Take our kids to work… and save research in Canada
November 7th, take your kid to work
On October 17th, in a speech to the Royal Society of Canada, Dr. David Naylor, President of the University of Toronto, warned guests about the state of research and higher education in Canada.
“The Conference Board study of 17 OECD nations,” he said, “found that only Italy awarded fewer Ph.D. degrees per capita than Canada. Compared to the United States, Canada awards a third fewer doctoral degrees and half as many master’s degrees per capita.”
And when the science talent decreases so too does the output of scientific innovation. In fact, Naylor reported that “the Conference Board of Canada ranked Canada’s performance in innovation a lowly 14th out of 17 OECD comparator countries.”
What does one do about this sad state of affairs?
Well, one option — an option that you as a parent can control — is to excite your kids about science and innovation. On November 7, Grade 9 kids across the country will be pouring out of their history and French classes to join their parents in their places of employment through the Take Our Kids to Work program. And where better to take them than to MaRS?
This year, MaRS is offering a tour for all TOKW participants, giving teens a first-hand look at what happens in the MaRS Centre. Meet us at the MaRS main security desk at 10:30 a.m. on November 7 and let’s start building our future research base in Canada, one student at a time.
Read David Naylor’s speech to the Royal Society of Canada (PDF)
Cathy is the Portal Manager at MaRS, responsible for all online media programs.
She helps bring the blogger out in all of us and keeps us informed about the MaRS community through our website and newsletters.
I think that there’s a backstory here. You can’t ignore the brain drain to the south. Many Canadians, like myself, went to the United States for our doctorates. Many also return, so it’s not like the workforce suffers. Canada probably has a higher PhD per capita quotient than the PhD granting data suggest — it’s the education system which suffers from the loss of students. It’s a tricky challenge to keep students in Canada. Many American schools offer larger graduate stipends than Canadian stipends, and it’s often possible to find an American school that’s closer to home than other Canadian schools.
Posted by: y on October 29th, 2007 at 10:20 am
You’re right, as you know: Canada is exporting a lot of “potential Nobel prize winners” as Naylor points out. And certainly, there are many factors involved in the decrease of per capta PhDs. One is as simple as the aging population. There are just not as many young people replacing the old people. Younger people tend to be the ones going for the PhD and the older folks are watering down our per capita numbers.
However, on top of the PhD indictor, Naylor also points to the Conference Board of Canada ranking Canada’s performance in innovation “a lowly 14th out of 17 OECD comparator countries.”
Another indicator is our per capita patent the Conference Boardrate placed Canada 14th out of the 17 OECD comparators analyzed.
What does this mean? That our innovation sector isn’t doing all that well.
And as regular people, we sometimes feel a little ill-prepared to deal with such overwhelming issues or feel that we’re too small or weak to actually effect change. But there are things that regular people can do, other than just voting for the right innovation-policy-focussed politician.
And one of those things is to try to take the situation into our own hands and excite our children’s imaginations about the possibilities that the innovation fields represent (assuming that you have them, which I don’t, so I will simply write about my support of this notion).
It may not solve the problem on its own. But it’s a step.
Posted by: Cathy @ MaRS on October 29th, 2007 at 4:35 pm