University Leadership and Public Policy in the Twenty-First Century: A President's Perspective

by Peter Mackinnon

Canadian universities face a complicated and uncertain future when it comes to funding, governance, and fostering innovation. Their leaders face an equally complicated future, attempting to balance the needs and desires of students, faculty, governments, and the economy. Drawing on more than a decade of service as president of one of Canada s major research universities, Peter MacKinnon offers an insider s perspective on the challenges involved in bringing those constituencies together in the pursuit of excellence.

Clear, contentious, and uncompromising, University Leadership and Public Policy in the Twenty-First Century offers a unique and timely analysis of the key policy issues affecting Canada s university sector. Covering topics such as strategic planning, tuition policy, labour relations, and governance, MacKinnon draws on his experience leading the University of Saskatchewan to argue that Canadian universities must embrace competitiveness and change if they are to succeed in the global race for talent.

Table of contents

Preface
Introduction

1. Guess who's coming to breakfast: On positioning and differentiation
2. What's the plan?: On the pursuit of goals
3. White coats make an office call: On tuition and financial assistance for students
4. Yes Minister: On government engagement, academic freedom, and collective advocacy
5. Grateful dogs: On philanthropy, commercialization, and partnerships
6. Let's make a deal: On governance, collegial management, and collective bargaining
7. A Canadian dilemma: Strong science, weak innovation
8. Leadership with an asterisk: On the precarious presidency

Afterword: On the global talent race

Notes
Select bibliography
Index

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2014

Reviews

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book will probably appeal more to Canadian readers -at the time of writing this review, three previous readers, all living in Canada, gave the book four stars- and less to readers interested in universities whose university structures and policies diverge significantly from the Canadian model.

The reason for my two stars is that, while I can identify with many of the issues in theory -on postioning and differentiation, strategic planning, tuition and financial assistance for students, especially those belonging to disadvantaged groups, the role of government, academic freedom, collective bargaining, links and alliances with industry, university governance, and satisfactory investment in R&D- in practice the way these issues are treated by the author will appeal mainly to readers interested in universities with similar approaches to the ones outlined in this book. Furthermore while the author correctly identifies key issues, in my opinion most of his proposals are vague and others rather conservative :

- Ask the right policy questions;
- Establish Canada as a talent magnet by striving to retain top Canadian students and graduates and attract the best international students and faculty;
- Each Canadian university must strengthen its position based on proper strategic planning;
- Government must invest in universities with a more strategic mindset, paying particular attention to its R&D financial policies;
- Strengthen the role of university boards in determining tuition and decrease government regulation in this area;
- Universities must improve their alliances with industry, taking care to protect their core missions and academic freedom;
- Strengthen bicameral governance at the universities;
- Prevent encroachment on university governance by faculty unions;
- Provide more authority to university presidents and their teams;
- Rethink presidential recruitment and selection processes.

[Mills College Library]

378.10109 M1587 2014