December 2007

Vol. 2 no. 3

• INTERNATIONALIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION

    o Education International (EI) World Congress, Berlin, July 22-26 2007
    o Meeting of North American University Teacher's Associations, Ottawa, September 14-15, 2007
    o EI 6^th International Conference on Higher Education and Research, Malaga (Spain) November 12
       to 14, 2007
    o Reinforcing University Teachers' Capacities for Mobility in la Francophonie
    o News and Views from Abroad
        . Bill concerning university freedom and responsibilities in France
        . Australian universities : beyond the crisis

• EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S PRIORITIES FOR 2007-2008

• UNIVERSITY STRUCTURES AND MANAGEMENT

    o Workshop on Privatization in Universities Organized by La Table des partenaires universitaires at this Year's Forum Social Québécois
    o FQPPU Seminar on Governance
    o When the Traitment BECOMES the Disease – Reaction to the IGOPP Report on University Governance in Québec
    o Upcoming FQPPU Colloquium at Acfas : Who « Owns » the University ?

• UNIVERSITY FINANCING

    o Great Work by the Comité sur le financement des universités (CFU)
    o FQPPU's Position on Compulsory Extracurricular Fees

• CONSEIL FÉDÉRAL NEWS

    o Update on Contract Renewal Negotiations
    o ICT and Professors' Workload : Love/Hate ? An Adress by  Chantal-Édith Masson

• IN BRIEF

    o The Professoriate : Major New Study Underway

INTERNATIONALIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION

There is no doubt that the revolution in information and communication technologies, along with the globalization of economic relations, have impacted on higher education and research. With their deeply ingrained tradition of universal openness, the universities spontaneously embraced these new trends and embarked on changes that many see as endangering their integrity. By focusing on inter-university competition for « clienteles » and research grants, by adopting management policies and practices based on the for-profit business sector, by entering into partnerships with the private sector without first clearly establishing the necessary ground rules to preserve university values and goals and by commercializing their services, the universities are gradually losing sight of what constitutes, fundamentally, their unique contribution to the development of individuals and societies. Many fear that these new developments will adversely affect the public mission of Quebec’s universities.

Unfortunately the situation elsewhere is no different, as universities worldwide are under pressure to position themselves in the global marketplace, and to outrank everyone in their category. Fully conscious of this situation and caught in the whirlwind of change, the extent of which is only now being felt, faculty associations are experiencing the need to renew group solidarity. The FQPPU is well aware and is taking an active role in the collective efforts to bring together, at the international level, teachers associations actively involved in the promotion and defense of higher education as a public service. This past summer, the FQPPU attended the Education International (EI) world Congress in Berlin and the second meeting of North American university teachers’ associations held in Ottawa. In mid-November it participated in the 6th EI International Conference on Higher Education and Research in Malaga. As well, the Federation initiated collaborations with its partners in francophone countries aimed at better understanding and facilitating mobility among university professors.

EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL (EI), BERLIN, JULY 22-26, 2007

The EI is an umbrella organization representing teachers’ associations from pre-school to universities in 169 countries. Issues addressed during its world congress ranged widely and covered all topics related to education, including structural influences on teachers’ working conditions and access to learning. The theme of this year’s Congress was Educators – Together for quality education and social justice. Two days of meetings and activities preceded the congress and dealt with specific issues related to native peoples, women, gays and lesbians, and higher education. Members from post-secondary education represent approximately 10 of the 300 million members of the EI.

From the wealth of analyses, presentations and personal experiences shared by delegates, it is clear that universities and other institutions of higher learning are facing major hurdles. For instance : negotiating bilateral, regional and multinational commercial agreements; the intrusion of business enterprises in academic matters; the growth of privatization; constraints on academic freedom; deteriorating working conditions; international ranking of universities; the right and access to higher learning; quality work environment; academic freedom; university autonomy; differing concepts and aims of university education and research; performance indicators and university ratings; teacher mobility and movement.

Several delegates spoke on the state of higher education in their respective countries and their need for support in order to improve working conditions and existing programs offered. Interested readers can access the EI website for the full list of the resolutions presented during the Berlin Congress.

For more information on the EI’s activities, please consult their online magazine Worlds of Education and for a discussion on the consequences of GATS negotiations on public education, please refer to the bulletin TradEducation.

