e-mail:lowyfh@vax2.concordia.ca
Sunday 8 March 1998
Prescription for academic health
Special to The Gazette
by Dr. Frederick H. Lowy,
RECTOR & VICE-CHANCELLOR
Concordia University
During the past two weeks, thankfully, considerable
attention has been paid to higher education in Canada.
Support for higher education was the most striking feature
of the federal budget. At the same time, the Quebec
Ministry of Education issued a major consultation
document designed to lead to new government policy
toward Quebec's universities. During the next few months,
the universities and their communities will be responding to
this document.
Today, universities are attacked, sometimes by the same
critics, on the one hand for indulging in ivory-tower
"knowledge for knowledge's sake" scholarship instead of
becoming more fully engaged in major contemporary social
concerns and, on the other hand, for being too responsive
to social pressures by entering into marketplace-driven
industrial partnerships. No doubt, the growth and
diversification of universities over the centuries, and
especially during recent decades, has resulted in the creation
of internal structures and the espousing of values that
reflect responses to different societal demands at different
times, and some of these may no longer be relevant to
today's needs. It is certainly timely, therefore, to undertake
an examination and perhaps a redefinition of the social
contract between universities and the communities they
serve.
The current focus on higher education is, therefore, long
overdue. What is undeniable is that we desperately need
vibrant, high-quality universities. Wide access to university
education of international quality is a prerequisite to
competitiveness for any society in today's knowledge-based
and globalized economy. And for individuals within the
society, higher education is rapidly becoming a prerequisite
to full participation in the modern world, to upward
socioeconomic mobility, and even to employability. During
the past 15 years in Quebec, the number of jobs filled by
college or university graduates increased by 133 per cent,
while jobs filled by those without post-secondary education
actually decreased by 27 per cent.
Yet our universities are confronted by an unprecedented
challenge, and it is by no means yet clear that they can
meet it successfully. At a time when societal expectations of
universities are rising, when the number of persons seeking
both traditional and continuing university studies is also
climbing, when the opportunity for contribution to scientific
advances in a variety of fields is without precedent, Quebec
universities are not at all well equipped to respond.
The Quebec university network developed rapidly during
the past 40 years and achieved high standards of education
and research. However, as in the rest of Canada, Quebec's
universities became overwhelmingly dependent on
government support. When both the federal and the
Quebec governments determined to eliminate their deficits
by reducing commitment to social programs, including
higher education, the universities were confronted on an
urgent basis by the need to reduce expenditures and to seek
other sources of income.
Annual grants to universities by the Ministry of Education
of Quebec are being reduced by fully 25 per cent, while
revenue from student tuition fees remains frozen at the
lowest level in Canada. As a result, Quebec universities
have reduced the number of professors and support staff
through voluntary-retirement programs; class sizes have
been increased; the amount and quality of student support
services have been reduced; and some universities have
added substantial sums to their accumulated debt. Some
universities continue to function in inadequate physical
facilities. It is remarkable that despite all this, the quality of
education remains high, thanks largely to the dedication of
the remaining faculty and staff and the quality and
determination of students. However, the danger signs are
clear.
The major problem is the reduced core funding of
universities. Unfortunately, the otherwise welcome
initiatives outlined in the federal budget do not address this
problem, which lies within provincial jurisdiction.
Federal and provincial governments, especially Ottawa and
Quebec, must find ways of overcoming jurisdictional
disputes so as to ensure that the public funds available for
higher education are spent where they are most needed.
This will require arriving at a satisfactory balance between
direct support for students and support for the institutions
that educate them.
Quebec universities' needs are greater than elsewhere in
Canada. At the same time, Quebec students in general are
better off than their counterparts in other provinces. They
pay lower tuition fees, they pay fees for a shorter period
(because tuition-free CEGEP education reduces the study
time toward university degrees, and because they benefit
from Quebec government bursaries not available in other
provinces). As a result, the average student debt at
graduation in Quebec is approximately $11,000, whereas in
the rest of Canada, with higher tuition fees, the average
debt is nearly $25,000.
The Millennium Scholarship Fund, therefore, serves a more
urgent need in other provinces. The relative needs of
Quebec universities and their students will be better
balanced if a way can be found for the approximately $80
million per year of new federal funds, to which Quebec
students will now be entitled, to be used to effect a
comparable reduction in the $255 million that Quebec now
allocates to student bursaries. This would permit the
Quebec Ministry of Education to maintain the current level
of student bursaries while restoring the $80-million cut
projected for the Quebec university network next year.
A re-examination of the mission of our universities can be
accompanied by a first step toward restoring their financial
health.
by FREDERICK LOWY
Also See Fred Lowy rector of Concordia University Sept 1999
Prescription for academic health
Rector Wed1007 Fred Lowy
e-mail:lowyfh@vax2.concordia.ca
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