Canadian Council on Learning | Conseil Canadien sur l'Apprentissage

Question Scans

Question 17: Is there a shortage of university and college instructors looming for British Columbia?

Overview

The purpose of this question scan was to determine the feasibility of conducting a systematic review of the literature addressing the possibility that a post-secondary instructor shortage is looming in BC. Searches applying a broad range of applicable search terms to four major databases initially yielded 314 articles. Subsequent examination of article abstracts reduced this number to 206. A further search of grey literature available on government and sectoral ogranization websites yielded an additional five documents, for a total of 211. Although this final number is large, many articles appear to be short pieces, in publications such as The Times Higher Education Supplement and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Only 21 articles, one of which is from B.C., are Canadian; 146 are American, the remaining 44 are international. Articles from non-Canadian jurisdictions may be relevant because:

• the academic labour supply is mobile, so labour shortages in other jurisdictions affect B.C., and
• conditions related to academic labour shortages in other jurisdictions may illuminate B.C.’s case.

Articles appear to encompass four themes: large-scale projections of gross academic employment patterns in different jurisdictions; projections and descriptions of forthcoming and existing discipline-specific faculty shortages; factors causing shortages; and measures that may ameliorate shortages. Overall, most articles indicate an increasing worldwide shortage of qualified post-secondary instructors; however, the shortage will be more acute in some fields, (e.g. special education, nursing, and information technology) than others (e.g. the humanities). Major causes of shortages in Western countries are faculty retirement as baby boomers reach age 65 and increased student enrollment. Other relevant causes include some disciplines’ attractive private sector or applied practice employment options, and unattractive academic working conditions.

View the full report (999 KB)