Vocationalization in the research intensive university

This paper analyses the trends in program creation, modification and abolition/suspension, during a ten year period, of three research intensive universities in Canada: Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and McGill University. The trends observed, by analysing the Minutes of the Commission des études in the case of Francophone universities and the ‘Senate Subcommittee on Teaching and Programs' for McGill University, reveal a tendency toward vocationalization when changes are introduced in the academic programs supply. Data from 25 interviews of professors involved in university-industry collaborative research projects, conducted between April and June of 2007 in McGill University and University of British Columbia show also a tendency towards an utilitarian graduate training. Values of practicality, collaboration, interdisciplinarity and entrepreneurship, resulting from professors' bisectorial and multisectorial collaborations with industry, are passed on to students, particularly graduate students.
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