The new up-front grant program for Ontario students is grabbing headlines, but what else does the 2016 Ontario Budget do for universities? When it comes to operating funding, the picture continues to darken. Just as it has for the past four years, the level of operating grants to universities will barely change. And in the […]
Funding
Professors and academic librarians across Ontario are welcoming changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) to make higher education more accessible to low-income students, announced in today’s Budget. At the same time, they are reminding the government that new investment in universities is urgently needed to ensure that that every student has access to […]
On Feb. 1, 2016, OCUFA President Judy Bates presented OCUFA’s 2016 budget priorities to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. This committee is tasked with reviewing Ontario’s fiscal and economic policies, and makes recommendations to government on what should be contained within the provincial budget. OCUFA’s proposals are directed toward enhancing the quality […]
Fifty years ago, the Government of Ontario began to invest in the university sector, increasing the number of institutions and the spaces available to qualified students. This has allowed us to make huge gains in access and quality. But now, we’re on the precipice of undoing a half century of accomplishments. Ontario’s per-student funding for […]
Last week, OCUFA staff members Graeme Stewart and Brynne Sinclair-Waters wrote an article for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Ontario (CCPA-ON) on the need for more full-time faculty in Ontario’s universities. The piece is part of the CCPA-ON’s ongoing series on the provincial budget. Stewart and Sinclair-Waters argue that hiring of full-time faculty has lagged well behind increases in enrolment, with serious implications for […]
From October 24-25, 2015, OCUFA’s Board of Directors met for its first meeting of the 2015-16 academic year. The focus was on setting priorities for the upcoming year and developing strategies for addressing the challenges facing professors and academic librarians in the months ahead. A key objective of the fall Board meeting is to identify […]
In last week’s Data Check, we demonstrated how Ontario lags the rest of Canada in per-student operating and research revenue. This week, we show how Ontario’s per-student university expenditures are also lower, particularly when it comes to faculty salaries. With occasional exceptions, it is the rule that university expenses are lower than revenues. So it […]
New data shows that the decline in business and government support cannot be offset by R&D spending in the higher education sector – and the way Canada counts R&D activity in universities tells us a lot about the activities public funding is intended to support. While trends in expenditures on research and development (R&D) by […]
The latest news about research and development (R&D) spending intentions for the coming year echoes the same sad story that has appeared in previous issues of OCUFA Report . The Government of Canada’s planned expenditures demonstrates that the national R&D effort continues to decline. The federal government will be increasing spending by slightly more than half a per cent. Since 2010, federal R&D […]
Finance Minister Charles Sousa will deliver the 2015 Ontario Budget on Thursday, April 23, 2015. What can professors and academic librarians expect to see in Ontario’s financial plan? A good first question is to ask what should be in the budget. As OCUFA pointed out in its pre-budget submission to government, public investment in our universities is […]
When a policy is proposed, the burden of proof lies with the people making the proposal. They need to explain why the new policy is better, and they need to provide evidence to support their claim. This is how sensible policy gets made. The Government of Ontario is interested in performance funding for universities. That […]
The provincial government has signaled that it intends to review the formula according to which funding is allocated to universities. Over the coming weeks, OCUFA report will run a series of think pieces related to the funding formula – what it looks like currently and what it might look like in the future. First in […]
On Friday, January 30, 2015, OCUFA President Kate Lawson presented OCUFA’s 2015 Pre-Budget Brief to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs (SCFEA). The Brief, entitled Strong Universities for a Strong Ontario argues for renewed investment in higher education and increased faculty hiring. Every year, SCFEA conducts hearings in the run-up to the provincial budget. The committee then makes recommendations […]
The latest data from the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) indicates that Ontario’s per-student provincial operating funding for 2012-13 was 35 per cent less than the average in the rest of Canada. When it comes to funding levels, we are the undisputed kings of the basement. After the deep cuts imposed by Mike […]
On December 20, 2013, the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities quietly released its Major Capital Expansion Policy Framework . The new policy governs how the government will allocate funds for major new infrastructure projects, including the creation of satellite campuses. The framework establishes four basic criteria for capital projects: Accommodates enrolment growth of more than 1,000 full-time students in the […]