NEWS STORY
Schools at mercy of funding policy
Students feel the financial crunch
Robin Summerfield
Calgary Herald
Monday, September 08, 2003
Campus Calgary
Sunday: Making the transition to campus life
Today: The challenges facing
Calgary's post-secondary institutions
Tuesday: New areas of learning
Wednesday: Post-secondary's contribution to Calgary's arts and culture scene
Thursday: Sports on campus
Friday: Business on campus
- - -
Consider it a wake-up call. Post-secondary education in Calgary, the province, and one could argue the country, is in the midst of a transformation. Colleges, universities and technical institutes are changing how they do business, say those studying, teaching and administering the system.
On all fronts, from the perspective of students, faculty and the administrators, the post-secondary system is getting squeezed.
Canadian students face the new reality where student loans average $21,000 after four years. In Alberta, that average is around the $17,000 mark, according to the Learning Ministry.
To pay for their education, students juggle time studying and in class with multiple part-time jobs.
Faculties are making do with less support and more responsibility, they argue, and are being pushed to their limits.
Institutions are struggling in tight-funding times, cutting support and some teaching jobs, but at the same time trying to expand programs, hire new faculty and build on-campus infrastructure.
At the heart of the matter, argue student and faculty leaders, is the government's funding of post-secondary education.
"How do you create a sustainable system when there's no sustainable funding?" says James Wood, vice-president external for the students' association at Mount Royal College.
While post-secondary institutions receive annual operation funding, monies to create more space for students is piecemeal. Institutions often don't know what additional funding they will get from year to year.
Learning Minister Lyle Oberg admits there are pressures, but says money is flowing in to support the system.
The ministry will spend about $1.31 billion in 2003/04 on post-secondary education, up from $1.22 billion the year before. In comparison, $3.8 billion will be spent on kindergarten to Grade 12 education this school year, up from $3.6 billion the year before.
Oberg says caucus "certainly recognizes the importance" of post-secondary education and education in general. However, he says he cannot make a promise of additional funding.
"We won't know if post-secondary education receives more until the time comes. I'm certainly hopeful."
But Liberal education critic Don Massey says that kind of short-sightedness is hurting the post-secondary system.
"At the root of the problem, there is no long-term planning for the long-term financing of post-secondary education in the province."
In the long term, the impact of budget shortfalls will reach far beyond the walls of schools in the province, Massey says.
Students will look elsewhere or forgo higher education for financial reasons, and businesses won't be able to find skilled staff and may move their companies to provinces where labour is readily available, he says.
Those students who do decide to enter the system are also increasingly faced with a new dilemma. Simply put, there are more students than space in the Calgary system. Today, students have to get better grades to ensure their place in the city's post-secondary system.
University of Calgary president Harvey Weingarten states the case plainly:
"There are more qualified students than we have the capacity to provide a quality education for . . . this is a fundamental problem in the province."
Earlier this year, Mount Royal and the U of C made a joint submission to the province, mapping out plans to make the college a bigger player in the undergraduate degree business in Calgary.
The hope is to ease some of those pressures on the system.
"Mount Royal College is going to have to be in the degree business in a significant way. There's no question about it," says David Marshall, the college's new president.
New legislation on the table in Alberta may move that dream forward.
Bill 43, the Post-Secondary Learning Act, which has its second reading this Fall, updates the Universities Act, Colleges Act, Technical Institutes Act and Banff Centre Act into an encompassing piece of legislation.
If passed, schools such as Mount Royal College and Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton will be able to move towards degree-granting. SAIT is also looking at eventually offering a bachelor of technology degree.
As lawmakers sort out the details, students worry about not only making the grade but how they are going to make ends meet.
Rising tuition costs that outpace inflation are driving them into poverty and limiting their futures, some say.
Worse yet, argues Shirley Barg, chair of CAUS, Council of Alberta University Students, if the system doesn't start to support the main players, there will be drastic consequences for the whole province.
"Students who have phenomenal debts . . . won't be able to start their own businesses, buy the new cars, buy homes, buy the things that keep the economy pumped," says Barg.
"Those are the real consequences here."
rsummerfield@theherald.canwest.com
© Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/story.asp?id=CDE06698-E767-4CD0-B780-3B81FEE54CED
Schools at mercy of funding policy
Students feel the financial crunch
Robin Summerfield
Calgary Herald
Monday, September 08, 2003
Campus Calgary
Sunday: Making the transition to campus life
Today: The challenges facing
Calgary's post-secondary institutions
Tuesday: New areas of learning
Wednesday: Post-secondary's contribution to Calgary's arts and culture scene
Thursday: Sports on campus
Friday: Business on campus
- - -
Consider it a wake-up call. Post-secondary education in Calgary, the province, and one could argue the country, is in the midst of a transformation. Colleges, universities and technical institutes are changing how they do business, say those studying, teaching and administering the system.
On all fronts, from the perspective of students, faculty and the administrators, the post-secondary system is getting squeezed.
Canadian students face the new reality where student loans average $21,000 after four years. In Alberta, that average is around the $17,000 mark, according to the Learning Ministry.
To pay for their education, students juggle time studying and in class with multiple part-time jobs.
Faculties are making do with less support and more responsibility, they argue, and are being pushed to their limits.
Institutions are struggling in tight-funding times, cutting support and some teaching jobs, but at the same time trying to expand programs, hire new faculty and build on-campus infrastructure.
At the heart of the matter, argue student and faculty leaders, is the government's funding of post-secondary education.
"How do you create a sustainable system when there's no sustainable funding?" says James Wood, vice-president external for the students' association at Mount Royal College.
While post-secondary institutions receive annual operation funding, monies to create more space for students is piecemeal. Institutions often don't know what additional funding they will get from year to year.
Learning Minister Lyle Oberg admits there are pressures, but says money is flowing in to support the system.
The ministry will spend about $1.31 billion in 2003/04 on post-secondary education, up from $1.22 billion the year before. In comparison, $3.8 billion will be spent on kindergarten to Grade 12 education this school year, up from $3.6 billion the year before.
Oberg says caucus "certainly recognizes the importance" of post-secondary education and education in general. However, he says he cannot make a promise of additional funding.
"We won't know if post-secondary education receives more until the time comes. I'm certainly hopeful."
But Liberal education critic Don Massey says that kind of short-sightedness is hurting the post-secondary system.
"At the root of the problem, there is no long-term planning for the long-term financing of post-secondary education in the province."
In the long term, the impact of budget shortfalls will reach far beyond the walls of schools in the province, Massey says.
Students will look elsewhere or forgo higher education for financial reasons, and businesses won't be able to find skilled staff and may move their companies to provinces where labour is readily available, he says.
Those students who do decide to enter the system are also increasingly faced with a new dilemma. Simply put, there are more students than space in the Calgary system. Today, students have to get better grades to ensure their place in the city's post-secondary system.
University of Calgary president Harvey Weingarten states the case plainly:
"There are more qualified students than we have the capacity to provide a quality education for . . . this is a fundamental problem in the province."
Earlier this year, Mount Royal and the U of C made a joint submission to the province, mapping out plans to make the college a bigger player in the undergraduate degree business in Calgary.
The hope is to ease some of those pressures on the system.
"Mount Royal College is going to have to be in the degree business in a significant way. There's no question about it," says David Marshall, the college's new president.
New legislation on the table in Alberta may move that dream forward.
Bill 43, the Post-Secondary Learning Act, which has its second reading this Fall, updates the Universities Act, Colleges Act, Technical Institutes Act and Banff Centre Act into an encompassing piece of legislation.
If passed, schools such as Mount Royal College and Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton will be able to move towards degree-granting. SAIT is also looking at eventually offering a bachelor of technology degree.
As lawmakers sort out the details, students worry about not only making the grade but how they are going to make ends meet.
Rising tuition costs that outpace inflation are driving them into poverty and limiting their futures, some say.
Worse yet, argues Shirley Barg, chair of CAUS, Council of Alberta University Students, if the system doesn't start to support the main players, there will be drastic consequences for the whole province.
"Students who have phenomenal debts . . . won't be able to start their own businesses, buy the new cars, buy homes, buy the things that keep the economy pumped," says Barg.
"Those are the real consequences here."
rsummerfield@theherald.canwest.com
© Copyright 2003 Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/story.asp?id=CDE06698-E767-4CD0-B780-3B81FEE54CED