This week, Ken Steele “takes off” to Saskatoon to speak with Larry Rosia, the president and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, about his institution’s four pillars of internationalization. They sit down in SP’s pilot training flight simulator for a conversation.

Internationalization has been a top priority for many institutions in Canada.  Reports from the World Economic Forum and the Conference Board of Canada emphasize the importance of cultural competency as a workforce skill for the future, and it’s especially important in a globally exporting province like Saskatchewan.  In order to internationalize the whole institution, SP has a four-pillar strategy:

1)  Faculty & Student Exchanges, sending representatives abroad to study, teach and engage in applied research and project work. Not everyone wants to travel abroad, and the institution can’t afford to send everyone abroad, though.

2)  Incoming International Students, recruiting students from priority countries to diversify classrooms in Canada. “Having a different lens, a different perspective, a different culture lend their ideas to a problem is really interesting,” and helps to spark innovative thinking on campus.  “The solutions to today’s problems and tomorrow’s problems are interdisciplinary and intercultural.”

3)  International Applied Research Projects engage SP with partners abroad, and students from various locations can collaborate and innovate via technology on a shared project.

4)  International Project Work, such as providing pilot training to meet a country’s needs.

Ultimately, internationalization is critical because Canada needs immigration to sustain its population, and our students need to learn how to work with diverse cultures. They will graduate and work with companies that do business internationally, and if they have global competencies they will be more attractive to future employers. Larry emphasizes that “Saskatchewan runs on Saskatchewan Polytechnic,” and that cultural diversity is one of its differentiators and strengths.

Dr Larry Rosia (@LarryRosia on Twitter) has a background in telecommunications engineering, and holds a PhD in academic leadership from the University of Calgary. For more than 35 years, he has worked in higher education as an instructor, program chair, marketing manager, and senior administrator.  Larry served as Dean of the School of Construction at SAIT from 1999-2012, and has been President and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic (formerly SIAST) since 2012.  He authored a 2009 book, “The Successful College President: Strategies for Leading in a Complex Environment.”  Larry also sits on the boards of many organizations including Polytechnics Canada, Skills Canada Saskatchewan, the Chair Academy International Leadership Board, the International Mineral Innovation Institute, and the Saskatchewan Post Secondary International Education Council.

Next week, Ken’s conversation with Larry Rosia continues. So you don’t miss it, be sure to subscribe!  http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

Special thanks to Saskatchewan Polytechnic for arranging the onsite videography.  If you would like to host an onsite episode of Ten with Ken, please see http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/for more information.

Ken’s conversation with Mark Frison, president of Assiniboine Community College in Brandon Manitoba, continues this week as they explore ways that higher ed leaders can empower and inspire their people to take ownership and take initiative, to propel innovation on campus.  (If you missed the first part of this interview, about encouraging PSE participation on the prairies, see https://youtu.be/-vksdjuMt2k).

Mark suggests 3 concrete ways to nurture a culture of innovation on campus:

1)  Make Initiative an Explicit Value

ACC has adopted organizational values that encourage all staff and faculty to “Be Passionate. Take Initiative. Deliver Results.” Specifically, the college values urge people to “challenge the status quo and take calculated risks without fear of failure.” Mark believes it is critical to state explicitly to the campus community that risk is inevitable when you innovate.

2)  Invest in Talent through PD

ACC’s talent management action plan, instituted in 2011, has worked to increase its investment in professional development from 1.25% of payroll to almost 3%.  Given the fiscal environment, colleges need to maximize the capabilities and training of all staff.

Ken observes that on most higher ed campuses, there is a disconnect between senior administrators who embrace innovation and seek transformative change, and front-line staff who are anxious about making mistakes, and focused on meeting the short-term objectives of their immediate supervisors.  The further down the organizational hierarchy you go, Ken argues, “the more doing nothing is the safest course of action,” and he wonders how best to transmit the entrepreneurial mindset throughout the organization.  But Mark also observes that front-line staff and faculty are actually the ones most likely to have innovative ideas about serving the student, and thinks the more immediate issue is how to translate ideas UP through the organization. 

