News and commentary

Ottawa – The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada today accepted into its membership Edmonton-based MacEwan University.

Membership for MacEwan University was recommended by a visiting committee of university presidents and approved by AUCC’s Board of Directors and membership.

“We’re very pleased to welcome MacEwan University to membership in AUCC,” says Paul Davidson, president of AUCC. “We look forward to working with the leadership, faculty, staff and students of MacEwan University to advance higher education.”

Founded in 1971, MacEwan University has evolved to become a comprehensive degree-granting university. It now offers more than 60 programs including undergraduate degrees, applied degrees, diplomas, certificates, continuing education and corporate training.

“Everyone at MacEwan University is excited about our new membership in the AUCC,” says MacEwan University President David Atkinson. “It is very gratifying to have our university recognized and we look forward to being a contributing member.”

MacEwan University has four schools and faculties throughout Edmonton which serve nearly 14,000 full-time undergraduate students: the Faculty of Arts and Science, the Faculty of Health and Community Studies, the Centre for the Arts and Communications, and the School of Business.

With the addition of MacEwan University, AUCC now represents 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities. AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities and advocates for higher education and university research with the federal government on behalf of its member universities.

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Media Contacts:

Helen Murphy
AUCC Communications Manager
hmurphy@aucc.ca
613 563-3961 ext. 238 or cell: 613 608-8749

Nadine Robitaille
Communications Officer
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
nrobitaille@aucc.ca
613-563-1236 ext. 306

Partnerships put ideas to work for Canadians

Ottawa – The presidents of Canada’s universities are on Parliament Hill today to talk with MPs and senior public servants about the role universities play in building prosperity in Canada. The day’s activities focus on university and private sector partnerships and how they drive innovation, foster global linkages and contribute to a stronger Canada.

“The connections between universities and the private sector foster innovation and fuel the creation of high-quality jobs for Canadians,” says Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “Through the exchange of new knowledge, ideas and talent, these partnerships put ideas to work and build prosperity in communities small and large across the country.”

The day includes the “Big Thinking” Lecture, co-hosted with the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, being given by Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta, on the topic of “Stem cells and medical tourism: The challenge for health and science policy.” Also included is an evening reception to showcase university-industry collaboration.

Canada’s universities do more than $1 billion in research each year with the private sector, and another almost $1 billion of research for health and social service non-profit groups. A number of private-sector partners are joining university presidents in their “Day on the Hill.”

AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities, representing 95 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities.

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Media Contacts:

Brad MacKay
AUCC Communications
bmackay@aucc.ca
613 563-3961 ext. 220 or cell: 613 255-2050

Helen Murphy
AUCC Communications Manager
hmurphy@aucc.ca
613 563-3961 ext. 238 or cell: 613 608-8749

The evening reception will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Drawing Room of the Château Laurier Hotel, Ottawa. It is open to the media.

For media registration, contact Brad MacKay or Helen Murphy.

Op-ed published in Embassy

By Paul Davidson
President, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada

The vision is bold; the potential is real. But what will it take to get Canada to be a world leader in international education? It will take a high degree of coordination, decisive action and commitment to move quickly, before opportunities pass us by.

That’s the vision outlined recently by the federal government’s expert panel on international education – a bold strategy that would see Canada become a 21^st century leader in attracting top talent and preparing Canadians for the global marketplace. It’s a vision whose time has come.

That’s not so say Canada hasn’t made great strides already – we have, and in many ways. Canadian universities have long embraced the importance of internationalizing our campuses, from recruiting international students, to developing joint programming with overseas partners, to finding new and innovative ways to provide international experiences to Canadian students.

There has been significant progress at the federal level. Immigration policies, for example, demonstrate a clear recognition that students are a valuable source of talent – the kind of immigrant Canada wants and needs to attract to address our labour shortages.

Forward-looking policies introduced by CIC now provide Canada with an advantage over other potential destination countries for international students. These students can now work in Canada – both on and off-campus – while pursuing their studies. They can participate in co-op programs. They can even work in Canada for up to three years after graduation. The Canadian Experience Class was introduced as a path to permanent residency for international student graduates of Canadian education institutions who have gained skilled work experience in Canada. We’ve just celebrated the 20,000^th person to become a permanent resident under the program – in four short years, a remarkable achievement.

