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Concordia signs performance contract with Québec
B Y B A R B A R A B L A C K
Concordia will receive $54.5 million from the Quebec government over and above its operating grant, thanks to a performance contract signed at the University on March 19. Rector Frederick Lowy and Education Minister François Legault signed the document, in which the University administration undertakes to achieve several specific goals.
Graduation rates: Currently, only 62 percent of full-time students at Concordia continue their studies all the way to graduation. The goal is to increase this rate to 80 percent over the next decade. “It would be easy to do this by raising admission standards or by going easier on [grading] the students, but we won’t do that,” says Provost and Vice-Rector, Research, Jack Lightstone. “Instead, we’ll try to do a better job of supporting them in their studies.”
One of the biggest reasons students drop out is financial. A study done for the University several years ago showed that of those students who stop attending Concordia, about half don’t return because they can’t afford it. The University will increase by one-third the fellowships and scholarships offered to its graduate students, who are particularly needy. This amounts to about $300,000 in grants.
Lilian Vineberg, BFA 83, chair of Concordia’s board of governors, shares a laugh with Quebec Minister of Education François Legault at the performance contract signing, March 19.
Professor-student ratio: In the wake of massive retirements, Concordia’s ratio of students to full-time professors has risen to 26.4 to 1, lower than the Quebec average. In the contract, the University undertakes to lower this average to 23 students per one full-time professor.
Indeed, about three-quarters of the new money will go towards hiring 150 new full-time professors; in fact, by 2010, three-quarters of the faculty will be new hires. The rest will go to Concordia’s libraries and other specific projects.
Rationalization
of programs: Since 1994-95, driven by budget compression, Concordia
has merged or discontinued 166 programs with low, or no, enrolment. The
goal will be to continue the drive for a “student-driven” curriculum;
if enrolment is consistently low, the continuation of a course or program
will be questioned.
The goal will be to continue the drive for a "student-driven" curriculum
Administrative efficiency: This is something of a sore point for
Concordia administrators. Having already achieved a balanced budget and
halved the University’s debt, they feel that their share of the
performance-contract pot should be larger. However, figures are difficult
to compare among the various universities, since they each divide
administrative and academic functions in their own way. The ministry pays
tribute to Concordia’s efficiency in the delivery of potentially costly
programs such as engineering and fine arts.
However, although $54.5 million will be given to Concordia over three years, only $12.2 million will be given this year; $15.75 million will be given in 2001-02, and $26.5 million in 2002-03.
Research performance: Concordia’s research profile has climbed in recent years: of the recent crop of new hires, about 65 percent are recipients of research grants. However, Lightstone says that this must intensify, and he has called for a corresponding “change of culture” among faculty members. The performance contract calls for an increase in grants held by Concordia researchers from $16.5 million in 2000-01 to $17.5 million in 2001-02 and $20 million in 2002-03.
Lightstone, in presenting the performance contract to the Board of Governors, described it as perfectly in accord with the University’s long-term academic planning, and the Rector expressed confidence that all of the goals in the document will be met. The Quebec government has awarded $600 million over three years through university performance contracts. McGill was granted $100 million, Université de Montréal $124 million, UQAM $98.5 million, Bishop’s $10.9 million, Laval $87.5 million and Université de Sherbrooke $55 million.
The full text of the contract, in the original French, can be found at http://relish.concordia.ca/govrel/.
A faculty on the Move
A talk with Dean Nabil Esmail reveals the considerable changes taking place at Concordia's Faculty of Engineering & Computer Science
BY HOWARD BOKSER
Not that long ago — 1996, to be precise — Concordia’s Faculty of Engineering & Computer Science had set a standard for itself: its 100 or so faculty positions were to be spread out almost evenly among its four departments. Since then, however, according to Dean Nabil Esmail, “our academic direction has been seriously altered.” Esmail, who met with Concordia University Magazine to discuss the state of his Faculty, reported that today it is well on its way to meeting the goal of having 50 professors in computer science, 50 in electrical & computer engineering, 30 in mechanical engineering, and 20 in building & civil engineering. Over the past few years, programs and courses, mainly in information technology (IT), have been added proportionately.
At the same time, the number of students in the Faculty has increased at an even greater rate; the total of students taking Engineering & Computer Science courses today has nearly doubled since the mid ’90s. Esmail maintains that the growth in the Faculty’s student population — it is now the fourth largest engineering faculty in Canada, up from number seven — has not come at the expense of quality of the students being accepted. “The demand for our programs continues to increase,” he said. “The word has gone around about what we’re doing here, not only in Montreal but in all of Canada.”
Dean Esmail in his Faculty’s boardroom in the McConnell Building. Esmail looks forward to a move to new premises by 2004. “It will create a synergy for the Faculty, which has never known what it’s like to work together in one place.”
This change of focus and scope is in step with the Faculty’s plan “to meet the mainstream national engineering agenda,” Esmail said. That agenda clearly is to fill the shifting demands in traditional engineering fields and in the burgeoning IT sector. “We’re a different creature than the other faculties,” Esmail explained. “We don’t create a body of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. We respond to a profession.” That response is evident in the Faculty’s ties to industry, seen in the establishment of the Concordia Institute for Aerospace Design and Innovation, in the University’s participation in the International Institute for Telecommunications, as well as in its sharing results of academic research with corporate partners.
"The word has been going around about what we're doing here, not only in Montreal but in all of Canada."
Under Esmail, who became dean in 1997, Engineering & Computer Science began placing more of an accent on pedagogy. Esmail also pointed out that today’s students have a different set of expectations and strengths than previous generations. “The professors who recognize this are the ones who remain excellent teachers.”
Research still plays an important role in all areas of Engineering & Computer Science, Esmail emphasized. Graduate student enrolment has increased more than 40 percent in the past few years. “Undergraduates are like clients, but graduate students are like our work force. Without them our research would be severely hampered,” he said. And in what direction is research heading? “The entire IT revolution is involved in mastering very small things: micro mirrors, micro cameras, micro turbine engines,” he explained. “That research will colour our future.”
That future also involves a big step for the Faculty: a move into new, modern premises, on the corner of Ste. Catherine and Guy streets, by 2004. Obviously excited by the prospect, _Esmail said, “The building will take us to a new level. The project has also galvanized people here around a new goal.”
An indicator of Concordia’s growing status has been the success of luring experienced faculty here. This includes electrical and computer engineering professor Rachida Dssouli, who Esmail was proud to report had recently signed on at Concordia from another Montreal university. With new faculty on board, new programs in place and students clamouring to get in, Esmail confidently stated, “The Faculty is well equipped for the start of the century.”