Canada falling behind in science?
EDITORIAL: WHAT OTHERS THINK
As University of Toronto students return amid the dying days of summer to their abstruse problems of quantum computing, prolix texts of phenomenology or sundry other daunting syllabi, they can take comfort in knowing they are receiving among the very best educations available anywhere.
According to the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings, an authoritative appraisal of more than 1,000 schools, U of T is the 22nd-best university globally, up two spots from last year. Among public institutions, it is a remarkable ninth.
But while there is cause for pride in the report, there is at least as much reason for concern. As U of T President Meric Gertler said during a meeting with the Star’s editorial board this week, the Times Higher Education group’s analysis points to a worrying trend in the overall competitiveness of Canada’s post-secondary institutions. “Yes, they’re holding their own,” Gertler summarized, “but they better be looking over their shoulder.”
“Holding their own” may be too rosy. Countries like China, Switzerland and Singapore significantly improved their showings in this year’s top-200 list, a reflection of strategic policies and aggressive investments in scientific infrastructure and researchers. Meanwhile, Canada has been moving in the opposite direction. Only six Canadian universities made the current top 200, down from eight last year.
This will come as no surprise to Canadian researchers, who have long lamented the federal government’s short-sighted approach to science policy.
Ottawa’s investment has been in steady decline for a decade. In particular, the funding available for independent, basic science — the sort of funding, that is, that’s likely to attract the top talent we need to compete in the knowledge economy — has shrunk by about 35 per cent per researcher. During this time, our performance in terms of scientific awards, publications and citations has stalled relative to our peers.
The new rankings should serve as a reminder for government, Gertler told the Star, not only “to appreciate how significant it is to have a top-10 public institution in their midst,” but also to consider “what we have to do to maintain if not improve that position.”
The Trudeau government already has the answer to this question. Having come to power after a dark decade of evidence-blind science policy, it moved quickly to commission an independent federal panel, led by former U of T president David Naylor, to take stock of the damage and propose fixes.
The panel’s recommendations, as the Star has argued before, provided Ottawa with a sensible roadmap. Key among them: a $485-million increase for basic research, the sort of science that so often produces the serendipitous discoveries that lead to future innovation. “As a proportion of the federal annual budget, that’s a tiny amount,” Gertler told the Star. “But it’s also more appropriately viewed as an investment in the country’s future.”
As the Naylor panel rightly argued, amid U.S. and British retrenchment on science, an opportunity has emerged for Canada to reassert its leadership role on research, with all of the economic and social potential that entails. The new university rankings are a reminder that if we don’t act quickly, China, Singapore and others will happily fill the void.
About the soundness of Naylor’s proposals, Gertler says “there is a startling degree of consensus ... within the university community nationally.” Yet in June, two months after the report’s release, Science Minister Kirsty Duncan seemed to back away. “There’s no quick fix,” she said at the time. “It’s been 10 years of cuts and it’s going to take time to make up lost ground.”
For now, the university community is simply “waiting and hoping,” Gertler says. Ottawa has been “trying to get the message out that they can’t do it all at once and I think people are willing to accept that — as long as there’s a multiyear plan.” The last federal budget contained no new science funding, despite the evident and growing cost of underinvestment. Ottawa shouldn’t repeat that mistake. Duncan may be right that there is no quick fix, but the world is passing us by — and even the slow fix has to start somewhere.
An editorial from the Toronto Star (distributed by The Canadian Press)