Canadian universities in a global context:
A dialogue on international trends and opportunities
A conference organized by
The Association of Universities and College of Canada and the University of Alberta
Wednesday, June 26 – Friday, June 28, 2013
Delta Ottawa City Centre
Ottawa, Ontario
This event builds on AUCC’s March 2013 leaders’ workshop in Vancouver which explored key challenges and
opportunities and innovative ways Canadian universities can effectively sustain the academic mission in a context
of diminishing resources, increased public scrutiny and government pressure for results, and intense international
competition and cooperation.
With a focus on global developments, the conference promotes national conversation on how universities can effectively respond to rapidly changing external forces and embrace emerging opportunities to shape institutional models, sustain operations and be globally relevant.
Based on a multi-country survey of global trends led by Dr. Carl Amrhein, provost and vice-president, academic
(University of Alberta) and an expert steering committee, we will profile lessons learned, best practices and institutional strategies from other jurisdictions around the world. The conference will inform Canadian higher education
leaders and promote thought-provoking dialogue with international participants on the implications of these trends
(including on public policy) and how universities - and higher education systems - are responding.
Co-sponsored by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the University of Alberta, the
dialogue includes university leaders from Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and
the United States; senior representatives from the China Scholarship Council and European and Brazilian research
councils; and key higher education experts.
Due to the generous support of the United States embassy in Ottawa, six graduate students – three American and
three Canadian – are participating in the conference. They will act as rapporteurs throughout the conference sessions, capturing key thoughts and highlights of discussions.
A pre-publication version with the majority of the articles that will appear in the new book, `Building Success in a
Global University: Government and Academia – Redefine Worldwide the Relationship´, (edited by Carl Amrhein, Britta Baron
and Markus Lemmens) profiling contributions by many of the conference participants from Canada and abroad,
will be available at the conference and as a PDF. The book will be delivered in fall 2013.
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Association des universités et collèges du Canada
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Canadian universities in a global context:
A dialogue on international trends and opportunities
June 26 - 28, 2013
Delta Ottawa City Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
9:15 – 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Armchair discussion on global higher education trends: how can
universities drive the agenda?
6:45 p.m.
Hotel lobby, Delta Ottawa City Centre
Guests requiring a guide to walk to the reception at the
National Arts Centre, please meet in the hotel lobby.
Chair
David Barnard, president, University of Manitoba, Canada
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Panelists
• Fernando F. Costa, past president, UNICAMP, Campinas,
Brazil
• Amit Chakma, president, Western University, Canada
• Gerhard Sagerer, rector, Bielefeld University,
Germany
• Nigel Thrift, vice-chancellor, Warwick University, United
Kingdom
Fountain Room, National Arts Centre
Opening reception
Welcome remarks
Paul Davidson, president, Association of Universities and
Colleges of Canada (AUCC)
Carl Amrhein, provost and vice-president, academic,
University of Alberta, Canada
Greetings from unicersity associations abroad
Horst Hippler, president, German Rectors’ Conference
Jean Peeters, vice-president, international committee, French
Rectors’ Conference
Guests will include senior foreign diplomats, parliamentarians,
government officials, research, business and civil society
leaders and invited media.
This session is designed to create a platform for an
international panel of distinguished university leaders to
dissect the major global trends affecting higher education
today and debate the strategic choices universities must make
to effectively respond to rapidly changing external forces and
embrace emerging opportunities to shape institutional
models, sustain operations and be globally relevant.
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Coffee break
Thursday, June 27, 2013
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
8:00 – 9:15 a.m.
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Breakfast and opening keynote address
Moderated small group discussions on global higher education trends
and implications for universities in Canada and abroad
Welcome remarks
Paul Davidson, president, AUCC
Five facilitated small groups will each discuss one of the
following themes and conclude by reflecting on the
implications of these changes on institutional strategies and
operations.
Keynote address: “What’s next for Canada’s Universities?”
