Enhancing the quality of teaching in Canada

Abstract

Canada has a significant investment in postsecondary education: more than half the population of some thirty-two million people have a postsecondary certificate, degree, or degrees (Statistics Canada, 2004, cited in Canadian Association of University Teachers, 2005. The size of the country, extending over six time zones, sets the context for social development in the ten provinces and the territories. There is no federal ministry of education or formal accreditation system; the provinces have jurisdiction over their universities. The Canadian constitution, enacted in 1867 as the British North America Act and revised in 1982, awards authority to the federal government for defense and trade but authority to the provinces for health, education, and language. Although funding for postsecondary education is primarily in the form of transfer payments from the federal to the provincial governments, which have vested responsibility for all levels of education, the provincial governments allocate funds to the universities. The federal government reserves the right to fund research and support students. In response to the diversity of needs in the regions, responsibility and accountability are distributed among the provinces and individual institutions. Thus the pilot question in this volume of how trends of economic globalization and increased performance accountability in higher education have affected the enhancement of teaching and learning in Canada over the past thirty years must be read through the lens of decentralized authority and hence responsibility.