better or worse for a long time to come. I hope this committee will have an opportunity for careful study of the recommendations before it submits its final report to the Legislature.

My colleagues from the Council of Ontario Universities and from The University of Western Ontario have provided you with their insights and advice on the Rae Review. I don't want to go over the same ground but have a few observations of my own before turning to the important topic of university research.

Bob Rae and members of his Advisory Council have been touring the province, holding town hall meetings and roundtable discussions here in London on Dec. 1 and in Hamilton on Oct. 20 to seek input about ways in which the performance of the postsecondary sector could be improved. Mr. Rae has been forthright about the funding problems faced by our colleges and universities, and the link between prosperity and investment in higher education.

Most people in Ontario agree with Mr. Rae that public investment in postsecondary education delivers significant benefits to the community. They probably know that university graduates earn more and have higher rates of employment than other groups of graduates. University graduates make up about 15 per cent of the population but pay 35 per cent of the income taxes collected in Canada.

Other contributions to the social good are less transparent: for example, university graduates place fewer demands on public health care, welfare and criminal incarceration services, more often take leadership positions in political and voluntary organizations, and have higher rates of philanthropic and charitable giving. Indeed, higher education is generally thought to contribute through its graduates to peace, order and good government.

The clearest affirmation of the value of postsecondary education is that most parents want their children to have a university education, and they continue to send them to Ontario universities and colleges in record numbers. This is undoubtedly recognition of the individual benefit of higher education.

The TD Bank Economics group estimated that a postsecondary education pays a real after-tax annual financial rate of return of more than 12 per cent. Perhaps even more important are the many non-monetary benefits, which include better health, longer lives and the opportunity to make more life choices.

We all have had personal experiences with young people who have benefited from postsecondary education and the thought that even one of them might have been denied for lack of financial resources or a lack of space in the system is unacceptable to most of us.

Why then is there not more interest in or support for building the best possible universities and colleges? Why do debates about higher education focus almost exclusively on tuition fees rather than quality?

First, I think the need to invest in quality is not well understood by the community or even our political leaders. People do not make a distinction between funding increases that are needed to meet increased enrolment and the funding needed to keep up with the quality improvements of our major competitors in Canada and the United States or to meet the quality requirements that come out of Ontario's own strategic needs. Indeed, the only real funding increases for educational purposes in Ontario postsecondary institutions have been directed at enrolment growth with particular focus on the famous double cohort. Accessibility has certainly captured public and hence the Government's attention, but quality has not.

Second, students and their families are most focused on lower tuition because the immediate benefits are more obvious. Governments have been drawn into short term responses to these concerns. However, there is a need for firm political leadership with a longer term vision that recognizes that investment in a quality education will better position graduates and society for the future.

The role of universities in the inspiring and nurturing of innovation also needs to be more clearly understood. The returns to investing in research are not easily measured but there is an undeniable link between research success and the quality of life. University research saves lives, leads to new commercial products and processes, provides analyses of pressing social issues and problems and exposes us to new forms of creative expression. Nationally university research has been estimated to add $15 billion to Canada's GDP per year, creating between 150,000 and 200,000 years of employment annually.

In addition to the social and economic benefits of our research, Ontario's research-intensive universities, produce the highly qualified personnel needed by an advanced economy. For example in the case of our health care system, the foundation of strong health care is the education of health professionals and support for the researchers engaged in the development of new medical approaches and treatments.

Over the past decade, government leadership has made a significant difference for university research in this province enabling Ontario universities to take their place among the top universities in the world. Toronto and McMaster are ranked in the top 100 in a recent academic ranking survey by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Investment in research in the last decade has been successful in large part because governments made the most of the funding available on a competitive basis. Each proposal had to undergo a rigorous peer evaluation process. Scare resources went to researchers with the highest chance of achieving significant results. This approach did not favour established institutions or individuals; it was designed to encourage wide-spread participation in cutting edge research while encouraging the most cost effective use of a limited amount of funding.

McMaster's experience illustrates how careful strategic planning can make a difference. For the past 10 years, McMaster has focused on building its areas of research strength and promoting interdisciplinary work. This focus has brought McMaster success in its research enterprise and has been noted by those who rank universities' research performance.

In Research Infosource's most recent report on sponsored research funding at Canadian universities, McMaster ranked second in Ontario in total funding and first in research intensity (funding per full-time faculty). We are proud to have been named Canada's 2004 Research University of the Year by Research Infosource. Five Canadian universities were ranked by The Scientist magazine in the top 10 places to work in the world in academia outside the United States. Two, including McMaster, were from Ontario.

