June 2024

CAUBO National Office staff and Board wish all our members a healthy, happy, and restorative summer!

Recent Analytical Releases

We are pleased to share several new resources with our members, some of which are the result of months of work by our team and volunteers.

Updated tool: FTE-based dashboards

CAUBO has updated the FTE-based dashboard series to include the most recently available data (2021-2022). The dashboards incorporate student and faculty FTE data and allow members to benchmark with their peers across the country on relevant areas such as research income, provincial funding, and teaching and administrative costs.

Users can choose to benchmark with institutions that are the most comparable to their own (as determined based on the number of FTEs and faculty within each of the major fields of study) and can also customize their analysis through several filters to view institutions of the same size, with a similar mission or research intensity, or within their province.

The dashboards have been developed through a continued partnership with the Université du Quebec. As a reminder, the Primer document provides a valuable outline of the limitations inherent to the data, which need to be understood by users.

Please note that a secondary password is required to access the dashboards. The password can be found in green text at the top of the FTE-based Dashboard webpage.

New: 2023 CAUBO Investment Survey Report

The Investment Survey Report is now available for members of participating institutions. The CAUBO Investment Survey is Canada’s most comprehensive survey of investments held by Canadian post-secondary institutions’ endowment and pension funds and is intended to provide universities with information to assist them in better managing their investment portfolios. The results will also be highlighted in the fall issue of CAUBO’s University Manager magazine.

New: Climate Change and Sustainability Survey Report

A report summarizing the results of the Climate Change and Sustainability survey is now available for institutional members.

In 2023, to better understand the sector’s climate mitigation commitments and progress in recent years, CAUBO partnered with Universities Canada to conduct a follow-up survey on university and college members’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions measurement and reporting practices, institutional reduction targets, and infrastructure needs. Though the survey found that institutions face significant challenges in their mitigation efforts due to resource and technical constraints, they have demonstrated their commitment to climate action and to reducing their climate footprints. A separate document has been jointly prepared with Universities Canada to highlight the key university findings.

As part of CAUBO’s Climate Change Mitigation Strategies project, initiated in 2020, several resources have been released which aim to support members’ efforts to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. CAUBO member surveys issued in 2020 and 2021 demonstrated that member institutions clearly understand the urgency of addressing climate change and are actively engaged in mitigating its impacts within their own operations.

New: Resource Allocation Survey Report and Listserv

CAUBO’s Resource Allocation Report, which summarizes the current trends in, and approaches to, members’ resource allocation models and captures insights and lessons learned regarding recent budget model redesigns, is available here for institutional members.

A CAUBO Budget Models and Resource Allocation Listserv was also launched to facilitate discussions on the topic among members. If you’re interested in signing up for the listserv, please email us with a request!

Canadian universities continue to experience mounting financial pressures as income sources required to fund an expanding expense base have become increasingly volatile and have not kept pace with enrolments, thus requiring institutions to do more with less. Administrators often look to resource allocation models to manage resources effectively and efficiently and the results of the 2023 survey provide a timely update to the CAUBO Resource Allocation survey that was issued in 2015.

Upcoming Analytical Resources

Framework to Inform Higher Education Student Housing Plans

Canada is in the throes of a housing crisis. A lack of both availability and affordability is being exacerbated by a concurrent cost-of-living crisis, brought on by rapid and significant post-pandemic inflation. Universities and their students are also experiencing the effects of this crisis. Housing departments on campuses across Canada are feeling a pressing need to respond with support and, if possible, increased supply. 

Within this context, it is thus timely to consider innovative new approaches to student housing. To this end, CAUBO has initiated a new project with the primary objective to provide members with a framework and key considerations that can be used as they develop their long-term institutional housing plans. CAUBO retained EY to develop the Framework, following a request for proposals process, and the project officially kicked off in June 2024. 

The report will build on a report commissioned by CAUBO in 2012 entitled Building the Student Experience – A report on university student housing in Canada, student housing development models, and building business cases for new investment to reflect the current challenges and opportunities that impact the sector’s ability to offer student housing. 

In the fall, CAUBO member institutions will be invited to participate in a survey, which will inform the report. All members are encouraged to participate in order for the report to include valuable information at the national and regional levels.