NORTH AMERICAN TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATIONS MEETING IN OTTAWA SEPTEMBER 14-15, 2007

Delegates from the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ/CSN), and the FQPPU gathered at the second meeting of North American faculty associations representing university professors and lecturers.

The free exchange of views and analyses on various aspects of university teaching and research concluded that the same basic tendencies across North America are contributing to reduced access to academic programs and to deteriorated working conditions for both teachers and students. Despite similar causes, the effects have been more devastating in certain sectors. The general situation in the United States has been recognized as so severe that the larger teachers’ associations have banded together to fight for continued access to quality university education.

Although frequently held up as a model, the university system in the US does not meet the expectations of equitable access to higher learning essential for the growth of society in the XXI^st century, according to our colleagues in the NEA and AFT.

Precariousness in the postsecondary teaching market is the single most important problem facing large teachers’ associations. Since, on average, 75 % of teachers in the US are hired on a temporary basis, it was decided to tackle the problem head-on by targeting the legislative bodies. NEA and AFT intend to draft and present in each State a bill specifying the requirements and working conditions necessary to ensure quality postsecondary education. For more information, please see FACE. Closely related to the issue of precarious employment on American campuses, is that of academic freedom.  Teachers’ associations have set up Free exchange on campus, a wide coalition whose goal is to protect « free speech and exchange of ideas ».  A third major problem is that of generally high tuition fees in the US that hamper access to higher education. This results from keen competition among institutions and, coupled with a lack of sufficient funding for students, means that students from disadvantaged backgrounds find it increasingly difficult to get higher education. Joydeep Roy has published studies on this topic which can be downloaded from the website of the Economic Policy Institute.

Having recognized that improved cooperation and solidarity can only come through a better understanding of particular national and regional environments, projects and challenges, participants agreed to pursue discussions at their next meeting in March 2008 in Washington.

EI 6^TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, MALAGA (SPAIN), NOVEMBER 12 TO 14, 2007

Organized by the Higher Education Caucus, this conference focused on trends and key issues related to academic personnel and researchers. The 1997 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Personnel, its implementation and impact, along with resolutions adopted by the 5^th EI Congress, served as the basis of discussions. The resolutions primarily addressed issues of mobility, the brain drain, academic freedoms, GATS, globalization, and casual and short-term contract employment. The meeting’s programme along with other pertinent documents can be found online.

REINFORCING UNIVERSITY TEACHERS' CAPACITIES FOR MOBILITY IN LA FRANCOPHONIE

FQPPU, in cooperation with partner associations from francophone countries, is undertaking a study on the mobility of francophone professors as part of the mandate of the Comité Syndical Francophone de l’Éducation et de la Formation (CSFEF). The goal of this project is to survey the rate of mobility among francophone teachers, and to examine the conditions and problems related to travel for the purpose of study and research. A similar study will be effected by participating labour organizations in several francophone countries, notably France, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, and Cameroon.

Results of these studies will be discussed and follow up activities worked out at a Symposium to be held in Québec city in June 2008.

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM ABROAD

Bill concerning university freedom and responsibilities in France

On August 10, 2007, the French parliament adopted a Bill on university freedom and responsibilities. France's 84 universities have until August 11, 2008 to comply. For more information, you can read the full text of « Cahier des charges en vue de l’élargissement des compétences des universités prévu par la loi relative aux libertés et responsabilités des universités » (available in French only), published by the Inspector General of Finances and the Administration Inspectors General of National Education and Research.

The Syndicat national de l’enseignement supérieur (SNESUP) labels the text of this Bill « inadmissible : as with the preceding one on research, this text dealing with higher education is deaf to the voiced concerns of the university community and only seeks to impose the economics of liberalism and commercial competition on the university. Without any consultation, and taking advantage of the summer truce, the government pushed through and hastily enacted a botched bill which will shatter the French system of higher education along with the status of its personnel. »

Interested or uneasy readers may consult all the available documents online in SNESUP’s file « pour la bataille contre la loi portant sur l’organisation de la nouvelle université » (available in French only) and also Sauvons l'Université!.

