Series 6 - Professional activities: Council of Ontario Universities

0.98 m of textual records and publications
286 digital files and 23 emails (129 MB)

The Council of Ontario Universities (COU) was formed on December 3, 1962 as the “Committee of Presidents of Provincially Assisted Universities and Colleges of Ontario,” with its current name being adopted in 1971. The mandate of the COU is to “build awareness of the university sector’s contributions to the social, economic and cultural well-being of the province and the country, as well as the issues that impact the sector’s ability to maximize these contributions.” It works with Ontario’s publicly assisted universities and one associate member institution, the Royal Military College of Canada. This series documents the activities of a number of its committees and task forces, which are detailed below, approximately in order of activity.

Professor Lang was a member of the COU’s Committee on Enrolment Statistics and Projections from 1976 to 1990. In 1982-1983 he sat on its Special Committee on BILD Administrative Procedures and from 1987 to 1991 was a member of its Research Advisory Group. In 1991 he was invited to be part of a small task force to present proposals to the government for an income contingent repayment plan for Ontario students. Throughout much of the 1990s, he was involved with the COU’s Committee on University Accountability and the Performance Indicators for the Public Postsecondary System in Ontario project, better known as the Performance Indicators Project, the purpose of which was to assess the overall Ontario postsecondary sector.

He was also a member of four task forces: Audit Guidelines (1998-2000), Secondary School Issues (1998-2005), Student Financial Assistance (2006-), and Quality Assurance (2008-2010). The Task Force on Secondary School Issues was established to assess the evaluation of students in the new secondary school program of studies and to make recommendations regarding the monitoring of grading practices and standards.

The COU’s Quality and Productivity Task Force work was to outline “all the quality and productivity initiatives” undertaken to “showcase results for the government’s increased investment in universities.” Its report, presented in March 2006, was followed by the COU Task Force on Quality Measurements, chaired by David Naylor of the University of Toronto. It was charged with addressing the “broad issues related to quality measurement, developing the long-term strategies for COU’s work with the government and the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO).” [1]

The files contain correspondence, memoranda, notes, minutes of meetings, drafts of reports and assorted background reports and other documentation.

Files in B2018-0001 include correspondence with U of T and COU colleagues, as well as further records related to his role on the COU’s Committee on University Accountability. Also included are further records about the COU's Task Force on Quality Assurance (2008-2010), including its subsequent transition and implementation phase.

Files from B2021-0018 include emails with the COU Executive Committee (2012-2013).

NOTES

1. Task Force on Quality Measurement terms of reference, March 2006, in B2011-0003/043(03).

The arrangement is largely by project in chronological order.

All files are open, with the exception of:

• B2011-0003/044 (09)
• B2011-0003/045 (01)-(02)
• B2018-0001_df005
• B2018-0001_df006
• B2021-0010_df008

These files are closed for 20 years from the last date of activity in the file. Please contact the University Archivist for additional information.