This recognition while gratifying does not tell the story of jobs and the economic and social benefits that the university creates for the community and the province. We estimate the economic impact of McMaster's research to be about a $525 million annual contribution to Canada's GDP predominantly in Ontario. McMaster is a major source of vitality in the Hamilton economy, which has experienced a number of major setbacks over the past few years.

The research ranking does not tell the story of the practical discoveries and innovations that make a difference for Ontario businesses. Let me give you one recent example from McMaster's Manufacturing Research Institute. Autoplant Magazine in its November 2004 issue reported that:

A research team led by engineers form McMaster University in Hamilton has developed a promising new automotive process to machine car engine blocks. The process is said to be faster, cheaper and better for the environment than existing methods.

Researchers believe the McMaster engine block project will give the Canadian car industry a significant leg-up in global auto trade.

There are many more examples of new technologies and new ideas that I could have cited. On a given day there are more than 2,000 funded research projects underway at McMaster. They range from developing new vaccines to studying globalization and how it relates to public policy to finding better ways to make engine blocks. And, the scope and scale of innovative research activity is multiplied many times when you take into account the research activities of all of Ontario's universities.

Research-intensive universities are agents of economic and social development and a source of strength for our civil society.

McMaster's strategic plan identifies the university's role in economic development and our mission statement affirms that, “we serve the social, cultural and economic needs of our community and our society.”

We have been planning to extend our reach into the community, to expand our research partnerships, to build on our collaboration with the college system and broaden opportunities for graduate and undergraduate training by establishing a research and innovation park.

Earlier today, we made a major step toward the realization of that plan with the announcement that McMaster University is acquiring the property formerly occupied by Camco as the site for our new research and innovation park.

We plan to turn an abandoned industrial site into:

• a source of new energy and jobs for the Hamilton economy
• a critical component of the R&D infrastructure to support and grow the auto/materials and manufacturing cluster, the biotechnology sector and nanotechnology in Ontario
• a centre for commercialization of university and federal government lab research
• an incubator for innovative start up businesses
• a support system for small and medium and large companies involved in technology based businesses or in need of R&D support, specialized training and technical advice
• a training centre for graduate students, undergraduate and college students, engineers and highly skilled labour needed for the auto/materials and manufacturing sector
• an efficient mechanism for connecting Ontario businesses to government programs to support industrial research, commercialization of university and government lab research, early stage business development, training and international trade
• a globally recognized centre of expertise in materials and manufacturing research, biotechnology and nanotechnology and a magnet to attract highly qualified researchers and students and private and public research funding support

You may also be aware of our Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Burlington announced on Sept. 30, 2004 agreeing to explore the possibility of establishing a McMaster campus in that city focused on an innovative, integrated program in the arts, technology and leadership.

Some of our research and innovation effort has been devoted to the way we teach and the way students learn. You will not be surprised when I say that it has led us to pursue excellence in learning by integrating teaching and research. McMaster has been a leader in developing Problem-Based Learning, first in the medical school, and subsequently the Inquiry model of learning where with the support and coaching of instructors and senior students acting as mentors, students take responsibility for their own learning.

These innovative approaches to learning provide students with discipline-specific knowledge from leading experts in their fields, along with the skills, exposure and developmental opportunities gained through meaningful and active involvement in the research experience and culture.

The process of research and discovery leads to new products, processes, even new approaches to learning that support the growth of jobs and business in our economy. New ideas, creative ways of thinking and innovative approaches to problem-solving are the hallmarks of research-intensive universities. Society benefits, as do students who learn to open their minds and focus on the undiscovered rather than the status quo. It is how we create leaders. It is how we create the human resources needed to adapt to and compete with technologies and other developments from around the world. It is how Canada and Ontario will remain competitive internationally.

In your hearings representatives of postsecondary education have and will continue to make the point that there is a serious need for increased funding.

But is it really the role of universities and colleges to tell government of the value of postsecondary education and the importance of quality? We have the appearance, at least, of a conflict of interest.

Universities and colleges will help in this process, as you have heard, by working with government to develop objective accountability mechanisms and performance measures that I am confident will confirm the value of the investment we are asking government to make in postsecondary education. And not just the economic impact, as important as that is; we must also measure the quality of the student experience, learning outcomes, research
production and the broader impacts that postsecondary education has on our social institutions, our culture and our civil society.

But right now government, with the support of this committee, needs to demonstrate leadership by finding, among competing priorities, the resources that are needed to secure the vital and diverse role of the province's postsecondary education institutions in Ontario's long-term prosperity. McMaster is ready and anxious to be an even stronger partner in Ontario's future success.

Peter George

President and Vice-Chancellor,

McMaster University