Category: Funding and Finances

I’ve been talking about performance-based funding all week; today, I’ll try to summarize what I think the research and experience actually says. Let’s return for a second to a point I made Tuesday.  When determining whether PBF “works”, what matters is to be able to show that incentivizing particular outcomes actually changes institutional behaviour, and leads to improvements in outcomes. However, no study to date has actually bothered to link quantifiable changes in funding with any policy outcomes.  Hillman and Tandberg –

I was reading the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association (OCUFA)’s position statement on a new funding formula for the province.  Two things caught my eye.  One, they want money to make sure Ontario universities can do world-class research and teaching; and two, they demand strict opposition to any kind of performance-based funding formula (PBF).  Put differently: OCUFA wants great teaching and research to be funded, but are adamantly opposed to rewarding anyone for actually doing it. Except that’s slightly uncharitable.