3) Formalize the Idea Generation Process

That's why ACC implemented a system of written “decision notes” for middle managers, encouraging them to describe new ideas in detail, and make their business case. Training middle managers to write these briefing notes has been “incredibly helpful at dislodging these ideas,” getting ideas onto the table and either moving them forward, or setting them aside.

Mark and Ken agree that there is a “double whammy” of risk aversion in a public-sector, academic institution.  Committees tend to preserve the status quo, and often aren’t even empowered to make decisions. Ultimately, Mark emphasizes, “you do need individuals to feel that they can take risks.”  In many colleges, Ken argues, there is a “learned helplessness” that discourages a sense of personal ownership of decisions or processes. Mark recalls a board member once asking him, “if you owned this thing, what would we be doing differently?” Thinking about your institution with a sense of ownership, and a willingness to take informed risk, engages everyone’s ideas and passions, and encourages an entrepreneurial campus culture.

Mark Frison was appointed President of Assiniboine Community College in August 2010, after serving 5 years as president of Great Plains College and Cypress Hills College in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.  He holds a Masters of Industrial Relations from Queen’s University, and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Business from Cape Breton University (UCCB at the time).  He has served as Executive Director of the Association of Saskatchewan Regional Colleges, and on the board of Colleges & Institutes Canada.

Every week, 10K explores a world of higher ed innovation and bright ideas. So you don’t miss a thing, please be sure to subscribe!  http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

Special thanks to Shaun Cameron for coordinating the onsite recording at ACC. If you would like to host an onsite episode of Ten with Ken, please see http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/for more information.

Ken Steele visits Assiniboine Community College, in Brandon Manitoba, to talk with president Mark Frison about their beautiful new North Hill Campus, encouraging enrolment in a region with the lowest PSE participation rate in the country, serving Indigenous populations, aligning programs with provincial immigration policy, and growing international enrolment 1,500%!

ACC’s North Hill Campus is taking shape on the pastoral grounds of the former Brandon Mental Health Centre, and is already home to the Manitoba Institute of Culinary Arts, the Len Evans Centre for Trades & Technology, and sustainable greenhouses. Over the next few decades, ACC will preserve historic buildings, construct new academic and athletic facilities, and perhaps even build student residences.  It will make ACC unique among Canadian colleges.

Many of the innovations in marketing, programs and services at ACC have been driven by the recognition that much of rural Manitoba is underserved by higher ed institutions, and the province has the lowest PSE participation rate in the country.  The province is highly centralized, with 85% of public spending on PSE concentrated in the city of Winnipeg.  ACC’s 2013 plan set an ambitious target to double the number of graduates by 2025.

Another key constituency ACC serves are Indigenous peoples, and bridging the “prosperity gap” may be the biggest public policy challenge in Manitoba.  About 15-22% of the students ACC enrols are Indigenous, and in a typical year the College runs programs on or near 20 First Nations communities.

The largest single change at ACC is the growth of international student enrolment: from 37 in 2013 to more than 500 in 2018!  Early on, extremely low vacancy rates in Brandon meant that most international students wound up attending ACC’s small Winnipeg campus – but thankfully that has eased, and eventually campus residences may be the best solution. ACC’s international strategy is highly tied to provincial targets for immigration, and labour market needs – in fact, the need for immigration drives the strategy, not the desire for international tuition revenue (although moving to 5x domestic tuition has helped to make the programs sustainable). ACC also takes an integrated view of international enrolment, education of newcomers to Canada, and international development work.

Mark emphasizes that colleges and universities need to be “unapologetic” about doing all that they can to foster economic development, and coordinate their efforts at internationalization with their regional government’s immigration strategies.

Mark Frison was appointed President of Assiniboine Community College in August 2010, after serving 5 years as president of Great Plains College and Cypress Hills College in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.  He holds a Masters of Industrial Relations from Queen’s University, and undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Business from Cape Breton University (UCCB at the time).  He has served as Executive Director of the Association of Saskatchewan Regional Colleges, and on the board of Colleges & Institutes Canada.

Next week, Mark Frison shares several ways campus leaders can inspire their people to take ownership and take initiative.  So you don’t miss it, be sure to subscribe!  http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

Special thanks to Shaun Cameron for coordinating the onsite recording at ACC. If you would like to host an onsite episode of Ten with Ken, please see http://eduvation.ca/twk/site-visits/for more information.