Université Laval - case study

Partnership for the future: Université Laval’s chairs in educational leadership program

If all goes according to plan, Quebec City’s Université Laval should have at least 50 more faculty members by 2016. And each of them will be exploring new approaches to teaching undergraduates.

The university’s Chairs in Educational Leadership Program (or CEL) aims to discover and adapt to new ways of educating students that fit with current learning styles as well as with the marketplace realities students will face after graduation. Student success is the main focus and enhancing the quality of undergraduate and graduate education has been identified as a priority. Potential chair-holders will be selected on a record of teaching excellence and will be asked to propose research projects looking into novel teaching practices. Chair-holders are expected to transfer what they learn from their teaching and research to other areas of the university.

“Is formal classroom teaching still necessary? Do we need to evolve that model?” asks François Sauvé, assistant to Laval’s vice-president of research and innovation. “We need to get some of those chairs in educational leadership to explore that.

Under the program, Laval will create 10 chairs a year for the next five years. Positions will typically be set up for an initial five-year term. The first five chairs are expected to be in place for September 2011.

What makes the program special is that Laval is turning to the private sector and other potential external partners for $20 million towards the program’s cost. The university will contribute $15 million out of its existing budget. External partners will be asked to commit to covering half of a chair’s salary for five years, as well as contributing at least $15,000 annually towards the chair’s teaching research.

From the university’s perspective, the program is a solution to a problem facing both the government and the institution. Quebec is facing a severe skilled labour shortage. The university is challenged to find ways to produce graduates with skills suited to the economy’s changing needs, as well as ways to accomplish the timely hiring of extra faculty required to train students in emerging and fast-developing industries. Chairs will be appointed in a broad range of disciplines – mining, information technology, and health sciences have already been identified as having an interest.

“What we want is a sharing of the challenge,” says Mr. Sauvé.

The program is an offshoot of Laval’s successful Program for the Advancement of Innovation and Research program (or PAIR), which has raised more than $100 million in just two years to fund 100 research chairs in key knowledge industries.

Instead of having to wait for student numbers to rise in a particular area in order to hire more faculty, CELs will allow Laval to be proactive and build programs that will eventually attract more students.

“It’s going to provide us with some leverage to answer the emerging market needs,” says Mr. Sauvé. “It’s a work in progress.”