Introduction

Preamble

This Strategic Mandate Agreement between the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and Nipissing University is a key component of the Ontario government’s accountability framework for the postsecondary education system. 

The Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA): 

  • outlines provincial government objectives and priority areas for the postsecondary education system
  • describes the elements of Ontario’s performance-based funding mechanism, including the university’s annual performance-based funding notional allocation for the five-year 2020 to 2025 Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA3) period
  • establishes the corridor midpoint that will form the basis of enrolment-related funding over the five-year SMA3 period
  • supports transparency and accountability objectives
  • establishes allowable performance targets for 10 metrics upon which institutional performance will be assessed

This SMA is for the fiscal period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2025.

Ontario’s objectives

SMAs are bilateral agreements between the ministry and the province’s publicly-assisted colleges and universities and are a key component of the Ontario government’s accountability framework for the postsecondary education system. This cycle of agreements is focused on promoting accountability through transparency and a focus on performance outcomes. The following objectives underline SMA3:  

  • increasing trust and accountability through transparency and improved performance outcomes in Ontario’s postsecondary education system
  • reducing red tape by striking an appropriate balance between accountability and reporting through streamlined processes and a reduced number of metrics
  • incentivizing colleges and universities to redirect resources and invest in initiatives that result in positive economic outcomes
  • encouraging alignment of postsecondary education with labour market outcomes
  • incentivizing differentiation and specialization to support increased efficiencies

Institutional profile

The ministry recognizes the importance of supporting a differentiated system, and recognizing institutional specializations, as a means of enhancing efficiencies in the postsecondary education sector.

The institutional profile is intended to describe how the university’s institutional mission and strategic goals support the priority areas of the Ontario government, as identified in this agreement. Institutions may also wish to include narrative related to the post-COVID-19 context for the institution.

Performance-based funding

Notional annual allocation

For the SMA3 cycle, Nipissing University’s annual allocation of performance-based funding has been calculated by the ministry in accordance with the university funding model and Ontario’s Performance-based Funding Technical Manual. Nipissing University’s notional allocations will not be impacted by previous year performance, and will follow a graduated activation plan as follows:

Year2020–212021–222022–232023–242024–25
Differentiation Envelope$8,904,212 $11,594,569 $14,310,394 $17,026,137 $18,384,009
Performance-based Grant$8,563,380 $11,195,024 $14,310,394 $17,026,137 $18,384,009

Notes:

  1. Activation of performance-based funding will not be in place for 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022-23.  The ministry will assess the sector’s readiness for activation starting in Year 4 (2023-24). The planned system-wide proportion tied to funding [e.g., performance-based funding grant] is anticipated at 10% in Year 4 (2023-24), increasing to 25% in Year 5 (2024-25), while overall Differentiation Envelope amounts may be held at a higher proportion pending operationalization decisions.
  2. The Performance-based Grant has been capped at the system-average annual proportion and residual funding remains part of the Differentiation Envelope. Notional allocation represents the Performance-based portion of the Differentiation Envelope capped to the system-wide average.
  3. The notional allocations presented above are based on 2020-21 operating grant totals.

Institutional weighting strategy

The performance-based funding mechanism in this SMA enables institutions to assign metric weightings to reflect institutional strengths and differentiated roles in the postsecondary education system. Assigned metric weightings will impact performance-based funding on a metric-by-metric basis per the table below. Metric details are described in the following section.

