Renovating the Ivory Tower: Canadian Universities and the Knowledge Economy

Alexander D. Gregor is director of the Centre for Higher Education
Research and Development at the University of Manitoba and coeditor of
Postsecondary Education in Canada: The Cultural Agenda.

Comprising papers presented at a C.D. Howe Institute-sponsored session
of the 2001 meetings of the Canadian Economics Association, Renovating
the Ivory Tower is very much a book by economists for economists, or at
least for scholars, administrators, and policymakers who are reasonably
familiar with the presentation of economic research. The book provides a
systematic and well-documented look at a range of issues that are
central to contemporary university planning and assessment, as well as
to external policy development: returns on investment, research
productivity and quality, tuition policy, transfer to the labor force,
career outcomes, supply of students, responsiveness to the “knowledge
economy” and to the global competition for expertise.

The authors identify a number of emerging problems, such as patterns of
male representation at the undergraduate level. They also raise some
important issues about the basic premises on which much government
policy is based. A major example given is the tendency of governments to
assume that the answer to the universities’ ever-growing need for
additional resources is increased collaboration between universities and
the private-sector with respect to research and development. The
counterargument to this assumption is that the university’s role might
better be seen in its contribution to the production of “human
capital,” with tuition fees becoming the major source of income (with
proper backup for student assistance).

Renovating the Ivory Tower provides a useful analysis of existing
practices and trends that will assist planners and policymakers with
assessment and improvement. Of equal importance, the fundamental
questions it raises should contribute to a reexamination, among all
interested groups, of some basic policy directions.