External Review of the Economics Department at UTM
By
John Ham, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, University of Southern
California and Michael Veall, Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, McMaster
University
December 13, 2007
Overview
On November 14 and 15, 2007, we visited the University of Toronto Mississauga to
conduct our review of the Department of Economics. Our meeting schedule is attached.
We are particularly grateful to Economics department secretary Ms. Amber Shoebridge,
Administrative Co-ordinator Lorna Taylor, Economics Department chair Varouj
Aivazian and Ms. Norma Dotto of the Department of Political Science for their
considerable help during our visit. We are also very grateful to impressive Economics
undergraduate students Carol Sun and James Zhang for a university tour and for their
help during our meeting with approximately 15 undergraduate students from various
levels.
We had previously examined materials provided by the Assistant Dean including a very
effective Department self-study, CV’s of Department members and a variety of university
documents such as the UTM Steps Up Academic Plan.
Overall, there is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that on a per capita
basis, the Department of Economics at UTM is undoubtedly one of the top few
Economics research departments in Canada. The principal reason is the amicable and
effective arrangement with the St. George Campus, encouraged by a UTM administration
that has wisely not tried to impose a one-size-fits-all regimen on the relations between
UTM departments and their St. George counterparts.
The students we spoke with seemed reasonably representative and they credibly indicated
that they were by and large happy with the Department. (And they weren’t happy about
everything, e.g. parking.) In particular, they did not complain about access to faculty,
which was something we were listening for given that some faculty spend the majority of
their time at St. George. But when such faculty are at UTM, many are very giving of their
time to students so that UTM Economics students conceivably have better faculty access
than their St. George counterparts.
The bad news is that the good news is clearly not sustainable at current resource levels.
The most critical short-term factor is a shortage of departmental administrative staff
(exacerbated by the existing staff not being permitted to use modern software in
enforcing minimum grade requirements and prerequisites and more generally by an
apparent lack of cooperation from the Registrar’s Office). In the medium-term, more
tenure-stream faculty are needed. If that complement is not increased in the next year or
two, the high and growing ratio of students to tenure-stream faculty will compromise the
quality of education to the point where the quality of a degree from this program will
noticeably deteriorate.
Faculty and Chair
The faculty are very productive in terms of research, and in our view recent hires are
probably stronger overall than the faculty hired over the same period at the St. George
campus. This quality of faculty is remarkable given how mobile Economics faculty are.
The quality of hiring is directly attributable to the close relationship the UTM economists
have with those downtown. Any attempt to weaken this connection will result in a rapid
outflow of faculty to other universities and an overall decline in faculty quality.
As noted, we believe that the students are happy with their classes by and large, so we
believe that teaching is at a good level of quality and the faculty are available to the
students. However, approximately 40% of classes are taught by non-tenure stream
faculty1; while such faculty can sometimes bring useful experience to the classroom, it is
easy for them to lose track of the frontier. Non-tenure-stream faculty cannot address the
major teaching shortfall emphasized by the students and faculty: the insufficient number
of third and fourth year classes. If this cannot be addressed the quality of degree that can
be offered by this program will fall, relative to say the same degree offered at the St.
George campus. And while sometimes UTM is able to offer smaller class sizes than St.
George, there are still serious problems. For example an undergraduate economics
statistics/econometrics section of 130 students cannot provide significant “hands-on”
applications, which is a serious drawback. (Note that practical econometrics skills are
extremely attractive to potential employers, but that a student knowing econometrics only
in theory is not nearly as attractive.) The solution is more tenure-stream faculty and
finding the space to put them in, given the department appears to be quite constrained in
terms of space.
The faculty seem relatively happy although they are concerned about the lack of staff
support, because, as we discuss below, they feel the staff are overworked. Some faculty
mentioned they felt that Economics received low priority when the Registrar’s office
allocated rooms for teaching. A number are concerned about who will be the next chair
after Dr. Aivazian, who is regarded to be doing a very good job. (More generally, every
faculty member we spoke to expressed a concern for the future, with the principal worries
being the effect of the growth of enrolment on quality and a concern that the UTM
Administration would not support the Department.)
