The University of Calgary faces a critical shortage of computer science professors at the same time it’s trying to boost student enrolment to meet industry demands.
“It’s becoming a very serious problem,” said Dr. Ken Loose, head of the U of C’s computer science faculty.
He said Premier Ralph Klein’s government has agreed to double the number of computer science professors, if the U of C succeeds in doubling the number of graduates per year. If the university fails to hire enough professors, said Loose, the province reduces its funding on a per-student basis.
“We’re meeting the numbers of students,” said Loose. “We’re a long ways off from meeting the number of staff.”
But Randy Kilburn, a spokesman for Alberta Learning, said it’s up to the University of Calgary to determine how many professors it needs to hire. “The University of Calgary is the one that makes the decision on hiring faculty,” said Kilburn.
Alberta Learning’s Access Fund provides the U of C (and other post-secondary institutions) with annual computing science instruction grants of $7,000 per first-year and second-year student and $8,100 for each third-year and fourth-year and graduate student. The province also gives the university $2,300 per student for facility operations, plus one-time capital construction funding pending approval of the institution’s business plan.
Kilburn said the U of C has received an extra $5.91 million to boost computer science enrolment to 600 in 2002 from 460 in 1997-98.
The province also gave the U of C $17 million for a computer science building that is under construction.
“The Access Fund is based on the institution meeting goals,” said Kilburn, when asked if the U of C was in jeopardy of losing funding. “It has a direct relation between the number of (student) spaces that are filled and funding.”
Loose said the U of C has doubled the number of computer science grads to 300 from 150 per year.
According to Loose, the U of C has 27 computer science professors.
Jim Parker, a computer science professor who is involved in recruiting, said the U of C has hired two new professors in the past two years, but a couple of others have retired. Eight or nine other candidates chose to work elsewhere.
However, said Loose, the U of C now faces the constant pressure of trying to keep computer science professors who are already on staff, but could easily find employment at another university.
“I think I’ve weathered it for this year,” said Loose. “Next January or February, I’ll know whether I’ve weathered it again.”
The problem, said Loose, is that there aren’t enough people with computer science doctorates to go around — and the U of C wants to hire world-class professors, not just anybody.
Loose said 33 Canadian universities offer computer science instruction, compared to thousands in the U.S., but only 204 universities in North America — 23 in Canada and the rest in the U.S. — offer doctorate programs. Only 19 per cent of 1,000 new PhD holders annually become professors, while the rest enter the private sector. “That’s not even one for every (university),” said Loose.
He said other Canadian universities, which are all trying to expand their computer science programs, also face professor shortages.
But Brian Unger, president of Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE), said it’s becoming easier to lure top information and communications technology researchers to Alberta.
“(The success rate) is up and down, but I think the long-term strategy of the provincial government is solid,” said Unger, a U of C computer science professor who was seconded to iCORE.
The provincial government established iCORE to recruit and retain outstanding information and communications technology scholars. Unger said iCORE receives $10 million per year from the province to help fund research positions and programs at Alberta’s universities.
“The philosophy is, essentially, if we can bring in some really high-profile research leaders, it’ll become easier to recruit junior faculty members, post-doctoral fellows and grad students,” said Unger. “People want to go where there’s exciting (research) activity happening.”
He said Alberta has an advantage over other provinces because they do not have organizations like iCORE.
Last month, iCORE provided $8 million to two new U of C professors and one long-time faculty member for research over the next five years.
Graham Julien, a former University of Windsor professor described as a world-class digital signal processing researcher, was granted $3.7 million. Carey Williamson, a former University of Saskatchewan professor who is an expert in wireless networks, will receive $1.75 million.
Gerard Lachapelle, the U of C’s head of geomatics engineering, who specializes in wireless location systems, will receive $2.5 million.
“We wish they were coming from the U.S.,” admitted Unger.
But Calgary and Edmonton “aren’t on the map” when compared to major U.S. universities such as Berkeley, Stanford, and the Massachussetts Institute of Technology and Canadian counterparts British Columbia and Waterloo.
“It’s a real slog (trying to attract top scholars),” said Unger.
Parker said low salaries are hurting the U of C’s hiring hopes.
According to a provincial government report completed last year by a committee of MLAs and post-secondary institution administrators, U of C professors’ salaries ranked 14th out of 16 Canadian universities in 1998-99. University of Alberta professors’ salaries ranked eighth.
If the U of C provides more money for professors’ salaries in the short-term to make up for the shortfall, the move will pay off in the long run, said Parker. A starting U of C professor in any discipline earns $50,000 for 12 months. But Loose said he can’t hire anyone for less than $75,000.
“If we compete with U.S. universities, we don’t have a chance because, of course, we’re competing with U.S. dollars versus Canadian dollars,” said Loose. But Ron Bond, the U of C’s vice-president academic, said the U of C must work within its existing salary structures to hire professors.
A deal between the U of C’s administration and its faculty association provides for professors who are in high demand to receive pay hikes, which are known as market supplements. Bond said the supplements are a short-term way to jack up competitiveness.
Bond said the provincial government recognizes the U of C’s salary pressures and is attempting to help. However, the U of C also faces strong competition for post-graduate level information technology experts from the private sector.
“We don’t have any arrangements to counter the pressure from the corporate world, pressure that comes on people in the ICT business in particular,” said Bond. Parker said Calgary’s lifestyle appeals to some scholars, but salaries in the United States and overseas eventually become so great that professors can’t refuse the offers.
Todd Simpson, who obtained a doctorate in software engineering from the U of C in 1991 and now sits on the university’s senate, said “money talks” and the U of C must do a better job of securing grants and other funding in order to compete.
But, he added, the U of C has to do a better job of selling itself to scholars within and outside Calgary.
“The University of Calgary currently produces very high quality graduates; however, they have problems conveying this message locally, let alone globally,” said Simpson.
He said the U of C must also leverage Calgary’s large — “and growing” — IT community through co-op programs, summer internships and other projects with companies such as Nortel Networks. (The U of C and iCORE are attempting to develop more industry partnerships.)
Simpson, a Cochrane native, said he chose to complete his doctorate at the U of C because he was well funded and had the opportunity to work with good researchers here and in England, Scotland, Italy and Australia.
“I had opportunities to be a professor at several universities, but made the decision to go into industry,” said Simpson, who founded E-Zone Media Networks, a Calgary company that merged with U.S. and Quebec-based companies and is now known as Netpulse E-Zone.
“I was more interested in applied, as opposed to pure, research.”
The shortage of computer science professors raises questions about the quality of information technology personnel that will be developed in coming years. But Jonathan Levine, founder and president of Canada Connect Corporation, which provides network services, said a degree won’t guarantee that a person is qualified to do the job.
“Knowledge is knowledge, experience is experience and education is education, whether acquired inside or outside of a formal institution such as a university,” said Levine, a U of C engineering school dropout.
“There is nothing inherently superior about knowledge and information gained in a classroom over that which isn’t.”
Levine said the absence of a degree won’t prevent employers from hiring someone. “People who really know what they’re doing disregard alphabet soup and direct their attentions to the potential employee’s knowledge and ability,” said Levine.
A November 2000 study, conducted by the Impact Group on behalf of eMPOWR Canada — a private/ public sector initiative designed to increase the number of highly qualified people in phototonics, microelectronics, wireless and radio engineering — estimated there will be 46,000 new positions in those areas by 2005, but universities will train fewer than 10,000 highly qualified people.