CIC has recently launched consultations on the review of its International Students Program. The review is being undertaken to improve the integrity of Canada’s immigration system, enhance accountability, and improve Canada’s reputation as a destination of choice for studies abroad. These steps are critical to keep Canada competitive in the drive to attract our share of the world’s 3.5 million international students.

Next steps

Yet issues persist and hurdles must be cleared. Having worked diligently to reduce visa processing times, they are now increasing. Our immigration officers overseas are faced with increased demand for processing study permits at a time of fiscal restraint and reduced government spending. The result is unintended delays in processing and loss of students to other countries that can issue student visas more quickly. Canada needs to find a way to ensure CIC can meet the demand. It is time to explore new ways to ensure that visa offices are adequately resourced for student permit processing, including a review of the fees charged for these permits.

From a foreign policy and trade perspective, there is growing recognition that universities are an underleveraged asset in promoting Canada to the world. The advisory panel on the development of a comprehensive international education strategy for Canada has submitted its recommendations to Finance Minister Flaherty and International Trade Minister Fast. One very straightforward recommendation is to establish a council on international education and research that will bring together senior government officials and representatives of the sector to keep our focus on this important part of Canada’s economy and link our efforts to research, innovation, commerce and human resource strategies.

The consultations to refresh Canada’s Global Commerce Strategy have heard that access to talent is a priority for Canadian employers, and central to this is attracting high-quality international students and researchers. International research collaboration is also globally recognised as a strategic investment in economic growth, bilateral trade and talent development. Given these linkages, education should be clearly identified as a priority economic sector that will actively be promoted and support by Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service.

We will be asking much of our officers overseas in taking this on – particularly those who are hired locally and who may never have experienced education in Canada at any level. AUCC and partners are ready to share expertise and enhance understanding of the education sector among staff of Canadian missions abroad.

International education – in all its aspects – is key to Canada’s success in a rapidly changing integrated global knowledge economy. The bold strategy recommended by the expert panel will benefit Canadians across the country, by giving employers access to the talent and global markets they need, enriching communities and making our country more prosperous and innovative. That’s a vision we can all support. 

OTTAWA – A new report from the Council of Canadian Academies highlights the outstanding quality of Canada’s university researchers and points to Canada’s growing influence on global knowledge. Commissioned by Industry Canada and released today, The State of Science and Technology in Canada, 2012 underscores the excellence and breadth of research taking place at Canadian universities in a broad range of fields. The State of Science and Technology is a follow-up report to a 2006 study. The new report found “a high international regard for the quality and rigour” of Canada’s science and technology researchers.

 “The new report by the Council of Canadian Academies emphasizes the crucial role Canadian university researchers play on the world stage,” says Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. “Our universities are driving research and innovation, and gaining international respect for the quality of their work in a broad range of fields.”

Prepared by an 18-member expert panel that was chaired by Eliot Phillipson, the former president of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and included Sara Diamond, president of OCAD University, the report takes and ambitious and wide-ranging look at the current state of Canadian research.

Among its key findings:

• Between 2005 and 2010, Canada produced about 60 percent more academic papers than it had in the previous five years – the highest increase among G7 nations.
• Nearly four in 10 of the world’s top-cited international researchers ranked Canada in the top five countries in their field, and 68 percent rated Canada as strong compared to the rest of the world. This puts Canada fourth in the world (behind only the U.S., the U.K. and Germany).
• Canada produces nearly five percent of the most frequently cited research papers in the world, despite having only 0.5 percent of the world’s population.

 “Our universities are well-positioned to help Canada compete in the global marketplace of ideas,” says Mr. Davidson. “Canada’s research contributions are healthy, growing, internationally competitive and well-respected.”

AUCC is the national voice of Canada’s universities, representing 94 Canadian public and private not-for-profit universities.

