Academic brings new views to higher ed ministry.(Moura Quayle, Ministry of Advanced Education, British Columbia )

A highly educated workforce forms a solid foundation for a competitive economy, and Canadians view postsecondary education as an "investment in the future" that tops their public policy agenda.

Future prosperity depends upon "strengthening innovation, advanced education and training and productivity," said Dr. Moura Quayle, deputy minister in the Ministry of Advanced Education for the province of British Columbia.

Higher education trends and the role of women administrators was the topic of her keynote address at the Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada (SWAAC) conference held at the University of Victoria in May.

Having joined the government of British Columbia just last year, Quayle comes to her new position via the academy, where she had been dean of the faculty of land and food systems at the University of British Columbia.

She soon discovered a disconnect within her ministry. Of its 217 full-time employees, only 10 had direct experience working in higher education.

Trends and challenges

As in the United States, Canadian schools are encountering the trend toward seeing "student as consumer." Schools compete not only for prestige and research dollars, but also for students. "There's nothing inherently wrong with healthy competition, but it is a concern if it causes the institutions to be distracted from the central mandates of educating students," she said.