Differentiation of Northern Post-Secondary Education
through its Role in the Natural Resources/Mining Industry of Ontario

Submission to the Postsecondary Review Panel
by the Mining Leadership Team of Laurentian University,October 19, 2004

 

Summary

The northern postsecondary educational institutions have steadily expanded their role in the development of highly qualified human resources for the Natural Resources Industry to the point where we now are at the verge of international recognition as leaders in this sector. This role sets northern post-secondary institutions apart from others in Ontario, much of Canada and the world. With strong and ongoing support from industry, we have differentiated ourselves from the rest of the Province.

With mining accounting for 12.6% of Canada's export earnings (2003), contributing $41.1 billion to the economy, and providing employment for 389,000 Canadians with average weekly earnings at the highest levels of any industry in Canada, this industry sector is of critical importance for the future of the province and the post-secondary education system must reflect the needs of this industry sector.
Hence, it is recommended that

  • Laurentian University and the community colleges of Northeastern Ontario be recognized as being differentiated in the Ontario postsecondary sector through their role in supplying technical personnel for the mining and mineral sector of Ontario, as part of the Northeastern Ontario Mining Cluster, and through out the world.

  • The mining and minerals industry be given a role in aiding the development of such personnel through a Sudbury-based foundation called the Ontario School of Mines, directly affiliated with Laurentian university and the community colleges of Northeastern Ontario, and linked to other mining related educational institutions in the Province.


Introduction

The Senate and the Board of Laurentian University have adopted a vision statement related to mining that reads as follows:
"Laurentian University will become the national centre of excellence in mining innovation - education, research, technology, and commercialization - by energetically building on acknowledged strengths in mineral exploration, mining engineering, robotics, and environmental sciences".
A Mining Leadership Team (MLT) was established to assist in implementing this vision.


In carefully reading the Postsecondary Review document entitled "Higher Expectation for Higher Education", we were surprised to find a lack of a role for industry in this review. Since industry is a major consumer of the output from the Ontario Postsecondary Institutions, we suggest in this brief response one possible model for such a role in Northernwestern Ontario. We note the concern expressed in the report about the replacement of professionals in the education sector, but we wish to emphasize the equally urgent problems for the same group in industry.

Over the past twenty years, Laurentian University has worked steadily at distinguishing itself in the Ontario University System by building expertise in the mining and minerals sector through the offering of:


We have also appointed five research chairs in areas directly related to the mining and minerals sector. This provided the leadership to develop these mining research centres and to excel at the highest level of mining education.

Over $40 million in research funds have been garnered by these research institutions over the last decade providing internationally recognized research in their specialized area for the mining sector. In addition, in 1992, the Ontario government moved the Ontario Geosciences Laboratory, Ontario Geological Survey and the Ministry of Labour onto the Laurentian University campus in the Willet Green Miller Centre. This provided the physical and additional human infrastructure necessary to develop MERC as a world-class group in mineral exploration jointly between the Ontario Geological Survey, the Earth Sciences Department of Laurentian Unive

All of these efforts over the past two decades were aimed at developing the necessary academic and technical infrastructure for a university- and college-based School of Mines as a means of focusing on Northeastern Ontario's need for an integrated training and research capacity in the mining and minerals sector based in the North. The fact that Sudbury has within its boundaries 17 hard rock computerized mines, 2 smelters, 2 major and several minor mining companies, 350 supply and services companies in the mining sector as well as a university and 2 community colleges with a group of programs focused on the mining sector, has finally led to a recognition by the Provincial and Federal governments that Sudbury forms the core of a world-class mining cluster.

Differentiation

The mandate of this panel is to develop a strategy for a more coordinated, collaborative and differentiated postsecondary system in Ontario with a sustainable funding framework sharing the costs of this postsecondary education amongst government, students and the private sector.

Elements of such differentiations already exist, for example, at The University of Waterloo in Computer Sciences and Engineering and at The University of Guelph in Agricultural Programs. Likewise, Northwestern Ontario should be developed further to differentiate itself as a region focusing on natural resources and engineering. Hence, we suggest that provision be made in your new funding mechanism for the North to focus on the highly technical resource based industries of Mining and Forestry, Mining in the Northeast and Forestry in the Northwest.

Potential funding model

In order for industry to play a role in postsecondary education by
  1. increasing participation and success in the Northern part of the Province;
  2. improving the quality of higher education; and,
  3. developing a coherent coordinated system,

we suggest that an Ontario School of Mines Foundation be developed, located in Sudbury, and affiliated with Laurentian University, Haileybury School of Mines, Northern College, Cambrian College, College Boreal and Canadore College.

This foundation, with support from industry and funding from the Provincial Government, possibly through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and the Federal Government, through FedNor, with representation on its board of these three sectors and the post secondary institutions, would have the following mandate:

      1. Aid the Northern community colleges and Laurentian University in pro-actively seeking out students in their local regions for undergraduate and graduate programs in the mining and mineral sectors.

      2. Provide industrial and academic mentors and summer cooperative jobs for such students as a mechanism for retaining the students in their programs.

      3. Aid in the development of challenge courses already successfully utilized in the Nursing programs as a mechanism for students getting credit for courses obtained through a variety of sources other than the normal postsecondary education route.

      4. Aid in the development of transition courses particularly in the Mathematics area that can be taken by WEB or correspondence based teaching/learning mechanisms to help community college students in the North to master the transition to university undergraduate programs in Engineering and Science relevant to the mining and minerals sector.

      5. Supplement the present inadequate funding of graduate students in the Science and Engineering sectors of postsecondary education due to the formula weights (which are about 30 years old!).

      6. Aid in the development of web-based technical programs in English, Spanish and Portuguese to train South American technical personnel in the mining and minerals sector.

      7. Provide future direction for development of appropriate technologies through fundamental and applied research (LU research centres, NORCAT, ELRFS, etc.) in areas critical to both the major and minor mining and mineral exploration companies and the northern supply and services companies.

      8. Aid in the establishment of mining research centers as the principal nodes in a teaching/research network that includes Ontario universities with an related Science and Engineering Programs as well as universities in the network to participate in a modular course-based curriculum where students have the opportunity to take courses at other Ontario universities, and to interact with a larger and more diverse group of graduate students (critical mass). This innovative approach to teaching would enhance the learning experience of the students, reduce teaching-overlap between universities, more efficiently utilize the teaching and research talent within the Ontario University system and would eventually result in research collaboration amongst the university participants.

Conclusion

We recommend that: