A new report from Royal Bank of Canada calls for a ‘postsecondary pivot.’Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The Canadian postsecondary system should consider major changes to meet the economic challenges facing the country, according to a new report from Royal Bank of Canada.
The report, published this week, calls for a “postsecondary pivot” to advance national goals. It’s based on the input of about 60 industry and postsecondary leaders who met in Toronto last month at a session convened by RBC Thought Leadership and the Business + Higher Education Roundtable. The focus was on how Canada can produce the talent needed to reorient its economy in response to trade disruptions.
Discussion centred on three areas: defence and space exploration, artificial intelligence and major energy projects.
The specific proposals that emerged included retraining auto workers for the shipbuilding and space sectors, teaching artificial-intelligence skills across all academic disciplines and developing a skills strategy for the energy sector.
One idea was for Canada to position itself as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s “firefighting nation,” with some of the planned defence spending potentially going to drone and Earth observation capabilities. Another was that the new Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science, or BOREALIS, provides an opportunity for postsecondary researchers to partner with industry to develop new technologies.
But participants also suggested a more fundamental shift in the sector was necessary, according to Jackie Pichette, director of skills policy for RBC Thought Leadership.
“The types of changes that need to be made to catch up to the pace of change outside of postsecondaries is not going to come from little piecemeal tweaks,” Ms. Pichette said. “They need to break the mould.”
Normally, universities and colleges are compared to huge ships that don’t change direction quickly, Ms. Pichette said. But the speed of geopolitical change affecting Canada in recent months, from threats to its trade relationship with the United States to its pledge to rapidly escalate defence spending, has made institutions more open to change, she said.
Postsecondary institutions are also going through a period of restructuring as they cope with the financial consequences of the federal government’s 2024 cap on international study permit processing. The cap has led to a loss of hundreds of millions in revenue derived from international student tuition fees. The report points out that universities and colleges are closing hundreds of programs and laying off thousands of employees just as they need to modernize.
One of the areas where there seemed to be broad agreement was on artificial intelligence, Ms. Pichette said.
“If we want to prepare students to enter a world of work where AI is ubiquitous, we need to change the way programs are taught, and AI needs to be integrated throughout,” Ms. Pichette said.
“We need people who are studying dentistry to learn how to use AI. We need people who are studying political science to know how to use ChatGPT to write and edit an e-mail, and to know the risks of AI and how to use it responsibly to increase productivity.”
Is AI dulling critical-thinking skills? As tech companies court students, educators weigh the risks
Ms. Pichette, who previously worked at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, said curriculums should be redesigned and the roles of faculty and staff reconsidered. She cited as an example that faculty in other jurisdictions are taking on coaching and mentorship roles to support student innovation and entrepreneurship, which could be expanded in the Canadian context.
Other ideas raised at the roundtable included enlisting industry representatives to help schools design more relevant programs and advance work-integrated learning.
Ms. Pichette also suggested schools could shift toward competency-based programs, where students advance based on their mastery of skills and knowledge rather than in the traditional “seat time” model. Most Canadian postsecondary programs are defined by their length, she said.
In a competency-based program, students can advance at their own pace. It’s also a way to recognize that those returning to schooling from the work force can be ahead of a student just out of high school, Ms. Pichette said.
“If you show up on Day 1 with a lot of relevant experience and knowledge, you’re going to graduate a lot faster than someone who’s starting from scratch,” she said. “It makes so much sense, but in Canada all of our credential frameworks and policies are based around seat time.”