To find new research talent ready to tackle today’s biggest challenges, policy makers need only look to the front of today’s university and college lecture halls. They will find there a whole generation of qualified researchers1 to whom we granted doctorates, but without providing them with the jobs necessary to carry out research. In fact, for the past 20 years, universities and colleges have quietly relied on contract teachers, most of whom are overburdened by their teaching contract or do not receive the support necessary to carry out innovative research. .
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
The most pressing challenge – beyond the obvious, namely ensuring that the post-secondary education system once again has access to adequate funding – is to take full measure of the evolution of this workforce. . But to do that, we just don’t have enough data.
To divert attention, university and college administrators often like to cite the example of the partner in a law firm who is happy to have the opportunity to teach from time to time, for the happy, when in fact, except in on-campus vocational schools, contract faculty members are not happy; the possibility of combining jobs is not offered to them and they would like to do research, if it were not for the many obstacles that are erected in front of them.
Contract teaching means for most of them pursuing a fragmented career spanning several decades, hoping for a permanent contract.
Contract staff members2 report mental health issues, suffer from burnout, spend years competing for short-term contracts, are unable to set life goals beyond the end of a semester, accumulate contracts in different establishments and constantly move from one college or university to another during the week. All this while scrambling to do research at their own expense (because they don’t individually qualify for federal research funding programs), hoping to keep their resumes up-to-date in order to be able to apply for a permanent position.
Policy makers need data to measure and understand the status of our “untapped” research talent – contract faculty who lack the job security needed to perform innovative research.
Fortunately, the federal government has a tool that it can expand to collect more meaningful workforce data for the university and college sector: the Education Staff Information System survey in Statistics Canada Universities and Colleges (UCASS)3.
UCASS has provided data on full-time teaching staff at Canadian universities since 1930 (despite the name, community colleges have never been included). Like the long form census, the UCASS survey was abolished by the Harper government, but it was reinstated in the early days of the Trudeau government. This decision was accompanied by a promise to expand the survey so that it better reflects the current landscape of the post-secondary education sector by including college teaching staff and contract teachers, and by collecting more information regarding workforce equity.
Expanding the scope of the UCASS survey would have many benefits, including providing data to determine whether equity initiatives, such as the Dimensions program and the Scarborough Charter, are actually helping to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in our sector.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers estimates that currently approximately one in three faculty members has been hired on contract.
There is some evidence that these people include a disproportionate number of women, racialized people, people with disabilities and other members of equity-seeking groups.
Currently, UCASS has an annual budget of approximately $500,000. Expanding the scope of the survey would require, at most, an initial investment of $2.5 million, but would provide decision-makers with more comprehensive data allowing them to get a better idea of who is driving Canadian innovation.
A feasibility study on expanding the UCASS survey was recently completed. The next step should be to fund and conduct a pilot project to expand the survey, over the next two years, to community colleges, Aboriginal and equity-seeking groups, and to include contract employees. Without expanded data, Canadian policy makers will remain in the dark about much of the workforce behind the innovation and effectiveness of equity, diversity and inclusion programs in the workplace. sector.
With a modest injection of funds, policy makers and the public could better understand teachers, and we would be better able to strengthen our ability to solve some of today’s most pressing problems.