Professor Aivazian does face the challenge that many faculty would prefer to teach
downtown, and that this can become a negotiating point when faculty get outside offers.
The problem is that many faculty live downtown, so that teaching at UTM involves both
commuting and being restricted to a one semester graduate class a year. A natural way of
dealing with this would be to give faculty an incentive to teach at UTM in terms of a
slightly lower teaching load (e.g. one less semester course every few years) or greater
1
This 40% does not include the large number of classes taught by a permanent lecturer, who we believe
does an excellent job, but is appropriately deployed to teach first and second year classes.
research support. Administrative staff support for faculty has diminished in recent years
and is probably lower than that on the St. George Campus, again adding to the pull of
faculty downtown.2
There is the issue of whether UTM Economics should develop specialized professional
masters degrees. This is a possibility for the future but we believe that UTM Economics
is too understaffed for such an undertaking at this point. Further, faculty feel they were
promised some of the additional revenue from the Commerce students (they provide
about half the courses for this group) and that this revenue never materialized. It is
important for the institution to deal with this existing issue before new initiatives are
discussed.
Students
As noted, the students appear quite happy with the program and the attention they are
getting. They have an active Economics Club (with 200 members) which could be used
to encourage giving to UTM Economics in the future by staying in touch with members,
or having a membership category for those who have graduated. The students very much
like the opportunities to be TA’s and to have tutorials led by senior undergraduates who
have recently taken similar courses.3 Hence we think the current practice of using
undergrads as tutorial leaders in the 100 and 200 level courses serves the students well.
Graduate TAs still do some tutorials at that level and most of the grading (as is
appropriate) and, in any case, undergraduate students have the opportunity of meeting
graduate TA’s in more senior level courses. They are also pleased with the job Ruby
Mack does in advising them, even though she is overstretched.
However, we would note that the students have several concerns that we believe to be
legitimate. First, Commerce students resent the fact that there is a separate Commerce
placement centre on the St. George campus and that they have the lowest priority at this
centre. Students feel that UTM should fund a similar centre on the UTM campus. More
generally, it seems likely that there will be growing dissatisfaction as Commerce students
pay premium tuition to attend overlarge classes along with students who have not paid
the premium. Such dissatisfaction could well compromise undergraduate student
recruitment.
Both Economics and Commerce students feel that they need better advising in terms of
what courses to take to prepare them for graduate school in either Finance or Economics.
This should be straight forward, but will require the students being encouraged to take
MAT 135 instead of MAT 133. MAT 133 is meant to be a terminal course and is
insufficient preparation for graduate school. Further, MAT 133 cannot be used as a
2
One faculty member said the biggest drawback to him with respect to UTM was the bus. If he could work
on the bus, he would be happy (and would be prepared to pay higher bus fare). But the bus is too crowded
and is not physically appointed (e.g. no interior lights) to allow work. This may seem an unusual point to
raise in this review and no doubt it is tough to deal with, but better bus service would be consistent with the
institution valuing the time of its faculty and students as they interchange with downtown.
3
Faculty also feel undergraduate TA’s are performing well in this role.
prerequisite for the linear algebra class MAT225, which is very helpful for econometrics
ECO 327 as well as graduate study. There is some feeling that the Registrar’s office is
encouraging students to take 133. Otherwise this is simply a matter of posting on the
department web site the suggested course of study. The students also feel there is too
much game theory and too little consumer theory and models of asymmetric information
in ECO 206 (intermediate micro with calculus) and ECO326 (advanced microeconomic
theory). We share this concern since game theory is primarily used in Industrial
Organization, and consumer theory and models with asymmetric information are more
helpful for courses such as international trade, labour economics, urban economics,
public economics and financial economics. Thus we would encourage the department to
broaden the content of 206 and 326.
