A three-tiered model of opportunity

This op-ed was published by The Chronicle Herald on April 5, 2016. Read it on the Chronicle Herald's website

The Ralph M. Medjuck building at Dalhousie University

The Ralph M. Medjuck building at Dalhousie University used to be the heart of the Technical University of Nova Scotia, where President Hamdullahpur earned his Ph.D. TUNS was incorporated into Dalhousie University in 1997. Photo credit: Dalhousie University

When I completed my studies in engineering as a young man at the Technical University of Istanbul, I thought long and hard about where to go next. I needed a hometown that would value my contributions, give me opportunity and wrap me and my family in a beautiful community and environment.

I found that community in Halifax.

As a proud alumnus of the Technical University of Nova Scotia, now part of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia holds a special place in my heart.

To me, Halifax equals opportunity. It just takes a walk down by Pier 21 to remind us of this region’s historic role as a symbol of opportunity and optimism.

Today, Halifax and Nova Scotia are on a path to new opportunity.

Ray Ivany was probably right when he said that the Now or Never report on Nova Scotia’s future isn’t hyperbole.

As the pressure rises, one place Nova Scotians can turn to for support and partnership is my current hometown of Waterloo.

The One Nova Scotia campaign lists post-secondary education as one of the province’s key opportunities for reshaping its economic and social future. The plan’s special emphasis on innovation hubs, co-operative education and entrepreneurship resonates with what I know to be true in Waterloo.

In Waterloo, we’ve recognized that the needs of 21st century economies and communities require something slightly different from us as an institution.

Our university model is based on an innovative concept we call “additive education.”

Traditional universities take kids from high school, bolt even more knowledge onto them, and then — in the hope they’ve matured by graduation day — let industry sort them out as they start their careers.

The Waterloo model says that instead of just presuming that our students will take our raw knowledge and turn themselves into savvy, conscientious, communicative, team-oriented, entrepreneurial professionals, we need to prepare them that way. On purpose.

To do that, universities need to wrap the student experience in three additional, integrated, enriching layers: co-operative education, entrepreneurship and research-intensity.

Co-op helps students develop business skills, mature faster and challenge their classroom knowledge in real-world contexts. It also builds a deep institutional connection to industry, expanding the university’s role as an instrument for social and economic growth.

The second layer is entrepreneurship: through programming, incubation, and acceleration or startups.

Dalhousie’s LaunchDal program and its Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship are great examples of university-based entrepreneurship systems.

We have our own programs that work together with Canada’s best Regional Innovation Centre, Communitech, to drive our regional innovation ecosystem.

A growing number of incoming university students want to start their own businesses. And in Waterloo, with our support, they act on those intentions.

In fact, Waterloo’s student and alumni entrepreneurs have now attracted more than a quarter of a billion dollars in capital investment. That’s huge for our region, and I suspect could be big for Nova Scotia, too.

The third element of additive education is a research focus on strategic frontier disciplines. In our case, this includes quantum science, water science and aging.

This kind of system, which combines talent development with entrepreneurial opportunity and cutting edge research, attracts uniquely motivated students.

One of the great challenges facing so many North American regions is the net movement of citizens out of the region. An additional challenge is when the PSE participation rate of the remaining 18-24 demographic starts to decline, as my friends here tell me is the case in Nova Scotia.

Universities can’t independently turn those measures around. But they can play a huge role by attracting, challenging and developing career-ready graduates who aspire to be society or business builders.

This is part of the ecosystem approach championed by the One Nova Scotia campaign and it’s exactly the right one. The good news for Nova Scotia is that it already has the materials and the leadership it needs to be a powerful Canadian innovation ecosystem.

I believe universities in Nova Scotia, led by my alma mater Dalhousie, will be successful in making the region’s comeback stick if they walk — no, sprint — down this new path, alongside their eager partners in government, in industry and in Waterloo.