2022-2023 Financial Information of Universities and Colleges (FIUC)

The 2022-2023 FIUC data will be released later this summer. Key analytical resources will be updated using the latest data and released throughout 2024-2025.

The Financial Information of Universities and Colleges (FIUC) is jointly prepared annually by CAUBO and Statistics Canada. The FIUC is the only national source for comparable and consistent financial information for Canadian universities. The data collected through the FIUC is essential for many of CAUBO’s analytical resources, including the Financial Landscape Series and the Financial and FTE-based Dashboards.

New On-Demand Webinars

Institutional members can explore CAUBO’s extensive archive of on-demand webinars on our website. Recent additions to our webinar library include:

CAUBO 2024: Annual Conference Wrap-Up

The 2024 CAUBO Annual Conference took place in Montreal from June 3–5 with more than 700 delegates in attendance.

Top notch plenary speakers addressed timely issues including: A Future with Artificial Intelligence, The World Today connecting the dots regarding key events, a look at where things are headed, and where the potential dangers and opportunities may lie, as well as Emotional Intelligence. A wide range of concurrent sessions were also offered.

Members who attended the conference and those who purchased an on-demand conference pass can view all recorded conference sessions until September 19, 2024. To access the available on-demand sessions, please open the PheedLoop Go! app on your mobile device, or on the desktop app, using the same credentials that were used to log into the conference app on-site, or provided by PheedLoop. If an on-demand session does not appear on the PheedLoop app, this means that the recording is not available.

We’re thankful to everyone who joined us in Montreal and help make our conference such a success! We look forward to seeing many of you at CAUBO 2025 in Edmonton from June 9–11, 2025.

2024 Q&P and Recognition Award Winners Announced

At the 2024 annual conference in Montreal, we honoured some of our amazing volunteers with the Recognition Awards and celebrated the innovative ideas and best practices demonstrated by the 2024 Quality and Productivity Award winners. You can learn more about this year’s winners by watching the videos created to celebrate the Q&P and Recognition Award winners.

CAUBO 2025 Call for Proposals—Opening Soon!

Share your expertise and experience with your peers and colleagues at CAUBO 2025, taking place from June 9-11, 2025, in Edmonton, by submitting a content proposal to be considered for the conference program. The Call for Proposals opens on August 21 and closes on October 23, 2024, so keep an eye out for the launch message and visit www.caubo.ca for details and to access the submission form.

2023/2024 CAUBO Highlights Infographic

Once again, this year, CAUBO presents its annual Highlights in the form of an interactive infographic, making it easy to see and explore all the resources, information, and networking opportunities that we made available to members in 2023-2024. Check out the highlights of our past year here: https://www.caubo.ca/latest-news/caubo-2023-2024-highlights/

Access to CAUBO’s members-only content

The analytical and professional development resources provided by CAUBO have been developed with the expertise and interests of higher education administrators in mind. As such, resources on our website are accessible only to administrative staff at a member institution employed within the functional units that are typically under the direct or indirect responsibility of the Vice-President Finance and Administration (Finance, Human Resources, Procurement, Facilities Management, Risk Management, Internal Audit, Treasury) as well as Academic Administrators that hold these functional roles within a faculty or department.

Access to CAUBO’s member-only resources for other staff and faculty require permission from the Vice-President Finance & Administration (or equivalent) at the institution and will be assessed  based on request.

Institutional members can save money on services such as hotels, rental cars, moving services and train travel through CAUBO’s member discounts that offer selective pricing to higher education staff and faculty members across Canada. The discounts are available as a member benefit to all administrative staff and faculty currently employed by CAUBO member universities and colleges for personal and business use.

Member Discounts

CAUBO offers a number of member discounts for  all administrative staff and faculty currently employed by CAUBO member universities and colleges for personal and business use. Members can access preferential pricing and discounts across a range of travel-related services, including car rentals, hotels and VIA Rail.

Park’N Fly

CAUBO has signed an agreement with Park’N Fly to offer preferential rates for airport parking. With a network that spans coast to coast, Park’N Fly is focused on providing travellers with cost-effective parking options while enjoying a park happy experience with every stay. Located minutes from Canada’s major airports, Park’N Fly locations are convenient and easy to get to. With Park’N Fly, you can travel with fewer worries knowing that your vehicle is kept in a well-lit, gated and monitored facility.

More information regarding the member discounts is available on the CAUBO website.