The Council of Ontario Universities has launched a campaign to better understand the positive public benefit that universities have to the economic well-being of the province.  They have launched a web site and survey, which can be found at www.ontariosuniversities.ca.

Once stories about the campaign hit social media, some professor-types I follow decried this as yet another exercise in diminishing the value of a social science and humanities education.  Their concern was that the evidence gathered in this survey would be used to increase support for STEM programs and professional degrees.

Amid the skepticism, I decided to take the survey.  If the impression was that this survey would lead to advancing only a subset of offerings from a university, there will be some disappointed people.

What stood out about the public universities’ survey was that the first set of questions aren’t about universities per se; the first questions are about how the respondent feels about their future, and the future of their children.

From my view, the survey points to a marked change in tactics from the pitch Ontario’s public universities are used to giving.  For some time, universities have found that growing enrollments were crucial to financial stability.  In addition, dollars were stretched within institutions even more.  Larger class sizes became normalized. The proportion of tenured faculty teaching courses began to get worse over time.  Tuition increases became the norm.  And, what really got university officials riled up, is that public investment in Ontario’s universities did not keep up proportionately when compared to the other provinces.

So, given the circumstance, university administrators have been pointing to their stellar records (e.g. nice graduate employment rates) with comparatively low public investment, as a reason for the government to give more.

The new direction that Ontario’s public universities appear to be charting seems to suggest that not only are university graduates getting jobs, but universities themselves are drivers of local economic development.  If we consider statistics that, for example, Trent contributes some $400 million to the local economy of Peterborough or that the tech cluster in Waterloo is driven by its universities, a strong case emerges to suggest that there are compelling reasons to invest in universities other than the fact that other provinces are giving their institutions comparatively more support.

When you consider that non-university communities across Ontario are making pitches to get one to come to town, one begins to see that there is merit to the claim.  Communities such as Barrie, Milton, Cornwall, and others around the province believe that full blown campuses, ones that encourage teaching as well as research, are key to local economic development.  Many point to communities like Brantford, where the Wilfrid Laurier University campus there rejuvenated a blighted and neglected downtown core.

The interesting thing to note is why Ontario’s public universities are engaging in such a campaign in the first place.  If one glances at the higher education policy space, the government has unfulfilled promises to create three new university campuses across Ontario (of which only one is opening in Markham) and to increase enrollments by 60,000 students.  Without the funding from the government, and the regulatory approvals required to grow, the government won’t fulfill its promises.  The universities may well be trying to make the case for the government not to abandon these promises.

These unfulfilled promises aside, the higher ed file has been a busy one for the government.  The policy focus in recent years, however, has been on the cost for students to attend post-secondary education.  The decision to enact and then expand the Ontario Tuition Grant has meant that public money has gone to help students and not the institutions that are charged with educating these students.  In its most recent budget, the province double-downed on helping families with the commitment for mostly free tuition for qualifying students.

Compounding the problem of institutions losing out on new higher ed money, annual tuition growth (a potential source of new revenue for universities) is capped and that cap has been further reduced.  All of this has created a scenario where universities are starved for cash, and concerns abound that this is eroding the quality of education being offered to students.

Thus, the aim of this seemingly innocuous campaign is to change the nature of the policy conversation.  Ontarians and our government appear to be focusing on the plight of families trying to afford post-secondary education when the universities want us to remember why giving them some more direct support helps the entire province.  This pitch will likely be amplified as we get closer to the next election.

This article appeared in Queen’s Park Briefing.  Visit QPBriefing.com to subscribe to this publication and stay on top of all things related to Ontario government and politics!