Universities: Chicken or Egg?
The impact of universities has been in the news lately. A new ACOA-funded report, Smarter Together: The Economic Impact of Universities in the Atlantic Provinces highlighted the economic benefits that universities bring to the community. In the New Brunswick media, there have been calls to overhaul the post secondary system including collapsing the number of universities in the province
I have always been a big supporter of universities as catalysts of economic growth but my support has been waning in recent years. If we are exporting a significant percentage of graduates, are we not funding Ontario and Alberta’s labour market development? The NB government subsidizes post secondary education in the province. How much of that spending leaks out of the province each year?
In addition, if the universities are such catalysts, why is New Brunswick losing ground in terms of the percentage of university graduates in the workforce (when compared to most other provinces)? When the Census comes out next year, I am sure that we will have slipped again.
If Universities are catalysts of research and innovation, where are the tangible results? I’m not saying they are not there but please point them out. Thomson does a survey of academic research publications each year to determine how many references were made to research in Canadian universities. New Brunswick’s universities didn’t even make the list – at all – there were so few references, we didn’t even warrent a mention.
And when people cite examples of University based research that has spun out into jobs and economic growth for the province, they roll out the usual suspects – CARIS in Fredericton, Nanoptix in Monton, etc. But these companies have been around for years. Shouldn’t the universities be spinning out successful research with more frequency than that?
I talked with a university professor last week who said it’s not his job to develop ‘commercializable’ research. He was offended that people even ask the question. Now, in a way I agree with him. University professors conduct research into topics of interest that may or may not have some commercial potential somewhere down the road. If we restrict research funding to only projects that have a clear, commercializable product at the end, we would suffocate some very valuable research. However, if your goal is to use the university system as a catalyst for economic development, you have to keep this in mind.
Bottom line for me is this. I have eight years of post secondary education including an MBA, master’s level courses in economics and a diploma in economic development. In Virginia, UNB, and the University of Waterloo. I have completed research projects for five different universities. I know my way around a campus, let’s say.
And New Brunswick’s universities need to come to grips with the fact that the province is slipping and slipping badly – depopulation, new new industry growth, low levels of university grads in the workforce, limited commercialization of research, etc. They need to come to the table with tangible ways as to how they will play a part in New Brunswick’s economic revitalization. Publishing public relations-spawned reports on how valuable they are to the economy won’t cut the mustard. Sponsoring simplistic forums like NextNB do very little other than to reinforce their own views on the world.
We need our universities to be true catalysts of growth. To attract and retain top talent to the province. To spin off commercializable research. To foster economic development (think Waterloo). As I have said, some professors don’t think this is or should be part of the role of a university. At least they are being intellectually honest.
As I have said on these pages before, British Columbia (at least until recently) had the least number of unversity students per capita in Canada (translate – the lowest subsidization) and the highest level of university graduates in its workforce. Why? It imported top talent in to a strong economy.
Chicken and egg, my friends. Chicken and egg.
Bottom line? Universities can be positive, catalysts of growth and can be a key part in New Brunswick’s revitalization but they need to better understand their role.
I agree with you that Universities must play a greater role in economic development. Isn’t this why Moncton’s IC2 project is so important? Wouldn’t this initiative help both UdeM and MTA commercialize research? What are your thoughts on this initiative?
For the sketics that don’t beleive university R&D commercialization is important I would point them to Austin, Tx. It’s a fairly impressive story.
The best examples of how university research can be commercialized in NB that I know of is UNB’s incubator program. The program spawned companies like Mathis Instruments and Q1 Labs.
Can’t find much info on the IC2 project. If you can point me in the right direction, I am curious. As for UNB’s incubator I still think there is much more work to be done. Mathis Instruments is, what, 10 years old or more? I hear occasional bits about research at UNB (hydrogen power cells, artificial limbs, adhesive compounds for wood, etc.) but I am still looking for the private sector company (s) that are setting up and growing as a result of these research projects.
Here are some links:
http://ati.ic2.org/
http://www.ic2.org/
http://www.moncton.org/search/english/CITYHALL/inthenews/2006/m20060320.pdf
As for Mathis, you are right it is over 10 years. If you are ever looking for an interesting Nb personality you should speak with Dr. Mathis. She is a brilliant mind and truly demonstartes the need for us to retain people like her.
The last link got cut off…
Go to Google.com and paste the following search:
IC2 + City of Moncton
Should be the first link.
The trouble always seems to be that a certain amount of R&D always goes to aid the corporations that exist. So you get potato research and tree research in NB to help the corporations that do that.
In other areas, it works the same, the difference is, in other areas there is enough money to go to ‘new’ industries.
For New Brunswick, the chips are already down. Forget pharmaceuticals, forget disease research, forget even basic research in the medical field.
Forget automotive, and of course things like animation and game design don’t really need faculty positions for that kind of research.
So that leaves out, almost completely, Mount Allison and Saint Thomas. UNB has relatively little science, which is where the bulk of R&D goes to nowadays. So if you haven’t got the faculty, what have you got?
I don’t know much about Moncton, but as its french it leaves out a good percentage of the population anyway.
However, as an insider I can tell you that a lot of scientific research is like the internet bubble last decade. There is a lot of wealth out there, and a lot goes into scientific research, unfortunately, a lot of scientific research simply is not conducive to the market.
Companies don’t want to wait ten years for research results, which means there is a LOT of really bad science being done (I know that from experience).
But take a look at engineering, arts, business, and even lots of computer science. There is only so much that can come out of it. Most of these faculties here aren’t even designed to produce scientists, but technicians-workers.
As for universities, again, when a school has no money, its hard to bring in new blood. The old geezers there make $60 grand a year and have a pretty easy life, why would they want to add aggravation to it and start a lab?
So it is very much a chicken and egg, however, without one, there is no other. Which means, we CAN completely write it off assuming most people will leave anyway, but what is the cost down the road of that?
I don’t know how you’d do it, but perhaps there’s a point to trying to recoup some of the losses when a gr aduate gets a 90 grand job in Toronto.
I personally still think that there should be NEW universities set up so you don’t have to deal with the bureaucracies that currently exist. Bring in outside profs, or just new ‘greedy’ graduates. Personally, I’d make the school designed for chinese and indian students and charge them accordingly. A certain percentage of the money would then be funnelled to the other schools.
The money could also be used to construct a medical school. Personally I’d also tell the college of physicians to go to hell and I’d start churning out doctors. Most GP’s are useless anyway, the internet is more help. However, a medical school designed to quickly get chinese and foreign doctors into canada’s health care system would be a cash cow.
Turning the province into a one university province is the WORST idea I”ve heard in a long time. Are these people retarded…what happened to the benefits of competition?