Institutional assigned metric weightings and notional performance-based funding allocations
Metric2020–21 weighting
max. 35%
min. 10%
2020–21 notional funding allocation2021–22 weighting
max. 30%
min. 5%
2021–22 notional funding allocation2022–23 weighting
max. 25%
min. 5%
2022–23 notional funding allocation2023–24 weighting
max. 25%
min. 5%
2023–24 notional funding allocation2024–25 weighting
max. 25%
min. 5%
2024–25 notional funding allocation
1. Graduate employment rate in a related field10%$856,3385%$559,7515%$715,5205%$851,3075%$919,200
2. Institutional strength and focus35%$2,997,18330%$3,358,50710%$1,431,03910%$1,702,61410%$1,838,401
3. Graduation rate10%$856,3385%$559,7515%$715,5205%$851,3075%$919,200
4. Community and local impact of student enrolment25%$2,140,84530%$3,358,50720%$2,862,07920%$3,405,22720%$3,676,802
5. Economic impact (institution-specific)10%$856,33810%$1,119,50220%$2,862,07920%$3,405,22720%$3,676,802
6. Research funding and capacity: federal tri-agency funding secured10%$856,3385%$559,7515%$715,5205%$851,3075%$919,200
7. Experiential learningN/AN/A5%$559,75120%$2,862,07920%$3,405,22720%$3,676,802
8. Research revenue attracted from private sector sourcesN/AN/A5%$559,7515%$715,5205%$851,3075%$919,200
9. Graduate employment earningsN/AN/A5%$559,7515%$715,5205%$851,3075%$919,200
10. Skills and competenciesN/AN/AN/AN/A5%$715,5205%$851,3075%$919,200

Priority areas and performance metrics

Summary

To support improved performance in key areas aligned with the Ontario government’s priorities and objectives, the allowable performance targets will be set against metrics that measure institutions’ effectiveness in addressing the evolving needs of the labour market, enhancing the skills and competencies of our students, and supporting a postsecondary education system that strengthens Ontario’s economic competitiveness.

The combination of established targets and assigned metric weightings will be used for institutional assessment of performance through the SMA3 Annual Evaluation process.

Skills and job outcomes

This priority area seeks to measure and evaluate the university’s role in supporting student and graduate outcomes and alignment with Ontario’s economy. Metrics measure institutional commitment to areas of strength and specialization; students’ preparation with the skills essential for employment; experiential learning opportunities; graduation; and positive labour-market outcomes for graduates, through the following performance indicators:

  • graduate employment rate in a related field
  • institutional strength and focus
  • graduation rate
  • graduate employment earnings
  • experiential learning
  • skills and competencies

Economic and community impact

This priority area seeks to measure and evaluate the university’s role in supporting Ontario’s economy. Metrics measure the attraction of federal research funding; funding from private sector sources; the positive economic impact on local economies brought by students at an institution, and the differentiated ways institutions demonstrate economic impact, through the following performance indicators:

  • community and local impact of student enrolment
  • economic impact (institution-specific)
  • research funding and capacity: federal tri-agency funding secured
  • research revenue attracted from private sector sources

Productivity, accountability and transparency

To support the Ontario Government’s objective of enhanced transparency and accountability, institutions will provide reporting data in the following areas which will not be tied to performance funding:

  • faculty activity
  • faculty compensation

Skills and job outcomes

Performance metrics: narrative

Metrics will be initiated over three years as new data is collected and validated. For 2020–21, allowable performance targets are calculated using historical data as per the Performance-based Funding Technical Manual.

For the remainder of the SMA3 cycle, allowable performance targets will be calculated annually as per the Performance-based Funding Technical Manual using the most recent historical data available for Nipissing University and included as part of the SMA3 Annual Evaluation process for performance-based funding. See appendix for details regarding historical data and annual allowable performance targets. 

For the skills and competencies metric being initiated for performance-based funding in 2022–23, the Ministry of Colleges and Universities will apply a ‘participation weighting’ of five % of annual performance-based funding notional allocations for all institutions. Institutional targets will not be set for this metric in SMA3. Participation will be validated and included as part of the SMA3 Annual Evaluation process for performance-based funding.

