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Although variously defined, competency-based education (CBE) is generally structured around self-paced study where progression is determined not by credit hours but by the student demonstrating mastery of specific knowledge and skills. This paper explores how moving to competency-based education might affect the cost, quality, productivity and accountability of higher education programs, institutions and systems, particularly as compared with more traditional forms of academic delivery. The report finds that if competency-based education is to have a significant impact on productivity and efficiency in Ontario's postsecondary sector (an outcome the authors say is yet to be demonstrated) it would have to be introduced on a broad scale.

The report offers a 'cautious appraisal' of CBE as a model for academic delivery and suggests the same caution when considering the introduction of CBE into Ontario's postsecondary framework. The authors note that most CBE models implemented in the university sector are geared to vocational or professional studies such as business, education, nursing, information technology, medicine and engineering, and tend to be directed to older, working adults. For CBE to have a significant impact on productivity and costs in the postsecondary sector, such programs would have to be available to the traditional postsecondary age cohort and in the areas of liberal arts, humanities, social sciences, and physical and natural sciences.

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