Australian universities : beyond the crisis

In his thought provocative article Geoff Sharrock argues “that critical scholars are often ill-placed to be able to understand their own predicament” which is their “incapacity to adjust to the changed world of knowledge-creation”. According to Sharrock many scholars are still living in a world of knowledge-creation centered around the teaching-research nexus incarnated in the public funded universities and whose mission is to pursue “truth and knowledge for the public good”, freely and independently from State, Church and the Market. While “Western scholars intellectual freedom is essential to the pursuit of truth, the advance of knowledge and the well-being of civilized societies”, these values are put to the test by the broken promise “that in time, scholarly communities would create and disseminate a master-discourse of universal reason on which to build more enlightened societies.”

While these values and purposes, and the public funded universities, have proven their worth in many fields of endeavor — cultural, economic, political, social, ethical and philosophical —, the changes they have introduced are now challenging these institutions to reflect these very changes and to reflect upon these changes.

The centuries old public universities and their community of scholars have largely contributed to “mega-shifts” such as global economy, mass education, techno-science, industrialism, post-industrialism, information and communication technologies, mass literacy, mass media, democracy. These, in turn, have paralleled a diminishing capacity of States to fund an ever growing body of students and social demands, a rise of private teaching and problem solving universities, the establishment of well equipped industrial research facilities funded by both private and public sectors, and an array of publicly accessible electronic sources of knowledge (Wikipedia, Google) by a more well educated general population.

Knowledge creation, with their associated activities of teaching and research, is no longer the exclusive domain of a community of scholars “enclaved” in public funded universities. There are many people outside academia capable of teaching, of researching, of learning by themselves. Problems of all sorts need to be addressed, solutions to be found, answers to be given, understanding to be met. Public funds need to be allocated to competent resources, wherever they exist, to produce solutions, answers and understanding. In this globalized world of knowledge creation, the teaching–research nexus, campus-based universities, must draw out their niche. This means that critical scholars must realize that they are part, and not the center, of this globalized world of knowledge creation.

The abandonment of what Sharrock describes as a pre-Copernican “dogma” or worldview, calls into review university governance, collegiality, the laissez faire culture of academic proliferation. This does not mean to abandon academic freedom and critical thought, nor the university campus based teaching-research nexus but to adjust, to negotiate, to “give and take” in order to define the public mission of universities and to finance them adequately. Sharrock suggests that a third mission be assigned to the universities, that of “knowledge transfer” which he defines in terms other than commercialization. Knowledge transfer is here defined as “co-production of new understandings and solutions that tap the expertise of non-academic partners.”

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S PRIORITIES FOR 2007-2008

This year, the Executive Committee’s top priorities fall under four headings: the university, the workplace, the Federation, and international issues one of the main subject sof this bulletin.

On the topic of « the university », the Federation’s main concerns are university financing, the teaching staff, research, university structures and management. Action has already begun on several of these fronts, as outlined in this bulletin.

Under the heading « the workplace », we find proposals aimed at supporting faculty associations in their dealings with labour relations and psychological harassment; The Federation will also update dossiers related to women in the academic milieu, and to the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the teacher’s workload.

« FQPPU » covers re-examining the crucial mandate of representation vis-à-vis various partner organizations and political bodies. Communications are central to the success of this undertaking and the Federation’s practices and working tools are being examined starting with the redesigning of its website. Another concern is to promote the Federation’s growth and expansion.

A document entitled Executive Committee Priorities for Action in 2007-2008 details the Federation’s activities and was distributed to all professors, thanks to the cooperation of member associations.

UNIVERSITY STRUCTURES AND MANAGEMENT

This priority has been the focus of special attention in recent months.

The Federation was involved in a workshop dealing with the impact of the private sector on universities during the Forum social québécois, along with colleagues from the Table des partenaires universitaires.

In order to update its grasp of current issues on « governance » and to discuss with professors on what policies to adopt, the Federation held a seminar on October 1 with member associations. The Federation press releases, an open letter and a detailed commentary in response to the report by the Institute on Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGOPP) and to the announced Bill to be tabled by Finance Minister Forget (see below, When the treatment BECOMES the disease).

The publication in early 2008 of a position paper by the Commission de l’enseignement et de la recherche universitaire (CERU) of the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation concerning the mission of the university is awaited with keen interest by the Federation.

University management is also the underlying theme of the proposed FQPPU's colloquium to be held at ACFAS in 2008 : Who « Owns » the university ? .

The following  are some of Federation's activities in greater details.

