The University of Western Ontario
From Placid to Turbulent:
Higher Education Turns Strategic
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography and Faculty of
Education, UWO
Presented August 16, 2011 at the Centre for Higher
Education Policy and Training, UBC, Vancouver
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
1
The University of Western Ontario
40 – 40 – 20
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
2
The University of Western Ontario
Placid (post-WWII)
o Growth and stability to ~ 1995
o Overall trends…systems and institutions
o Socialised investment in HE alongside the growth of
the welfare state (Mishra,1984; Axelrod, 2002)
o A social contract to grow, make accessible and
distribute the benefits of HE to individuals and the
wider society (Fallis, 2007)
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
3
The University of Western Ontario
Placid (post-WWII)
Higher education policy development in Canada in the
two decades after 1970 was both modest and
incremental (Skolnik & Jones 1992), an observation
that is also true in Manitoba between 1967 and
1997...the broad structure of the system itself – the
types, numbers and mandates of institutions
established in the late 1960s – remained generally
the same.
Dan Smith (Manitoba’s Council on Post-Secondary Education), in CJHE, 2011
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
4
The University of Western Ontario
…to turbulent (post-1995)
If Manitoba’s post-secondary system between 1967
and 1997 was characterized by stability, the
system since 1997 has been characterized by
considerable structural change. Orton (2003),
Malcomson & Lee (2004), and Skolnik (2004b)
argue that post-secondary education in Canada has
entered a period of more radical transformation,
with consensus that the backdrop for
transformation is associated with the impact of
globalization and related changing patterns of
economic activity...
Dan Smith, CJHE, 2011
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
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The University of Western Ontario
Turbulent (post-1995)
o Canada is ‘late to the game’ (Jones, 2004)
o Some developments in other jurisdictions
o G. Keller, 1983, Academic strategy: the management revolution
in American higher education
o In essence: “academic drift” growing out of
responses to new and intensifying pressures; new
‘organisational environments’
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
6
The University of Western Ontario
Turbulent (post-1995)
o Turk (ed), Universities at risk: how politics, special interests
and corporatization threaten academic integrity
o Desai et al., Canada’s universities go global
o Cote and Allahar,
o 2007, Ivory tower blues: A university system in crisis;
o 2011, Lowering higher education: the rise of corporate
universities and the fall of liberal education
o Clark et al, 2009, Academic transformation: the forces
reshaping higher education in Ontario
o Bercuson et al., 1998, Petrified campus: the crisis in Canada’s
universities
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
7
The University of Western Ontario
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
8
The University of Western Ontario
Turbulent (post-1995)
o University mission statements
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
9
The University of Western Ontario
..the
question
I raise
is: are universities
organized
“So far,
none of
the university
networks optimally
that sprang
up at theto
address
theoffundamental
challenges’
that exist,
and at
beginning
this century ‘global
has fulfilled
its promise.
Attempts
the
pace theseresearch
challenges
deserved to
addressed?
not,
to jump-start
collaboration
onbe
crucial
issues If
through
what
be done
aboutmodest
this organizational-ethical
theseshould
networks
have seen
success at best. Let’s be
dilemma?
honest. Just because presidents and vice-chancellors say they
would like something to happen on the research front does
not make it happen, even if we can cobble together ‘seed’
funding. Research networks typically arise in an organic
fashion from the bottom up.”
[Proposed ways forward: build from the bottom up; challenge
national myopia; communicate authentically about strengths;
help our students and alumni become global citizens; walk
the talk]
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
10
The University of Western Ontario
Turbulent (post-1995)
40 – 40 – 20
Michael Buzzelli, Department of Geography
11