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Introduction

Preamble

This Strategic Mandate Agreement between the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and University of Toronto is a key component of the �������� 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 ��������’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.

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

Notes:

1. Due to COVID-19 performance-based funding was delayed for 2020–21, 2021–22, and 2022–23.
2. The planned system-wide proportion tied to funding (that is, Performance-based Grant) will be at 10% of system-wide total operating funding in Year 4 (2023–24) and 25% in Year 5 (2024–25).
3. Prior to Year 4 (2023–24), the Performance-based Grant was capped at the system-average annual proportion determined for the Differentiation Envelope and residual funding above that cap remained part of the Differentiation Envelope.
4. The Differentiation Envelope has continued to grow steadily towards the established initial level of 60% by Year 5 (2024–25).
5. In Year 4 (2023–24), the 55% of operating funding assigned to the Differentiation Envelope is inclusive of the activated Performance-based Grant. 
6. Notional allocation represents the Performance-based Grant portion.
7. The notional allocations presented above are based on 2021–22 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.

Notes:

1. Colleges and universities have the opportunity to re-weight their metrics every year as part of the Annual Evaluation process throughout the SMA3 period. For metrics activated later than Year 1, a year in brackets indicates the first year of data available.
2. The planned system-wide proportion tied to funding (that is, Performance-based Grant) will be at 10% of system-wide total operating funding in Year 4 (2023–24) and 25% in Year 5 (2024–25).

Priority areas and performance metrics

Summary

To support improved performance in key areas aligned with the �������� 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 ��������’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 ��������’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 ��������’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

Through further engagement with the sector on metric refinement, a decision was made to remove this reporting and data collection requirement for institutions for the duration of the SMA3 period, to reduce reporting burden and duplication with other government initiatives.

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 University of Toronto 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 - �������� University Graduate Survey

Metric initiated: 2020–21

Institutional strength and focus 
Name: Full-Time Enrolment in Broad Arts & Science Disciplines, including Emerging Data Science Fields
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
Name: Higher Order Learning Engagement of Bachelor Degree Seeking Students
Definition: The Higher Order Learning Engagement Indicator captures how much students' coursework emphasizes challenging cognitive tasks such as application, analysis, judgment, and synthesis.
Source: National Survey of Student Engagement

Metric initiated: 2022–23

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 University of Toronto 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: University of Toronto Supported Start-Ups
Definition: The number of start-ups being actively supported by incubators and campus-led accelerators across the University’s three campuses
Source: Annual survey of the University's incubators and Campus Led Accelerators (CLA)

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 �������� 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 �������� Finance Officers (COFO)

Metric initiated: 2021–22

Productivity, accountability and transparency

Through further engagement with the sector on metric refinement, a decision was made to remove this reporting and data collection requirement for institutions for the duration of the SMA3 period, to reduce reporting burden and duplication with other government initiatives.

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 204,110.31 Weighted Grant Units (WGUs) will be the corridor midpoint value for the five-year period from 2020–25 for University of Toronto.  Enrolment-related funding will be will distributed consistent with this level of enrolment and subject to the funding framework set out in the �������� University Funding Formula Reform Technical Manual, May 2017, Version 1.0. Funding eligible enrolments are defined by the �������� Operating Funds Distribution Manual.

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

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 University of Toronto’s projection of funding-eligible enrolments as of March 31, 2020.

Projected international enrolment

Below is University of Toronto’s projection of funding-ineligible international student enrolments as of March 31, 2020.

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.

Notes:

1. For metrics activated later than Year 1, the year in brackets indicates the first year of data available.
2. Skills and Competencies is a participation metric activated based on data collection and reporting rather than target setting. Data are required and will be posted in SMA3 Year 4 (2023-24) and Year 5 (2024-25).