Some economics undergraduate students (and most faculty) felt too many weak students
were being let into the Economics major. This tends to lower the value of the Economics
major both by producing weaker majors, and by the poor students slowing down classes
and limiting the amount better students can learn. This is in part the motivation for
putting a minimum grade in the core courses before a student can proceed to upper level
courses. (USC and McMaster have such restrictions.) Unfortunately this minimum grade
is difficult for the staff to impose since the Navigator software used by the Registrar’s
office does not allow them to check for grades in core courses; moreover the staff are
precluded from using alternative software that would allow them to impose the minimum
grade restrictions, and must check grades by hand. This restriction on alternative software
makes no sense to us. Finally, a weak link in the admission to the Economics major
seems to occur in the beginning of the Fall semester, as we have been told that the
Registrar’s office lets transfer students into the Economics major without consulting the
department.
Staff
The department is seriously understaffed in terms of support people and should be
allowed to hire the staff member it has requested as soon as possible. This additional staff
member would assist Amber Shoebridge in her office duties, and Ruby Mack in
counseling students and checking prerequisites and minimum grades. Having a secretarial
staff of one for a growing department of this size seems lean beyond reason and the
counseling ratio is simply shocking: other universities whose counselors perform similar
roles would have two or three counselors for this many students. Given this, we feel
Economics would be justified in asking for two additional staff instead of one additional
staff member but it has been both creative and restrained in designing a single position
that it feels will suffice. We asked for the job description and have attached it for
emphasis. Further we believe it is essential that Economics be allowed to use appropriate
software for enforcing prerequisites and minimum grades if the Registrar’s office
software is not upgraded to do this.
Summary and Conclusion
This is a first-rate department. It has faculty that are coveted internationally yet has
managed to retain most of them largely through a solid relationship with St. George. It
has succeeded in maintaining successful degree programs that by and large satisfy
students.
It is also not a department that whines. Its concerns are real but it is prepared to be
cooperative with UTM Administration.
Unfortunately, it would also be an easy department to ruin. The fast way would be for the
Administration to interfere with the St. George relationship. The somewhat slower way
would be for the Administration to let it starve as it takes on more and more students. The
support staff situation is pretty close to the breaking point. The need for tenure-stream
faculty is not quite as pressing, but if it is not addressed in the next year or so, the
Department will take the message that the institution does not really care about the
quality of the program and the degrees it issues. Disengagement by the faculty in this
situation is certainly possible, and some would argue even likely.
APPENDIX A
FIRM SCHEDULE FOR DEPARTMENTAL REVIEW
Wednesday 14th November
8.55 – 9.00
Met by Chair or Chair’s Secretary
In front of main entrance of South Building
9.00 – 9.45
(UTM Dean) Gage Averill
3125 South Building
9.45 – 10.30
(UTM Chair) Varouj Aivazian
251 Kaneff Centre
10.30-11.15
(UTM Faculty) Gueorgui Kambourov, Angelo Melino
251 Kaneff Centre
11.15 –11.30 15 minute break
11.30-12.00
(UTM Faculty) Andres Erosa
251 Kaneff Centre
12.00 – 12.30 Escorted Campus tour ending at CCT Building
12.30 – 1.30 Lunch with Undergraduate Students
CCT Building 2112
1.30 – 1.45
Escorted back to Kaneff Centre by Chair’s Secretary
1.45 – 2.15
(St George Chair) Arthur Hosios
251 Kaneff Centre
2.15 – 2.45
(UTM Faculty) Lee Bailey
251 Kaneff Centre
2.45 – 3.15
30 minute refreshment/reflection time
3.15 – 3.45
(Acting Associate Chair) Gordon Anderson
251 Kaneff Centre
3.45 – 4.30
(UTM Faculty) Carolyn Pitchik, Shalini Sharma (after 4.10)
251 Kaneff Centre
Thursday 15th November
9.00 – 9.15
Met by Chair or Chair’s Secretary
In front of main entrance of South Building
9.15 – 9.45
(UTM Faculty) Andreas Park
251 Kaneff Centre
9.45 – 10.30
(UTM faculty) Rob McMillan, John Maheu
251 Kaneff Centre
10.30 – 10.45 15 minute break
10.45 – 11.15
(Associate Chair) Miquel Faig
251 Kaneff Centre
11.15 – 12.00
(Administrative Staff) Shoebridge, Mack, Taylor
251 Kaneff Centre
12.00 – 12.30
30 minute reflection/ refreshment time
12.30 – 1.00
(UTM Chair) Varouj Aivazian
251 Kaneff Centre
1.00 – 1.30
Final meeting with Principal Ian Orchard (in place of Dean)
1.30 onwards
Lunch at Rosewood Inn / further reflection time (if requested)
APPENDIX B
PROPOSED JOB DESCRIPTION, ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
Position Title: Academic Assistant
Department: UTM Economics
Purpose:
Under the direction of the Associate Chair and reporting to the Administrative
Coordinator, the incumbent provides a range of administrative functions to support the
efficient running of the undergraduate Economics programs and related student activities.
