University of Guelph - case study
Keeping innovation going: University of Guelph
How does good get even better?
That was the intention when University of Guelph provost Maureen Mancuso released a white paper in 2005 called “The Lighting of a Fire: Re-Imagining the Undergraduate Learning Experience.” Among its conclusions was that the university could not afford to become complacent, making minor tweaks to courses, but needed to be forward-thinking in the competencies and types of learning students would need in the future.
The university’s “21st Century Curriculum” committee responded two years later with recommendations such as more problem-based, integrated first-year courses, the integration of more research experiences throughout undergraduate degree programs, more international learning opportunities, as well as ensuring access to at least one small group learning experience for first and second-year students.
Work to implement those recommendations has included reorganizing large first-year biology courses into integrated modules organized around key biological concepts, with a hands-on component, as well as changes in the College of Management and Economics, incorporating more service-learning courses.
But budget crunches have taken their toll. Faced with several unpalatable choices, Dr. Mancuso reluctantly decided she would have to suspend the university’s first-year seminars in 2009, which offered interactive small-group learning experiences capped at 18 students a group.
She found a way to bring them back this year through donor funds, including the university’s alumni association and a major gift from Tye Burt, vice-chair of the university’s board of governors.
“We don’t have a culture in Canada of looking for donors to support academic programming because of concerns of people getting too close to the curriculum,” says Dr. Mancuso. But she says the curriculum was less vulnerable to outside influence because the seminars were interdisciplinary and novel, with themes determined by instructor’s research interests.
As well, the university could show evidence that “these seminars make a difference,” in higher GPAs for students who have taken them and enthusiastic personal testimonials from students who said the seminars gave them a chance to hone skills they could transfer to other courses.
Meanwhile, the university is leading the way in discussions among several universities over how to incorporate more “community-engaged scholarship,” such as community-based service learning and research projects for students.
Included in those talks has been discussions on how to broaden tenure and promotion structures, which traditionally have valued published research as the mark of scholarship, to include other types of work such as investigating methods of teaching and learning and collaborating with community partners to solve community challenges.
“It’s not sufficient to change policy,” says Kerry Daly, dean of Guelph’s College of Social and Applied Science and a member of the project’s leadership team. “You have to change deeply embedded expectations and assumptions. That’s the long, slow process.
Dr. Mancuso agrees.
“Universities are very slow to change and culture is very entrenched,” she advises, “You have to be determined, focused and patient – and also continually trying to get innovation to take root.”
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