We don't need no
(private) education

By Nicolas Van Praet

Courtesy of the Squamish Tourism Board.

Squamish, at the North end of Howe Sound in B.C., is the planned home of Canada's first secular, private university.

OTTAWA – Opening day might look like a scene from Beverly Hills 90210.

A beaming assembly of 200 rich kids and their parents, gathered in their designer outfits. A handful of professors. Speeches. Congratulations. No one troubled in the slightest by the fact that they have paid $25,000 in tuition fees to study in a blink-you-miss-it town 50 kilometres north of Vancouver.

But when Canada's first private, non-religious university opens its doors in Sept.2002 – if it opens its doors – there will be more than handshakes and hoopla. Off campus, there will be criticism and doubt.

Dr. David Strangway, a geophysicist and former president of the University of British Columbia, still has no name for his elite university, to be located in the picturesque mountain town of Squamish, B.C. But his critics say that should be the least of his worries. First, they say, he should think about finding a good reason for the private university to exist in the first place – other than the claim he has been making: that post-secondary education in Canada is mediocre and needs greater diversity. That is not only unconvincing, critics respond, it's simply not true.

Strangway's plan is simple: Build a classic liberal-arts university for 800 to 1,200 students on 100 acres of land, register it as a non-profit university granting Canadian degrees, target affluent young adults – mostly foreigners – who like the idea of a university promising to "prepare its students to be full participants in the global village," charge them $25,000 tuition for a fast-track degree they can get in as little as two years, and do it all without costing taxpayers a cent.

It's a cleverly marketed plan aimed at Asian and American students, says Jim Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, but the premise on which it is founded is dubious, at best.

"I can't imagine a single thing unique about what he's proposing that would offer greater diversity in terms of content, in terms of student body, in terms of faculty orientations or anything… I mean this place is going to have a hard time attracting good faculty. It's going to have a hard time attracting good students. I don't know how it's going to do anything to deal with mediocrity."

Turk, who studied at Harvard, Berkeley, the University of Toronto and Oxford – all elite institutions – argues that the standards and quality of Canadian post-secondary education are higher than ever: There's nothing mediocre about the country's publicly-funded universities. He says Strangway might be driven by a neo-conservative notion that services should be provided privately rather than publicly.

"Most of these guys, when they're talking about mediocrity, they're harkening back to a non-existent golden age when only a small sector of the elite got to go to university. But as any educational historian will tell you, who got into university in the golden days was not the brightest but those from well-to-do backgrounds."

Canadian Graduate Council chairwoman Rubina Ramji, whose organization represents graduate students across the country, is equally skeptical. She argues a private university would be the first step toward a two-tiered education system. She points to the number of Canadians who go on to graduate work overseas as evidence that undergraduate education in this country prepares its students for advanced study at the best universities in the world.

Arnold Naimark, former president of the University of Manitoba, agrees.

Strangway's elite cohort would be small – 200 students admitted each year to a maximum of 1,250 says Steve Crombie, Strangway's business partner. Crombie says they will soon be making a formal proposal to the B.C. government asking for degree-granting status. He quickly adds that that's all the group is asking for.

"There won't be any other provincial involvement in the institution. It's going to be strictly private so there won't be any public funding."

That's not entirely accurate, says Henry Mandelbaum, executive director of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. Mandelbaum argues that private institutions are never totally private.

"They depend quite heavily on public subsidization, if nothing else through student aid. And in that way what they do is deplete already scarce resources, government resources."

Mandelbaum argues the argument for a private university has to be made with the public interest in mind. Until now, provincial governments have said no to the argument. Mandelbaum believes it will stay that way.

"A private university is seeking to impose itself on top of an already working system. And for that reason, it has to make a compelling case. By the fact that there isn't already a private university, it indicates that the compelling case hasn't been made."

So how does one make a convincing case for a private, elite university of 1,000 students, located in a logging town that's scrambling to survive?

Strangway and Crombie are playing up the benefit to the community. They maintain that Squamish and its 14,000 residents could only win by having a campus in their midst. They predict that jobs would be created and the town would benefit from an infusion of university life and culture.

They aren't the first to propose a private university in Canada, or to argue that such an institution would be to the benefit of its host community.

Bette Stephenson, a former Ontario Minister of Education, was a member of a 1996 provincial commission that recommended allowing privately-financed, not-for-profit secular universities. She has been trying for 10 years to convince successive provincial governments to let her establish a private business university in Queensville, north of Toronto. The land, some 80 acres, has been set aside, waiting for development. Stephenson argues that the university would integrate into the community, creating employment as well as a bond between town and gown.

An assistant in Stephenson's office, who did not want to be named, said their private university project has been resurrected by the stir caused by Strangway's proposed school in B.C. She said Stephenson is lobbying the government to grant them sanction and accreditation.

"This provincial government is entertaining the thoughts of saying 'yes, this is a really good idea.' We are so close to a decision on that."

Mandelbaum argues the Stephenson and Strangway proposals are receiving serious consideration because they have the backing of high profile individuals with political connections. But in the end, he maintains, neither plan has demonstrated why private universities would be to the greater public good.

"It's easy for a group of individuals to come up with an idea. What is difficult for them is to say why the public should be interested in that idea."

For more information about some of the issues covered in this story:

David Strangway's case for a private, non-profit university.

The Smith report on post-secondary education in Ontario.

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