Bargaining began on June 12th, with the APUO and the Employer exchanging their non-monetary proposals. Since then, the APUO Negotiation Team has responded to all the Employer’s questions regarding our proposals for addressing increasing workloads, improving equity, and protecting our rights. To date, particular emphasis has been placed on establishing a maximum teaching load of 12 credits (i.e., 4 courses) for all faculty, ensuring adequate levels of administrative support, increasing the APUO complement, and formalizing an Employer commitment to filling vacant positions.
In stressing the necessity of increasing complement and committing to filling vacant positions, the APUO Negotiation Team presented the Employer with a comparative analysis of uOttawa’s student-to-professor1 ratio vis-à-vis the average across Ontario universities, U15 universities and, Canadian universities as a whole.
Did you know?
- 2021 is the last year for which validated data about student-to-professor ratios are available. Based on this data, here are the student-to-full-time faculty (FTF) averages:2
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- 32.4 to 1 – Ontario universities
- 29.4 to 1 – U15 universities
- 26.2 to 1 – Canadian universities
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- uOttawa’s ratio in 2021 was 35.4 to 1,3 the third worst ratio in Ontario, and notably higher than the U15 and Canadian averages.
It is time for uOttawa to at least catch up to the lower provincial and national averages. Remaining competitive and delivering high-quality education and research demands that our current complement of 1335 be increased to 1474 starting May 1, 2025, with an additional increase to 1535 starting May 1, 2026. The Employer must commit to filling these positions expeditiously.
The APUO’s Negotiation Team is currently preparing for discussions about our proposals for protecting high quality education and research and democratizing decision-making.
The team is dedicated to meeting with the Employer twice per week and coordinating with the Executive Committee to carry out preparatory work between bargaining sessions. We are hopeful that the Employer will be open to making historic gestures to maintain the academic and research missions at the University of Ottawa.
1. NOTE: The APUO complement number, and therefore the uOttawa ratio, includes librarians.
2. Provincial and national data on enrolment and full-time faculty provided by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT)
3. The yearly data, used to assess these numbers are from uOttawa. The enrollment numbers were published by the uOttawa: https://www.uottawa.ca/about-us/sites/g/files/bhrskd336/files/2024-01/fact_book_-_uotta_-_2014_-_2023_-_en.pdf
These numbers were then ratioed to the APUO complement as negotiated in the 2021-2024 Collective Agreement.