Graduate employment rate in a related field
Definition: proportion of graduates of undergraduate (bachelor or first professional degree) programs employed full-time who consider their jobs either “closely” or “somewhat” related to the skills they developed in their university program, two years after graduation
Source: Ministry of Colleges and Universities - Ontario University Graduate Survey

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Institutional strength and focus
Name: Proportion of students enrolled in Education programs (i.e., FORPOS 139, 142, 190, 273 and 439)
Definition: proportion of enrolment (Fall, full-time equivalents (FFTEs), domestic and international, all terms for undergraduate students and Summer and Fall terms for graduate students) in an institution’s program area(s) of strength
Source: Provided by institutions, validated by University Statistical Enrolment Report (USER)/Ministry of Colleges and Universities

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Graduation rate
Definition: proportion of all new, full-time, year one university students of undergraduate (bachelor or first professional degree) programs who commenced their study in a given fall term and graduated from the same institution within seven years
Source: University Graduation Rate Data Collections

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Graduate employment earnings
Definition: median employment earnings of university graduates, two years after graduation
Source: Educational and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform, Statistics Canada

Metric initiated: 2021–22

Experiential learning
Definition: Number and proportion of graduates in programs, who participated in at least one course with required Experiential Learning (EL) component(s)
Source: Institutions

Metric initiated: 2021–22

Skills and competencies
Definition: Education and Skills Online: Random sample of students (domestic and international)
Source: Education and Skills Online Assessment, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Metric initiated: 2022–23

Through the fall 2021 engagement with the sector, a decision was made to forgo using the Education and Skills Online (ESO) tool for the Skills and Competencies metric in order to provide more flexibility to institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry will allow institutions to select an institution-specific measure of skills and competencies that aligns with ministry-established criteria or choose from the ministry’s pre-approved list. The Skills and Competencies metric will be updated as part of the SMA3 Year 3 Annual Evaluation process

Economic and community impact

Performance metrics: narrative

Metrics will be initiated over three years as new data is collected and validated.  For 2020–21, allowable performance targets are calculated using historical data as per the Performance-based Funding Technical Manual.

For the remainder of the SMA3 cycle, allowable performance targets will be calculated annually as per the Performance-based Funding Technical Manual using the most recent historical data available for Nipissing University and included as part of the SMA3 Annual Evaluation process for performance-based funding. See appendix for details regarding historical data and annual allowable performance targets.

Community and local impact of student enrolment
Definition: Institutional enrolment share in the population of the city (cities) or town (towns) in which the institution is located
Source: University Statistical Enrolment Report (USER), Ministry of Colleges and Universities, Census Data, Statistics Canada

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Economic impact (institution-specific)
Name: Economic impact of students enrolled at Nipissing from outside North Bay
Definition: Economic Impact of students enrolled at Nipissing from outside North Bay based on the following Ontario average household expenditures: food, rent and public transportation
Source: PFIS-USER, OUAC, Statscan table 11-10-0222-01 (Household spending, Canada, regions and provinces)

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Research funding and capacity: federal tri-agency funding secured
Definition: Amount and proportion of funding received by institution from federal research granting agencies (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in total tri-agency funding received by Ontario universities
Source: Tri-Agency Institutional Programs Secretariat

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Research revenue attracted from private sector sources
Definition: Research revenue attracted from private sector sources
Source: Council of Ontario Finance Officers (COFO)

Metric initiated: 2021–22

Productivity, accountability and transparency

Reporting metrics – attestation

This priority area of the Ontario government supports the government’s goal of increasing trust and accountability through transparency and improved performance outcomes in Ontario’s postsecondary education system.

These metrics are not tied to funding, and are used to measure and report on the following indicators:

  • faculty activity
  • faculty compensation

Faculty activity

Information regarding Nipissing University faculty activity will be publicly available in Year 3 (2022–23).

Faculty compensation

Information regarding Nipissing University faculty compensation will be publicly available in Year 3 (2022–23).

Enrolment profile

In addition to the performance-based funding outlined in sections above, institutions will receive enrolment-related funding through a funded corridor ‘midpoint’ to provide funding predictability to institutions. These enrolment corridor midpoints for universities were established as part of the 2017–20 Strategic Mandate Agreements (SMA2), and account for adjustments related to graduate expansion and teacher education achieved targets.

Corridor midpoint

For funding purposes 8,110.57 Weighted Grant Units (WGUs) will be the corridor midpoint value for the five-year period from 2020–25 for Nipissing University. Enrolment-related funding will be will distributed consistent with this level of enrolment and subject to the funding framework set out in the Ontario University Funding Formula Reform Technical Manual, May 2017, Version 1.0. Funding eligible enrolments are defined by the Ontario Operating Funds Distribution Manual.

