In Ontario, Doug Ford’s government is rumored to be providing 1.2 billion to fund Ontario’s universities after an expert panel looking at the post-secondary system made recommendations totalling about 2.5 billion dollars to deal with a post-secondary system that is “currently at serious risk” due to a lack of funding. This risk has occurred, in part, as a result of a long-running freeze on per-student funding to the universities and colleges coupled with ending a program that subsidized tuition for low and middle-income students, on top of which was a 10% cut and subsequent freezing of tuitions for domestic students.
The government has reiterated that the freeze on tuitions will remain in place until post-secondary institutions can demonstrate they’ve found additional operating efficiencies. While I absolutely agree that tuitions are too high and shouldn’t move, when the government refuses to properly fund the institutions themselves, there’s a significant risk of collapse. “Operational efficiencies” in a system that has been underfunded for years are generally very difficult to find, simply because most institutions have already had to find what they could to keep operations going. Many institutions turned to international students, as the tuition freeze did not apply to them, but now the federal government has announced a cap that will cut those numbers in half.
Put together, this is, I believe, the perfect storm that will cause many post-secondary institutions to close. In part, this is by design, as the federal government has indicated its cap on international students is in part to try to eliminate “degree mills” and deal with fraudulent institutions that promise citizenship after graduation to be able to charge inordinate sums to international students, however it is unclear yet if the Ontario system will be able to withstand the strain. It doesn’t seem likely that the provincial government would let a major institution completely collapse, as that would be a serious black-eye, but they may be stretched so thin that its quality, and hence reputation, will be adversely affected for years.
But it’s unlikely that this issue will stop at Ontario’s borders. If one or two of the major institutions in Ontario are no longer seen as good choices, we are likely to see a significant increase of students coming to AU, and while AU’s model does allow it to scale quickly, it remains a concern if the out-of-province students’ tuitions are not fully paying for the costs of their education. Of course, there are also issues with any rapid scaling that happen, simply because it gets harder to maintain quality control so as to make sure that students are getting the support they need.
As a side note, Alberta was recently found to be second only to Ontario in the paucity of post-secondary expenditures compared to provincial GDP. And that’s with Ontario working overtime to bankrupt its institutions. With this new announcement, we may well now be the lowest. Something which brings up serious questions as to whether AU would be able to handle an influx of desperate Ontario students.
Just something to chew on as you dig through this week’s Voice Magazine. Enjoy the read!