Data Check: Ottawa needs to step up to PSE plate, too
Last month, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) released Public Education for the Public Good: A National Vision for Canada’s Post-Secondary Education System.
Some of its finding:
- Since the late 1990s, full-time enrolment at colleges and universities has increased 25 per cent. Enrolment in graduate studies soared 42 per cent between 1998 and 2008.
- But federal funding for postsecondary education has decreased dramatically since the late-1970s.
- The Canada Social Transfer gives money to the provinces but does not require them to use federal postsecondary funding for postsecondary purposes because there are too-few strings attached. For example, in 2008, the Government of British Columbia cut funding to universities by $50 million shortly after it received $110 million in new postsecondary funding from the federal government!
The CFS’s central recommendation is for the federal government to bring in a Post-Secondary Education Act modeled after the Canada Health Act. Under such legislation, the federal government would work cooperatively with the provinces; restore funding to 1992 levels; ensure that tuition fees are reduced to 1992 levels; and provide enough money to universities and colleges that they could undertake much needed capital repairs.
This article originally appeared in the OCUFA Report. To receive stories like this every week in your inbox, please subscribe.