In 1964 he became the first dean of the University of Toronto-affiliated Scarborough College, which led an experiment in teaching half the courses using TV-only lectures.
During Beckel's tenure, the university implemented Management Arts, Native American studies and expanded cooperative education.
Beckel oversaw several controversial faculty buyouts, and in 1980, the school had to dip into academic scholarship funds to help cover its debts.
Unlike Carleton's rival universities, most of whom were raising admissions standards to compete for better students, Beckel decided to keep Carleton open to high-school graduates with averages as low as 60 per cent on the premise that "every student should have the right to fail.
On July 1, 1989, the same year he received an honorary degree of Legum Doctoris from Carleton,[5] Beckel was succeeded as president by Robin Hugh Farquhar.