The incumbent assists and advises the Associate Chair with matters pertaining to the
hiring, allocation and general management of Teaching Assistants within the Department,
prepares and processes contracts and related paperwork for Teaching Assistants and
Sessional Lecturers and maintains accurate records of all persons employed as such;
assists the Academic Counselor with academic administrative functions such as prerequisite checks and Student Opinion Surveys and may also assist with counseling duties
at peak times; assists the faculty members in course related administration such as the
preparation of materials and course outlines; reviews and maintains the Departmental
website, ensuring the site is regularly updated and posting all advertisements,
announcements and student-related materials as necessary; acts as back-up to the
Departmental Secretary, covering the Departmental Office for vacation/sickness periods
and assisting with general office duties at peak times; acts as liaison between the
Department and Student Societies; participates in special projects and initiatives as
required by the Chair and Associate Chair.
Qualifications:
Education:
Experience:
Other:
Undergraduate degree or post-secondary diploma or acceptable
equivalent combination of education and experience.
Minimum of three years related experience, preferably in an
academic environment (this may include working for the
Department as a Teaching Assistant.) Thorough knowledge of
University and Department policies and procedures and of relevant
programs a definite advantage.
Proficient use of Microsoft Office software products (particularly
Word, Excel and Outlook); knowledge of Dreamweaver (HTML);
strong preference given to experience with university systems
(ROSI, SAMI, Corporate Time, Blackboard).
Must have excellent verbal and written communication abilities
with emphasis on exceptional customer service skills; must be
self-directed and highly organized with excellent attention to
detail; must possess tact and diplomacy, be a strong team player;
and have the ability to maintain appropriate levels of
confidentiality. Must be able to multi-task and prioritize tasks to
meet deadlines.
Materials Equipment & Outcomes:
Equipment Used:
Normal office equipment including PC, fax, photocopier, printer, scanner and telephone
with voicemail.
Outcome/Consequence of error:
Failure to properly prioritize or manage tasks, or meet deadlines could compromise the
smooth running of the Department. Errors in judgement and technical accuracy in
relation to student records, or incorrect information disseminated, could lead to severe
repercussions for students, potentially delaying students’ completion of courses or
programs. This could cause severe embarrassment and negatively impact the reputation
of the Economics Department and the University. Errors in matters relating to teaching
assistant administration will affect the perceived quality of the Economics undergraduate
programs and negatively affect student experience. Errors in accuracy of employment
advertisements and/or contracts could cause embarrassment and lay the Department open
to potential grievance or financial loss.
Duties:
40%
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Academic Administration Duties:
Assists Associate Chair in administrative matters relating to hiring of teaching
assistants and sessional instructors. Assists the Associate Chair with the allocation
of teaching assistants, especially in the larger courses. Acts as liaison between the
Head TA, the Associate Chair and the instructors in matters pertaining to
allocation of teaching assistant support and invigilation issues. Appraises
Administrative Coordinator of any changes in teaching assistant support which
may affect contracts and/or payroll. Maintains records of all persons employed as
Teaching Assistants.
Assists in the organization and coordination of tutorials for multi-section courses.
Acts as first point of contact with TAs regarding office hours, room bookings and
other administrative matters.
Prepares and posts in all required formats the advertisements for hiring of
teaching assistants and stipend / sessional instructors at appropriate times of the
year; circulates the advertisements electronically to members of the Departmental
applicant ‘pool’ as required, forwards electronic copies to all required recipients
such as the Union.