Note: the midpoints presented in this table were established using final 2019–20 enrolment data.

2019–20 midpoint (A)2019–20 funded graduate growth (master’s) (B)2019–20 funded graduate growth (doctoral) (C)2019–20 teacher education growth (D)2020–25 SMA3 midpoint (A+B+C+D)
7,874.74--235.838,110.57

Projected funding-eligible enrolment

Note: tables report on Fiscal Full-Time Equivalents (FFTE). These include all terms for undergraduate students and Fall and Summer terms for graduate students.

Below is Nipissing University’s projection of funding-eligible enrolments as of February 18, 2020.

Credential2020–212021–222022–232023–242024–25
Undergraduate FFTE4,0954,0554,1054,1054,105
Master’s FFTE9090858585
Doctoral FFTE2729303030
Total FFTE4,2124,1744,2204,2204,220

Projected international enrolment

Below is Nipissing University’s projection of funding-ineligible international student enrolments as of February 18, 2020.

Credential2020–212021–222022–232023–242024–25
Undergraduate FFTE

 

100200400400400
Master’s FFTE4681012
Doctoral FFTE-----
Total FFTE104206408410412

Appendix: historical data, targets and results

The following table will be refreshed annually by the ministry to display results from SMA3 Annual Evaluation process and update Allowable Performance Targets (APT) for the current year. The SMA3 Annual Evaluation will occur every year in the Fall-Winter and the updated appendix will be made publicly available the following Spring. Please note that fields with a hyphen indicate where data will be populated in later years of SMA3.

It should be noted that historical data reflects pre-COVID-19 context. Actual values achieved during the SMA3 period may include COVID-19 pandemic impacts.

Note: The value in the 2020–21 Actual performance column of “Experiential learning “(row 7) was not tied to performance as this metric was not activated. It is included in the calculation of the 2022–23 Allowable Performance Targets.

Nipissing University - SMA3 performance
Note: “2020–21 Actual” refers to the year in which the evaluation takes and not necessarily the data from that year.
Metric2016–17
Historical
data
2017–18
Historical
data
2018–19
Historical
data
2020–21
Allowable
performance
target
2020–21
Actual
performance
2021‑22
Allowable
performance
target
2021–22
Actual
performance
2022–23
Allowable
performance
target
2022–23
Actual
performance
2023–24
Allowable
performance
target
2023–24
Actual
performance
2024–25
Allowable
performance
target
2024-25
Actual
performance
1. Graduate employment rate in a related field89.91%89.98%94.39%89.22%93.21%90.82%95.92%93.70%-----
2. Institutional strength and focus18.58%17.23%16.88%19.83%20.78%21.47%22.94%20.56%-----
3. Graduation rate86.25%83.80%83.29%82.99%82.52%82.37%84.04%82.14%-----
4. Community and local impact of student enrolment13.30%13.85%14.44%13.80%14.91%14.31%15.28%14.81%-----
5. Economic impact (institution-specific)$35,985,642$36,400,293$36,341,889$35,938,002$38,794,857$35,950,837$45,970,920$37,416,497-----
6. Research funding and capacity: federal
tri-agency funding secured
0.12%0.12%0.13%0.12%0.13%0.12%0.14%0.13%-----
7. Experiential learning65.66%
(2017-18)
66.99%
(2018-19)
66.73%
(2019-20)
N/A62.42%65.93%62.42%63.40%-----
8. Research revenue attracted from private sector sources$55,816$100,490$121,899N/AN/A$56,307$144,220$115,165-----
9. Graduate employment earnings$40,133$43,005$49,318N/AN/A$41,890$51,095$45,050-----
10. Skills and competenciesN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A -----

Nipissing University tri-agency research funding amounts:
2016–17: $766,673
2017–18: $792,481
2018–19: $890,406
2019–20: $956,986
2020–21: $992,381