Post-secondary institutions speak out following funding cuts

EDMONTON- Post-secondary institutions are digesting the news of funding cuts, following the release of Alberta’s budget Thursday afternoon.

Minister of Finance Doug Horner announced a cut of nearly seven percent to operating grants to universities, colleges, and technical institutes; the biggest cut to any government department.

“I think everyone was shocked,” said Colten Yamagishi, President of the University of Alberta’s Students’ Union. “It’s going to be tough for everyone, students, faculty, administration, staff. This is going to be a burden that everyone has to swallow.”

Post-secondary operating grants will be cut by 6.8 percent, which is a $147 million decrease from last year. Those figures mean an $8 million cut to MacEwan University.

“I think there’s going to be some pain,” said MacEwan University President David Atkinson.

The University of Alberta will receive $40 million less than it did last year.

“It’s a significant and a very serious cut,” said University of Alberta President Indira Samarasekera. “I’m surprised, I’m disappointed, I’m sort of sad to see that while the rest of the world understands that post-secondary education is the future key to an individual’s success, they’ve chosen to not only not invest, but to even hold the line on the expenses.”

Right now there are no plans to cut enrollment or programs at either of the institutions however, officials say they are going to have to get creative.

“Maybe eliminating a great deal of choice for students, but what they have access to- (we’ll be) maintaining the quality that they need,” said Samarasekera.

The province will be sending letters to all post-secondary institutions in Alberta, advising them of what the government expects.

Deputy Premier and Minister of Enterprise and Advanced Education, Thomas Lukaszuk, says the 26 post-secondary institutions in Alberta need to find a way to unite, and would like to see less duplication across the board.

“We have 26 schools that have very little coordination, a lot of duplication, very little transfers of credits,” he explained Friday. “A lot of efficiencies will be found in pooling all of these 26 schools together in a meaningful way and trying to find how they can better collaborate.”

The notion of pooling schools together concerns those at the U of A and MacEwan.

“Why can’t we find ways to co-teach certain courses? I think just simply saying ‘well, we need just one program’ may be overly simplistic,” said Samarasekera.

“We’re going to do the very best we can to maintain the integrity of the academic program,” added Atkinson.

Another area of concern is tuition. While there is a provincially mandated tuition cap in place, the U of A says it may need more flexibility, and that has students worried.

“We really worry about what that means for students funding their education in the future. We think we’re already at a breaking point right now for high tuition costs,” said Yamagishi.

However, Lukaszuk maintains tuition will not increase this year.

“Talking about cutting programs, cutting courses and increasing tuition is too easy,” Lukaszuk explained. “There will be no tuition increases this year as a result of this budget.”

Students will be able to benefit from a 21 percent increase in money available for student loans, as well as a $250,000 boost to the province’s scholarship program. There will also be a new grant available for low-income students.

With files from Fletcher Kent. 

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