Receives and organizes the applications for the postings, and communicates them
to the Associate Chair. Maintains an accurate and up-to-date record of the
Department ‘pool’ of applicants. Sends out email notifications to unsuccessful
applicants on the direction of the Associate Chair. Ensures that all above hiring
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30%
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10%
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processes are done in compliance with the terms of all current University
regulations and pertinent Collective Agreements.
Under direction of the Administrative Coordinator, prepares the contracts of
employment and other relevant paperwork for successful applicants for TA and
stipend / sessional instructor positions. Follows up to ensure paperwork has been
accurately completed and returned to Department in a timely fashion. Forwards
paperwork as directed by the Administrative Coordinator.
Maintains, organizes and updates the Department web page.
Assists professors in setting up web pages for courses and preparing course
outlines. May assist professors with Blackboard setup and use.
Prepares teaching evaluation dossiers for individual faculty members at the
request of the Associate Chair or Chair.
Prepares departmental related statistical reports as requested by the Chair or
Associate Chair.
Academic Student Related Duties:
Assists with the answering of admission enquiries from prospective students,
transfer students and parents of prospective students.
At peak periods, assists the Economics Academic Counselor in the advising of
students registered in the UTM Economics programs by meeting with students
individually to determine their needs and answer all of their questions pertaining
to program requirements. This includes, but is not limited to course prerequisites,
POSt checks, POSAs, possible course selection, and certifying whether they have
completed all program and degree requirements of the University to meet their
academic career goals.
Checks and verifies course prerequisites during course registration. Removes
students who do not fulfil the prerequisite requirements from courses, and
communicates with them via email to inform them of this action.
Assists with the administration of course evaluations in all UTM Economics
courses. Arranges for the processing and copying/scanning of the evaluation
forms and dissemination of report results to appropriate faculty members and
departmental administrators.
Prepares annual (or as needed) reports related to course evaluation outcomes.
Advises the Associate Chair on the award of scholarships.
May assist Academic Counselor with other academic administration duties.
Student Activity support
Acts as backup departmental liaison with Economics student organizations.
Works with Secretary and Economics student groups on special events.
Acts as liaison with Commerce and Management program office to promote
student activities and events.
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20%
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Maintains listserv for all students registered in Economics programs and
circulates (weekly, or as needed) communications that may interest the students
contributing to an involved and high-quality student experience.
Updates website with news and events of interest to Economics students
May sit on various committees or attend meetings relating to the student
experience and advise Associate Chair or Chair on matters needing their attention.
General administrative duties
Acts as back-up for the Economics Secretary by assisting with office coverage
and general administrative duties in absences / peak periods. Assists in dealing
with student front-of-house queries.
Assists with the maintenance of office files in an orderly, up-to-date and
confidential condition.
Distributing departmental mail including TA mail
Photocopying, scanning, typing and general clerical duties
Participates in special projects as requested by the Chair / Associate Chair.
Advises the Chair / Associate Chair on all matters pertaining to the position.
Challenges & Difficulties May Include:
The position involves a varied workload which provides vital support to several
administrative staff/faculty. The incumbent would need to be capable of working
independently and taking initiative on many everyday or key tasks, with some direct
supervision and guidance in areas such as assisting with student advising. The incumbent
will need to be able to effectively prioritize and plan their workload to meet various
deadlines and maintain quality service to the Economics Department, thus directly
contributing to an excellent student experience.
This position requires excellent organizational and time management abilities with an
emphasis on strong customer service skills in relation to both students and faculty. The
incumbent must have the ability to interpret and uniformly apply University policies and
to use sound judgment in determining when to refer matters or seek approval for unusual
situations. The incumbent must show sensitivity, tact, discretion and maintain
professional decorum at all times while working with a wide variety of people with
diverse backgrounds and under pressure. At times the non-routine nature of the work
will require flexibility and creativity in managing duties effectively. Must be able to
effectively function both independently and as a member of a team.
Contact:
These duties are accomplished through daily face-to-face and telephone contact with
students, faculty, administrative staff, the Office of the Registrar, student organizations,
general public, prospective students and other central University staff or administrative
departments.