A new course for our colleges and universities

Our colleges and universities are among the greatest forces of change in society. They have been for centuries.?And yet they’re also among the most resistant to change.?

How do we change that?

Some of the country’s top post secondary leaders and executives met this week in Toronto to discuss the challenge, as part of the Business + Higher Education Roundtable , which is chaired by RBC ’s CEO Dave McKay .

Here are some of the key points I took away:

1. We need to instill more risk in post-secondary education. That means more risk-taking with curriculum design, delivery models, research and learning. Perhaps letting students help lead the way can help. They’re the ones taking big risks, with the prime of their lives, by investing themselves in post-secondary education.

2.?Better align post-secondary education with the Canadian economy.?Sometimes colleges and universities seek to reflect the society or economy that they envision and can get a little too far away from the one they represent. We have a diverse economy, including a very innovative natural resources sector that would benefit from more post-secondary engagement. Same for the digital economy, including artificial intelligence.

3.?Change the pricing model. Post secondary education still relies on largely a fixed-price, fixed-term model, while much of the economy has moved to dynamic pricing. How can the education of tomorrow reflect the economy of choice, and pricing that reflects that.?Can the sector experiment with subscription models, or membership models? Or can basic programs be priced over longer periods of time

4. Delivery models. How can the sector continue to evolve the model of getting education to a diverse market? We need more mobility and wider reach. The pandemic showed how education can be scaled to markets not just across the country but around the world.?

5. More differentiation.?Of course there is some stratification in our post-secondary system, but we may need more.?More private universities, for example and more elite programs, including more PhD programs. While Canada does well in post-secondary enrolment, we lag the U.S. in PHD achievement, especially in the sectors that are driving the economy and society. (See Point 2.)

6. International students. We all know about the crisis, with a far greater number of students coming into the country in recent years than was widely anticipated. How do we use this crisis to our advantage, to set a new international student strategy for the next decade? How can we keep Canada at the forefront of international education and brings many of the world’s best and brightest to our schools without diminishing the overall academic experience and broader social outcomes and costs?

7. More corporate connectivity.?One of Canada’s productivity challenges is the clearly insufficient levels of corporate research and development. That can be changed through our colleges and universities, just as we see in the U.S. It’s on corporate Canada, as well as the post-secondary sector, to lean into the challenge, and develop a much more ambitious goal for corporate and academic research, especially in the areas that will shape Canada’s economic future.

One of Canada’s greatest strengths is post-secondary education. But we’ve not invested adequately in it. Colleges and universities, with some great exceptions, have not kept pace with a rapidly changing world.

It’s a great moment for business, academia and government to come together to chart a new course.