WORKSHOP ON PRIVATIZATION OF UNIVERSITIES ORGANIZED BY LA TABLE DES PARTENAIRES UNIVERSITAIRES AT THIS YEAR'S  FORUM SOCIAL QUÉBÉCOIS

Last August 24, over fifty participants filled a classroom at UQAM to listen and respond to presentations by representatives of the Table des partenaires universitaires (TPU), each discussing a particular feature of the changes taking place in university establishments. Each speaker demonstrated how commercial business practices have been adopted by university administrators and managers thereby endangering the ability of Quebec universities to fulfill their mission and to maintain the university network’s integrity.

Marie Blais, from the Fédération nationale des enseignantes et enseignants du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN) summarized a study produced by Stephen Ball and Deborah Youdell on the disguised privatization in the British education sector, presented at the July EI Congress. Michèle Beaudoin, from the Fédération du personnel professionnel des universités et de la recherche (FPPU), described how administrators adopt the vocabulary and rhetorics of the private sector to change their managerial practices, which in turn perturbe the working conditions of the teaching staff.

For his part, Michel Jacques from the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) focused on philanthropic donations, particularly those that are « targeted » or « conditional » and result in abnormal alliances between the university and the private sector.

Pierre Hébert from the Fédération québécoise des professeures et professeurs d’université (FQPPU) examined the links between the university and the private sector. He spoke about the increased precariousness of fundamental research, the weaked connection between research and teaching, the pressures to produce quick results, and the growing outside university controls.

Cécile Sabourin, President of FQPPU, wrapped up the presentations by emphasizing that for several years now the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), through its analyses and influence on governments of industrialized nations, has pressured university administrators to run their establishments in a business like fashion so as to service the economy : commercializing R & D innovations and producing a highly trained work force.
During the discussion period, the point was made that the very concept of a community of knowledge is at stake and that the ever increasing acceptance of the private sector’s discourse would render teachers and researchers subservient to private interests. The need to develop a plan for collective action was recognized, and the urgent need to become more involved in university affairs, especially in hiring committees and departmental administration. There is also the need to instill greater public pride in Quebec’s university network.

For more information, please see the résumé (available in French only) of the workshop.

FQPPU SEMINAR ON GOVERNANCE

At least ten member associations participated in the Federation’s Seminar on Governance held last October 1^st. Five professors - Guy Bourgeault (Université de Montréal), Dorval Brunelle (UQAM), Gilles Gagné (Université Laval), Armande Saint-Jean (Université de Sherbrooke) and Michel Umbriaco (Téluq-UQAM) – led the discussion.

The debate brought to mind the aftermath of May’68 which marked an intrusion of management practices in the universities. Increased access to higher education, « massification » of student enrolments, the « McDonaldization » of programs in response to popular demands, all produced changes which distance universities from their central role as cultural institutions and push them further to resemble vocational training centers. One tangible result among many is reduced personal contact between professors and students and greater use of course lecturers and teaching assistants. Hierarchies spring up both inside the university and within the university network. We can see the growth of fierce competition within the university between the scientific, the pedagogical and the managerial sectors, each with their own value system. Driven by outside pressures, chiefly from the business sector, the managers’ value system tend to dominate the other two.

The seminar was an opportunity to emphasize the importance of reevaluating the importance of information sharing and debate. Professors are empowered by their responsibility to keep vigil, to question, to propose, and to speak out in public. They have been found guilty of omission. Participants at the seminar seemed to agree on the need for a counter-discourse to challenge the « new public administration » and to reaffirm that the university is first and foremost an institution and not a profit-generating business. It is vital that alternative models of governance for universities and public services as a whole be explored so that the imported one-size-fits-all model proposed by stakeholders in the « new public administration » without regard for the problems and the pernicious effects that ensue, be forcibly challenged. Education is a public good, not a public merchandise.

The time has come to publicly reassert that the university, as an institution, can govern itself and that it accepts and supports a culture of accountability at all levels. The university must take responsibility for the intellectual quality of its mission and must be held accountable for this as much as for managing its budget.