Indira Samarasekera, president, University of Alberta, Canada
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Association des universités et collèges du Canada
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Canadian universities in a global context:
A dialogue on international trends and opportunities
June 26 - 28, 2013
Delta Ottawa City Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
• Changing nature of institutional autonomy: key issues
include trends towards provincial government creation of
post-secondary education system frameworks and strategic
• Changing nature of financial support for public
institutional mandates; expectations of curricular reform and
universities: key issues include direct government support; de- greater emphasis on learning outcomes and performancemographic change; philanthropy; tuition/fees; industry support based funding; the emergence of international university
and private sector sponsorship. Facilitator: Dan Lang, profesconsortia and the extent to which all these developments
sor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto,
enhance or diminish institutional autonomy in determining
Canada
who is taught, who teaches, and what is taught. Facilitator:
Group 1: Bytowne (Convention level)
Gilles Breton, professor, graduate school of public and international
affairs, University of Ottawa, Canada
• Changing expectations of students: key issues include
Group 5: Capitale (Convention level)
mobility among different student cohorts; demand for on-line
access to courses (including MOOCs); international
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
experiences and outcomes (e.g. transferability of credit
Ballroom A, Lobby level
between different institutions and learning outcomes/
Luncheon keynote address
competencies). Facilitator: Denise de Menezes Neddermeyer, director
“A Moment of Opportunity: Higher Education in a Time of
of international affairs, Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and
Great Change”
Evaluation of Graduate Education, (CAPES), Brazil;
Group 2: Ballroom A (Lobby level)
Speaker
Facilitator: Carl Amrhein, provost and vice-president,
Joseph Aoun, president, Northeastern University, immediate
academic, University of Alberta, Canada
past chair, American Council on Education, United States
Group 3: Ballroom A (Lobby level)
Thursday, June 27, 2013 continued
• Changing nature of the professor: key issues include
research expectations, practices, and roles (e.g. international
collaboration, research-only professors); teaching expectations,
practices, and roles (e.g. online education, MOOCs,
revenue generation via new programs, teaching-only
professors; multi-institutional affiliations); and expectations of
knowledge translation, societal impact, commercialization, and
communications. Facilitator: Kristopher Olds, chair, department of
geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
Group 4: Cartier (Convention level)
Introduction by Molly Corbett Broad, president, American
Council on Education
This event will be open to invited guests and media.
2:15 – 4:30 p.m.
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Profiling innovation and success in building a global university: what are
lessons learned from around the world?
This event will be open to invited guests and media.
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Association des universités et collèges du Canada
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Canadian universities in a global context:
A dialogue on international trends and opportunities
June 26 - 28, 2013
Delta Ottawa City Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
Panelists
• Jean Peeters, vice-president, international committee,
French Rectors’ Conference, president, Université de Bretagne
2:15 – 3:00 p.m.
• Jayanti Ravi, commissioner, technical education, Gujurat
Ballroom A, Lobby level
State, India and CEO, Knowledge Consortium (by phone link)
Part one: A global forecast on higher education trends in a borderless, on• Margaret Sheil, provost, University of Melbourne, and
line world and implications for traditional universities
former chief executive officer, Australian Research Council,
Australia
Chair
Baroness Diana Warwick, former chief executive officer,
Following the presentations, the chair will moderate a
Universities UK, and chair, Human Tissue Authority,
facilitated plenary dialogue.
United Kingdom
Thursday, June 27, 2013 continued
7:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Pinnacle Room, 27th floor
Reception and dinner with Ambassadors and High
Commissioners from Ottawa’s foreign diplomatic community
Featured presentation
Sir Drummond Bone, master, Balliol College, Oxford
University, United Kingdom; chair, Observatory on
Borderless Higher Education; and senior advisor, Laureate
International Universities
Friday, June 28, 2013
Following the presentation, the chair will moderate a
facilitated plenary dialogue.
7:30 – 8:45 a.m.
Country spotlights: breakfast roundtables with senior embassy officials
and speakers from Brazil, China and Germany
3:00 – 3:15 p.m.
Coffee break
Brazil: Capitale (Convention level)
China: Ballroom A (Lobby level)
Germany: Cartier (Convention level)
3:15 – 4:30 p.m.
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Part two: Perspectives from national leaders in higher education
* Participants have been assigned a roundtable based on
choice made upon registration.
