Editorial THE SYMONS-PAGE REPORT

final volume of a series commissioned by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. * The first two volumes dealt with various aspects of the role of the universities in a Canadian context. The third is more broad ranging. It deals with a variety of topics of concern to Canadian universities and to the government which finance them: — the need for adequate statistical information; — the question of faculty citizenship; — enrolments, human resources and the development of Canadian studies; — meeting the needs for highly qualified graduates; — the age structure of the professoriate and the lack of jobs for young scholars; — status of women questions; — foreign students, Canadian self-knowledge and knowledge of Canada abroad. The Report like its predecessor is likely to be influential. It has had a wide circu-lation, particularly to politicians and civil servants. It is unlikely that any of the topics addressed will be dealt with in the future without reference to the Report. On the whole to date, the Report has not had a very favourable press, parti-cularly from those who commissioned it — the university presidents. In my view, this reaction is short-sighted. It should be recognized that the Symons-Page Report is one of the few public documents of this era which unreservedly supports the importance of university education in our country. It is not only committed to the central importance of the university enterprise, but it also makes the case for properly funding it. * I was asked by the Policy and Political Action Committee of the CAUT to prepare a work