WHEN THE TREATMENT BECOMES THE DISEASE – REACTION TO THE IGOPP REPORT ON UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE IN QUÉBEC

One could not find a better tool to consolidate the stranglehold the new breed of administrators have on the university network. Produced by a group drawn mostly from the top administrative echelons in the universities, this report preaches the gospel of power concentration in the hands of external « independent » members on the boards of governors. These so called independents from outside the institution are recruited mainly from the business community. Furthernore the Institute on Governance of Private and Public Organizations (IGOPP) proposes that the key university administrative committees, be filled exclusively with these « independent » members thus elbowing out those who are the most knowledgeable about university affairs i.e., teaching and research.

Eliminate the presence of observers on the board of governors; choose a new rector behind closed doors; then, proclaim the importance of transparency and full disclosure. What’s wrong with this picture ask Cécile Sabourin and Pierre Hébert in an open letter which appeared in Le Devoir on October 17 under the headline Rapport sur la gouvernance – À qui « appartient » l’université ?. The mentioned report is all the more disturbing since it comes close on the heels of a Bill tabled by the Minister of Finance, Monique Jérôme-Forget, that aims to restrict the universities’ capability to spend or borrow money. The struggle for control over the university network has never been more open. From the beginning, the Federation has followed these developments closely and has constantly advocated a model of governance for the university that holds administrators accountable not only for their budgetary decisions, but also for their ideological and intellectual orientations that affect the university’s fundamental mission of public service.

WHO « OWNS » THE UNIVERSITY ? – THAT IS THE QUESTION THE FQPPU IS RAISING AT THE 2008 CONGRESS OF ACFAS

The university has always been a potential target for those in power, both political and religious ; nowadays, some would add economic power to that list. However, in a world where knowledge is central to society’s progress – however one defines progress – the university has become, more than ever, a major player in the development of knowledge.

It is not surprising therefore that, in little more than a decade, we no longer know who « owns » the university : the State, that dictates policies? Big business, who covets the profits to be made from knowledge? Boards of Governors? Students, who are now reduced to the status of clients? Part time and full time lecturers, who provide more than half the teaching load? Professors, who are at the center of teaching and research? « Society », whose taxes and other contributions finance the university ?

At a time when governance has become an inescapable leitmotif and buzzword, equally unavoidable is the question : who « owns » the university? An informative and wise answer to this question is essential so that satisfactory structures and decisions making processes can ensure the present and the future development of the university. Everyone is invited to debate the question at the 76^th Congress of ACFAS in Québec City, in May 2008.

UNIVERSITY FINANCING

GREAT  WORK BY THE COMITÉ SUR LE FINANCEMENT DES UNIVERSITÉS (CFU)

This committee was set up in May 2006 by the Federation with the aim of getting a better grasp of the sometimes contradictory rhetoric on Quebec university under-financing, and to document its current and foreseeable impact. The CFU took on an ambitious mandate: to further our knowledge of the technical aspects of university financing in Quebec, to develop a critical position on the current situation of university funding, and to increase our knowledge of the ways universities parcel out their budgets internally.

Although financial data is difficult to obtain, thanks to the cooperation of the Commission parlementaire de l’éducation, the Quebec Ministry of Education (MELS) and the Conférence des recteurs et principaux des universités du Québec (CREPUQ), the CFU succeeded in producing a survey report which it presented to the Conseil fédéral in October.

Some highlights :

Faced with chronic under-funding, the university has changed its practices of resource distribution. Since 1994-1995, the number of professors (base 100) has diminished while the number of full-time equivalent students (FTEs) has increased significantly, especially at the graduate level. Fewer professors, more lecturers, more students, more research work. At the same time, however, the number of administrators in charge of managing development and of meeting the government’s requirements for accountability has also risen.

CFU President Michel Umbriaco wrote a brief but highly informative report (available in French only) on the comitee's findings. The CFU will visit member institutions over the next few weeks to gather more precise data. It intends to publish a first report on the financing of the universities fixed assets in April or May 2008.

Funding for Canadian universities is discussed in more detail in « The Slow Recovery : University Finances, 2005-2006 » in the October issue of the CAUT Education Review.

FQPPU'S POSITION ON COMPULSORY EXTRACURRICULAR FEES

A simplistic local solution to a real global problem, is how the Federation’s sums up its position outlined in a brief presented during MELS hearings on universities’ compulsory student fees.

