Performance of the Ontario (Canada) Higher-education System: Measuring Only What Matters

This paper describes the thinking behind the development of an improved tool to measure the performance of the postsecondary system in Ontario. The rationale is relevant to other jurisdictions. Ontario’s public higher-education system consists of 24 community colleges and 20 universities and constitutes 40% of higher-education enrolments in Canada. HEQCO has a legislated mandate to conduct performance assessments of the postsecondary sector and to make these evaluations public. In contrast to the approach of others who use a broad range of performance indicators, we are developing a performance measurement tool with a very limited number of indicators that are tied directly to the high priority goals of the Ontario government and that are designed to assess the effectiveness and impact of government policies and actions (e.g., tuition, financial aid, funding formulas, institutional differentiation). The instrument will measure system performance, not that of individual institutions (or their ranking). This approach, which measures only what matters, forces definition and measurement of the most relevant, meaningful and revealing measures. The indicators address equity of access, sustainability of institutions and academic quality, the three highest priorities for the postsecondary system in Ontario. The indicators selected reflect outcomes and impact, not inputs. Academic quality was the domain hardest to measure but our bias was to measures that are direct, embedded, meaningful to students and government, and validated by the institutions. We describe significant research trials we are currently conducting to determine the best and most efficient ways of obtaining these academic quality measures that, in our view, should form the centrepiece of any instrument that purports to measure the performance of a higher-education system or institutions.