Daniel W. Lang

PhD (University of Toronto)
Professor

Email: dan.lang@utoronto.ca
Tel: 416-978-1246

 

Professional Background:
 

Degrees

• University of Toronto: Doctor of Philosophy, 1976
• Wesleyan University: Master of Arts, 1969
• New York University School of Law: Root-Tilden Scholar, 1966-67
• Wesleyan University: General Motors Scholar, Bachelor of Arts, 1966
   

Honours:
 

• General Motors Scholar, 1962-66
• Dean’s List, Wesleyan University, 1962-66
• National Forensic League New England Champion, 1962
• Phillips-Exeter Teaching Fellowship, 1965
• Root-Tilden Scholar, 1966-67
• Association of Commonwealth Universities/Commonwealth Foundation Traveling Fellowship, 1978
• International Association of Universities Palgrave Prize, 2004
• Beijing Forum, 2004
• OUA Coach of the Year 2004

Positions:
 

• Senior Policy Advisor to the President
• Coordinator, Program in Higher Education, Department of Theory and Policy Studies,
   

OISE/UT

• Professor, Department of Theory and Policy Studies, OISE/UT
• Professor, Division of Management and Economics, UT-Scarborough
• Professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Science
• Professor, Victoria College
• Head Coach, Varsity Blues Baseball

My professional interests are research and scholarship aimed at improving institutional performance, mainly in the areas of management, planning, budgeting, organization, and accountability. I am also interested in arrangements by which schools, colleges, and universities are financed, in inter-institutional cooperation.
 

I teach two first-year seminars because I think that all university professors should teach undergraduate students. I am particularly interested in the first year experience and student retention.

A Senior Policy Advisor to the President I work mainly in the interface between the university and government.

General Interests:
I am very interested in the non-formal formation of knowledge, and in the role of the state in education.

Teaching:

GRADUATE COURSES

TPS1803, Recurrent Issues in Higher Education
TPS1841, Public Finance and Higher Education
TPS1017, Educational Finance and Economics
TPS1809, Administration of Colleges and Universities
TPS1807, Strategic and Long-Range Planning for Post- secondary Systems
TPS1811, Institutional Research and Planning

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

INX199Y, University and Society, Faculty of Arts and Science
VIC199Y, School and Society, Faculty of Arts and Science, Victoria College
MGTC55, Planning and Budgeting in Public Institutions, UT-Scarborough
MGTC56, Economics of Education, UT-Scarborough

 

Research Interests:
 

Dr. Lang's current research interests include: accountability and performance measurement, student retention, finance, management, budgeting, planning, system organization and policy, inter-institutional planning and cooperation, and history.

Current Projects:

• Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, A comparison of student financial aid among the G-8 nations, $30,000, 2003-2006
• Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation, Student Achievement and Retention Project, with P.Oreopoulos, $4.43 million, 2005-2007
• Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities, First Generation Students research design, $60,000, 2006.
   

Chapters in books:

• “Approaches to the Funding of Schools and Their Effects on Capacity,” in Nina Bascia, Alister Cumming, Amanda Datnow, Kenneth Leithwood, and David Livingstone, eds., International Handbook on Educational Policy, Manchester, U.K.: Springer, 2005
• "Formulaic Approaches to the Funding of Colleges and Universities," in Nina Bascia, Alister Cumming, Amanda Datnow, Kenneth Leithwood, and David Livingstone, eds., International Handbook on Educational Policy, Manchester, U.K.: Springer, 2005.
• “The Political Economy of Performance Funding,” in Frank Iacobucci and Carolyn Tuohy, Taking Public Universities Seriously, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
   

Refereed journal articles:

• “How Working Boards Work,” Higher Education Perspectives, Vol. 1, No.1 2004 .
• “World Class or the Curse of Comparison?” Peking University Education Review, Vol. 1. No. 9, 2005, (in Chinese).
• “World Class or the Curse of Comparison?” Canadian Journal of Higher Education Vol. XXXV. No. 3, 2005 (in English).
• “Working Boards in Tertiary Education,” Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education Professional File, Number 24, Spring, 2005.
   

Review essays:

The University of Toronto: A History by M.L. Friedland in History of Education, in press.
To find out more about Dan Lang, visit his website at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/tps/dlang/