The Federation called upon the Minister to lay down a clear ruling on what is or is not admissible as compulsory fees. The MELS should also reaffirm its commitment to affordable higher education, and should follow suit with adequate base funding for universities and student financial aid measures adapted to their needs and realities. Given the constant increases in compulsory extracurricular fees, imposed by all institutions over the past several years, coupled with the end of the freeze on tuition fees, it is vital that any decision concerning compulsory fees be based on consultation with all parties concerned, particularly with all known student associations. This consultation should be open and transparent, based on disclosure of all relevant information, and should be repeated each time there is a proposal to increase compulsory fees.

NEWS FROM CONSEIL FÉDÉRAL

UPDATE ON CONTRACT RENEWAL NEGOTIATIONS

Faced with the threat of a lockout, contract negotiations between the faculty union and the Université de Sherbrooke ended June 6, 2007 and a new collective agreement (available in French only) was signed on September 27. It is almost identical with the previous contract with the manor addition of an article concerning full-time professors who wish to continue on a part-time basis. The new salary scale will be retroactive to December 2005 and includes a catch-up clause for those in lower ranks, based on the scale negociated by SGPUM (Syndicat général des professeurs de l’Université de Montréal).

After two years of fruitless negotiations, the Association of Professors at Bishop’s University (APBU), who also represents librarians and was seeking a first contract for support personnel, called a strike of the latter on June 26. After six weeks of confrontation, punctuated by a lock-out by the Administration on July 26, the APBU reluctantly accepted in mid-August an agreement in principle which included no salary increase for librarians and professors over the next three years. The agreement is still not ratified because the Administration refuses to give up on its demands on the subject of pension funds – a deal-breaker for the APBU. As a result of these very difficult negotiations, APBU members passed by two votes a non confidence motion addressed at the Principal and at the Vice-principal of Finance and Administration. On November 23, the university’s Board of Governors announced the Principal’s departure. You can read more details about the negotiation on the APBU website.

Over the past summer several faculty unions have entered into negotiations to renew their collective agreements. At Concordia University the agreement contract expired May 31, 2007, as with the Université du Québec network affiliates: are SPPUQO, SPUQAT, SPPUQTR and SPUQ. The need to hire more professors is a major issue.

SPPUQTR is calling for 100 new professors to be hired by 2010-2011, as spelled out in the November issue of Point d’ancre . Despite the current state of crisis at UQAM, negotiations with the Syndicat des professeures et professeurs de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, are focused on the union’s demands to hire 300 new profs over the next three years, to bring salaries up to par, and to revise the criteria and the rules governing professor evaluation and promotion. SPUQ members are working hard with their colleagues from the Intersyndicale at UQAM to publicize the political nature of the current crisis, and to reiterate that its solution, as well as the solution to the chronic under funding that affects all Quebec universities, is also political in nature. There is more on this subject in Michèle Nevert’s article published in the October issue of SPUQ Info.

ICT AND PROFESSORS’ WORKLOAD : A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP ? AN ADDRESS BY CHANTAL-ÉDITH MASSON

Delegates at the last Conseil fédéral (October 18-19), welcomed Chantal-Édith Masson from the Université de Sherbrooke who presented the paper she had given at the FQPPU colloquium during the 2007 ACFAS Congress. In a presentation well illustrated with everyday examples, she described the wonders and the miseries of working with ITC. The speed of change that affects these new technologies and their growing complexity mean that profs can get into deep trouble trying to simultaneously improve their teaching and research on the one hand, while preserving their autonomy on the other. In her view, should be included in contract and labour negotiations within the universities issues related to the use of ICT; such as increased workload, added supervision of online students, time allotment for technical assistance and updating and for the promotion of “open access”.

IN BRIEF

WE NEED YOU: A MAJOR NEW STUDY UNDERWAY

A qualitative survey of the working experiences of new professors (FQPPU, 2006) gathered valuable information that will now be extended on a larger scale. Working conditions, academic and intellectual life, workload, job satisfaction, wishful changes : these are some of the topics on which all professors in Quebec universities will be consulted during this coming winter, in order to draw up a statistical representation of their lived experience and expectations. A working group headed by Frédéric Deschenaux (Université du Québec à Rimouski), with the Federation’s support, is already at work to establish the groundwork for the study, which will be repeated periodically in order to maintain an up-to-date picture of the situation.

The President of the committee has written an article in La ligne générale du SPPUQAR (available in French only) entitled « Les pratiques mercantiles et les idées d’université », that deals with the positions held by research in a professor's workload.