The federal and provincial governments have been underfunding universities for decades. Recently, universities were able to start recruiting foreign students to make up for the shortfall, but it looks like that money tap will be turned down. It doesn’t look like there’s a plan to make up for it.
At the same time, the feds want to
recruit more than 1,000 top international researchers to Canada, with the budget injecting up to $1.7-billion into a suite of recruitment measures.
That’ll be tough if universities see their income crater.
Most collegiate institutions in Canada have been going gangbusters for 20 years building new facilities and just generally being stupid with money, cutting down on tenured professors, loading up on administrators.
Like. Maybe some very poor decisions have been made for which there are consequences.
If they were underfunded and hurting for money then why would we do this? If they’re underfunded and hurting for money now then why would we provide it when they were so irresponsible with it?
There could be nuance to this situation i don’t understand but from my POV our higher educational institutions need to get their fucking shit together.
The ignorance here is incredible, and reeks of failed students, or people who drank through a 3 year BA in art history. The Canadian Foundation Institute was established 20 years ago to partner with provinces to build badly needed infrastructure for research.
Those “facilities” you are whining about are for research on disease or new technology that is the driving force of the economy. These insitutions are a great net stimulus of billions for new technology and business. New fried chicken franchises are not the future economy.
Because withholding the money doesn’t punish the irresponsible parties, it punishes the students and (consequentially) all of society.
The one I have as a client has only built a new trades building and a new nursing building in the last 10 years, both for super in-demand programs. As far as I can tell they’re not overly top heavy in any way.
Maybe certain institutions were being stupid, but it’s definitely not all of them.
People who complain about universities have never stepped foot in one, like Doug Ford.