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Media Contact:

Nadine Robitaille
Communications Officer
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
nrobitaille@aucc.ca
613-563-1236 ext. 306

Op-ed published in Research Money September 21, 2012

By Daniel Woolf
Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University
Chair of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada’s Standing Advisory Committee on International Relations

New and returning students have unpacked their things and settled back into campus life here at Queen’s University, but many graduate students have been here all summer, working alongside faculty researchers on a variety of projects. The research endeavour never sleeps.

In Canada, we’re doing well in terms of research achievements. Canadian research teams have elevated our status as a world leader in areas of expertise such as information and communications technology, health education and environmental stewardship. But we need to push further to compete in today’s highly competitive, multi-disciplinary, trillion-dollar global research industry. Our contemporaries are already focusing their resources and attention to compete in this market.

Take a look at Brazil, projected to become the fifth-largest economy over the next few years. Already, it has 5.4 million university students and produces more PhDs than Canada. Other parts of the world have become the planet’s economic drivers. In fewer than two decades, more than 40 percent of the world’s GDP will come from Asia.

A culture of collaboration among top world talent has already become both the norm and the necessity. In Canada, some 40 percent of today’s university faculty earned their first or highest degree in another country, and 30 percent of Canada Research Chairs have been recruited from abroad. Top research talents are collaborating at a record level to leverage their combined data, research and knowledge. Close to 50 percent of Canada’s research papers have co-authors from other countries – twice the rate of 15 years ago and double the world average. Now we must step up our momentum to keep pace with the changing context of global research.

The shift toward international partnerships comes as traditional world powers cope with difficult fiscal realities. The United States’ slower-than-anticipated recovery and the European Union’s ongoing economic fragility have allowed Brazil, China and India to seize the lead. In this climate of change, what remains constant is the collective global recognition that university research, as a key investment, drives both short- and long-term economic growth. Over the past decade, our competitors have been pouring considerable resources into all sectors of research.

The Royal Society of London estimates the number of researchers, globally, at seven million. In our research-driven global economy, the new challengers – with their booming populations – are very serious about research and economic growth.

As I, and others, have stated elsewhere, Canada is facing fundamental choices. Economic, social and technological revolutions are underway throughout the world. We will confront significant economic, health, and labour market challenges as a result of shifting demographics in the decades ahead. By 2030, the proportion of the Canadian population that is over the age of 65 will double, while the working age population (ages 25-64) will grow by only eight percent. To offset these differences and remain competitive in the global marketplace, we must use our considerable research assets to drive innovation and become more productive.

There are already clear results from global collaborations, and more will follow. Working as teammates, our international partnerships on pandemic research and planning mean we’ll also combat the spread of infectious diseases with greater insight and speed. Collaboration in the face of major environmental shifts and surging world populations will ensure better planetary resource management.

For example, Queen’s University partners with Fudan University in Shanghai and the Southwest University of China to offer the Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology. Students from both countries do field study on aquatic environments and ecosystems along the Yangtze River in the vicinity of the Three Gorges Dam Project in China, and in the St. Lawrence River and Frontenac Arch regions of Eastern Ontario.

Moreover, Colin Funk, Canada Research Chair in Molecular, Cellular and Physiological Medicine at Queen’s, is the only Canadian scientist working with an international consortium of 39 investigators from 18 institutions and four countries to personalize drug therapy for the most common medications consumed worldwide, with the goal of reducing the risk of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes.

These examples show Canada has top talent to bring to the table. But if we expect others to view Canada as an attractive partner, we must commit to R&D as an investment priority, and make this commitment well-known across the globe. Competition is fierce. Our international colleagues seeking collaboration on highly complex issues will naturally pursue the most readily available resources, talent and investment.

As our competitors surge forward, Canada must commit more in R&D investment, particularly on the private sector side. Either we demonstrate comparable commitment, or potential collaborators will take their business elsewhere: we then run the further risk of Canadian researchers moving outside Canada.

To build prosperity at home, our international competitors must also be our allies. Competition and collaboration now go hand-in-hand. The result of doing both well will be increased innovation, productivity, social well-being, entrepreneurship and jobs for Canadians.