Chair
Baroness Diana Warwick, former chief executive officer,
Universities UK, and chair, Human Tissue Authority,
United Kingdom
9:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Panel discussion on the value and role of international research
partnerships in defining new models of collaboration among
universities in different countries
Chair
Graham Fox, president, Institute for Research on Public
Policy, Canada
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
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Canadian universities in a global context:
A dialogue on international trends and opportunities
June 26 - 28, 2013
Delta Ottawa City Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
• Within new collaborative models of international
engagement, are universities ultimately going to still be
granting degrees or be defining qualifications that
determine future professional opportunities? The shift
away from granting degrees to defining qualifications
challenges universities’ independence, that is in part
reflected in being able to control who teaches, what is taught
and who is taught. Degrees are the summation of a series of
educational events known as courses. Will this continue? Or,
with mass access and new models of student mobility, will the
university credential represent more of a definition of
qualifications, rather than a degree?
Friday, June 28, 2013 continued
Panelists
• Donald B. Dingwell, secretary general, European
Research Council, Belgium
• Horst Hippler, president, German Rectors’ Conference
• Maode Lai, president, China Pharmaceutical
University, China
• Denise de Menezes Neddermeyer, director of international
affairs, Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and
Evaluation of Graduate Education, (CAPES), Brazil
• Mamdouh Shoukri, president, York University, Canada
• As stakeholder relations evolve - both in Canada and
internationally - is there a responsibility for the university
to align with local, regional or national economic
policy? Must universities be an engine of the economy
and global competitiveness, a solution to skill shortages,
a supplier of highly qualified people ready for existing
positions, a receptor of immigrants, a source of
innovation and new start-up companies and a driver of
internationalization?
Following the panel discussion, the chair will moderate
a facilitated plenary dialogue with the audience.
10:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Coffee break
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Moderated small table discussions on redefining stakeholder
relationships in order to operationalize new models of collaboration
• Within an international context, what are universities’
local responsibilities? Is there still a responsibility
for the university community to lead public debates, to
define moral and ethical challenges, to provide public
experts, and to safe-guard and promote the foundations
of Canadian civil society?
Over the years, universities have accumulated mandates,
without shedding previous ones. Many university
leaders believe their institutions can no longer “be all
things to all people.” The questions below are intended
to identify the dilemma of accumulated mandates that
universities face and stimulate reflection on how this
evolving reality impacts international collaboration and
institutional models of global engagement. Each
facilitated small group will reflect on these questions.
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Association des universités et collèges du Canada
• In a context of internalization and global competitiveness,
what are the tensions inherent in these accumulated
mandates and what does it mean for the strategic choices
that must be made by institutions? What are the
implications for relations with governments – locally,
nationally and internationally?
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Canadian universities in a global context:
A dialogue on international trends and opportunities
June 26 - 28, 2013
Delta Ottawa City Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
Friday, June 28, 2013 continued
• Group 1: Ballroom A (Lobby level) Facilitator: David Farrar,
provost and vice-president, academic, The University of
British Columbia, Canada
• Group 2: Ballroom A (Lobby level) Facilitator: Britta Baron,
vice-provost and associate vice-president, international,
University of Alberta, Canada
• Group 3: Bytowne (Convention level) Facilitator: Pekka
Sinervo, senior vice-president, research, The Canadian
Institute for Advanced Research, and professor, University of
Toronto, Canada
• Group 4: Cartier (Convention level) Facilitator: Xinyu Yang,
deputy secretary-general, China Scholarship Council, China
• Group 5: Capitale (Convention level) Facilitator: Qiang Zha,
associate professor, faculty of education, York University, Canada
12:10 – 12:30 p.m.
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Closing reflections: a synthesis of discussions and a forecast of what
a successful, global university will look like in the future
Carl Amrhein, provost and vice-president, academic,
University of Alberta, Canada
12:30 p.m.
Ballroom A, Lobby level
Wrap-up and thanks
Christine Tausig Ford, vice-president and chief operating
officer, AUCC
Light refreshments will be available for participants at
the close of the conference.
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Association des universités et collèges du Canada
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