Former OISE Dean announced to prestigious Ontario Research Chair appointment

Sent on behalf of Professor Normand Labrie, Interim Dean of OISE.

Dear OISE Community,

I am delighted to announce that Professor Glen A. Jones has been appointed as Ontario Research Chair in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement, for a seven-year term beginning July 1, 2022, following a review and selection process in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education and approval by the Provost of the University of Toronto. Ontario Research Chairs (ORC) are prestigious Ontario university research professorships established by the Ontario government in order to drive provincial research and develop excellence, create world-class centres of research, and enhance Ontario’s competitiveness in Canada’s knowledge-based economy. These Chairs are made possible by an endowment from the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities administered by the Council of Ontario Universities. Professor Jones was the inaugural chairholder of the ORC in Postsecondary Education Policy and Measurement from 2007 to 2017, stepping down from a second term in the role shortly after becoming Dean of OISE.

Professor Jones is an internationally renowned scholar whose research and teaching focuses on higher education systems, governance, policy, politics, and academic work. He is the author of more than one hundred papers on higher education. His many books include University Governance in Canada: Navigating Complexity (with Julia Eastman, Claude Trottier, and Olivier Bégin-Caouette, McGill-Queens, 2022), Universities and the Knowledge Society: The Nexus of National Systems of Innovation and Higher Education (with Timo Aarrevaara, Martin Finkelstein, and Jisun Jung (Springer, 2021), International Education as Public Policy in Canada (with Merli Tamtik and Roopa Desai Trilokekar, McGill-Queens, 2020), Professorial Pathways: Academic Careers in a Global Perspective (with Martin Finkelstein, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019),  Doctoral Education for the Knowledge Society (with J.C. Shin and Barbara Kehm, Springer, 2018), Governance of Higher Education: Global Perspectives, Theories and Practices (with Ian Austin, Routledge, 2016; Chinese edition, 2020), Universities and Regional Development: A Critical Assessment of Tensions and Contradictions (with Romulo Pinheiro and Paul Benneworth, Routledge, 2012), Canada’s Universities Go Global (with Roopa Desai Trilokekar and Adrian Shubert, Lorimer, 2009), Creating Knowledge, Strengthening Nations: The Changing Role of Higher Education (with Patricia McCarney and Michael Skolnik, University of Toronto Press, 2005), Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance (with Alberto Amaral and Berit Karseth, Kluwer Publishing, 2002), and Higher Education in Canada: Different Systems, Different Perspectives (Garland Publishing, 1997; Chinese edition, 2007).

Professor Jones’ research has been funded by a wide range of agencies and organizations, including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Training, the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, and the Ford Foundation. His contract research activities have included work for a number of governments, as well as the Law Society of Upper Canada, UNESCO, the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. He is currently conducting an international comparative analysis of data from the Canadian component of the Academic Profession in the Knowledge Society (APIKS) project (supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).

Widely recognized as a distinguished academic administrator, Professor Jones has served as OISE’s Dean (2016-21), Interim Dean (2015-16), Associate Dean, Academic (2004-11), Associate Dean, Graduate Studies (2003-04), and Chair of the Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education (1998-2001). Professor Jones has also served as a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Manitoba and the Governing Council of the University of Toronto. He is a past president of the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education and a former editor of the Canadian Journal of Higher Education.

Professor Jones’ outstanding scholarship and service have been recognized locally, nationally, and internationally by numerous prestigious awards and honours, including: the Vivek Goel Citizenship Award (2022) for distinction in leadership at the University of Toronto; the Midaynta Community Services Leadership Award (2021) for contributions to promoting inclusion, equity and access to education for underrepresented populations; the Canadian Bureau for International Education Catalyst Award (2020) for cutting-edge contributions to research on international education; the Society for the Advancement of Science in Africa, Lifetime Membership Award (2020); the Council of International Higher Education (CIHE) Award (2019) for significant research in international higher education; and the Sheffield Award (2017), Distinguished Member Award (2011), and Distinguished Research Award (2001) from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. Professor Jones has held a Distinguished Visiting Professor appointment at Beijing Normal University (2014-1019), a Senior Scholar visiting professorship at Fudan University (Shanghai) in 2007-2008, was an Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar at the University of Oslo in 2008, and was a Visiting Professor at the University of the West Indies (Open Campus Barbados) in 2015. He received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Manitoba in 2018.

Professor Jones’ extensive record of accomplishments and continuing scholarship in higher education systems and policy make him an ideal chairholder, whose term as ORC will promote and enrich the high quality research, teaching and supervision in the Higher Education graduate program and beyond. Please join me in congratulating Glen on this prestigious appointment!

Sincerely,

Normand Labrie, Ph.D., FRSC 

Professor and Interim Dean