Student leaders worry as U of C revenues now rely on tuition more than base grants
Government says funding respects taxpayer dollars, provides students with value
University of Calgary Students' Union president Shaziah Jinnah Morsette is worried about the institution's latest budget.
And that's because, for the first time, the University of Calgary's revenue pie chart has seen slices change a sliver: there's less money coming from Alberta's coffers than the pockets of students.
"Students cannot afford to be a key shareholder in this budget pie," Jinnah Morsette said. "As a public institution, I expect more from our government to support operations now and into the future."
LISTEN | University of Calgary Student's Union president Shaziah Jinnah Morsette talks about the impact of rising tuition on students
The University of Calgary gets two pots of money from the government: the Campus Alberta Grant, which schools can use as they see fit for program delivery, and various other grants, which Jinnah Morsette said come with specific spending requirements.
That Campus Alberta Grant for the 2024-25 budget represents less revenue for the University of Calgary than what's coming in from student tuition: $388.9 million versus $410.8 million.
But this is a shift the Alberta government has been working toward for years. The province wants universities to be less reliant on taxpayer dollars.
"Alberta is funding post-secondary education in a responsible way that respects taxpayer dollars, provides students with the most value for their investment, and ensures we continue to produce a skilled workforce for the jobs tomorrow," read a statement from Mackenzie Blyth, press secretary for Advanced Education Minister Rajan Sawhney.
And Alberta has shifted funding contributions to its post-secondary institutions from 51 per cent in 2019-20 to 43 per cent in 2021-22.
Information provided by the advanced education minister's office showed in 2021-22 British Columbia contributed 38 per cent of funding to its post-secondaries while the Ontario government shelled out just 26 per cent.
This Alberta strategy started with the MacKinnon Report, a look at the province's spending, published in 2019.
The report recommended Alberta should move to a revenue mix that's comparable to British Columbia and Ontario schools.
In January 2020, past advanced education minister Demetrios Nicolaides wrote an op-ed for Postmedia, hinting at a new funding model for post-secondary institutions that would tie cash to performance measures and see taxpayer funding decrease while revenues from tuition would make up the difference.
That op-ed also proposed a shifted funding split: tuition was funding 20 per cent of operations, with 50 per cent coming from taxpayer dollars — and the minister wanted to adjust those figures to 25 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively. The pandemic dampened some of what Nicolaides announced the same month, but budget documents in 2024 suggest the province aims to take the split further.
Schools can't survive on private funds alone: expert
Alex Usher is the president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a public policy group that monitors and analyzes the state of post-secondary education in Canada.
When public dollars are clawed back, he said, institutions have to rely on more volatile funding sources.
In Ontario, he's watching the province's funding model unravel as the federal government capped the main money-maker for schools: international students.
Alberta, he said, has another issue to face: a population boom of young people and not enough post-secondary spaces to educate them.
"Those universities and colleges are going to have to grow," he said. "They're not going to do that entirely on private money, there has to be more public money in the system to accommodate that growth."
That money, he added, should go toward base enrolment.
While Jinnah Morsette said the government's strategy was no secret, there are new challenges that the MacKinnon Report couldn't have seen coming.
"The pandemic really impacted students. It impacted everybody, but it really impacted students," Jinnah Morsette said.
In-person classes shifted online, which was fine in some majors but an issue for others. Then, there was the issue of practicums and work placements.
Once health measures lifted, then came a whole new economic reality, Jinnah Morsette said. The cost of living has shot up, inflation, too, and pressures just compounded.
Students feel they are paying more and getting less
In a statement, the University of Calgary said it is fully committed to providing a rich teaching, learning and research environment. The school is leveraging additional funding opportunities to provide a good student experience.
The statement did not answer questions about the impact of government budget reductions and the impacts of inflation and the rising cost of living on operations.
From where Jinnah Morsette sits, she's had to take a step back and look at the big picture to work with the institution. Last year, she was protesting tuition hikes, and this year she looks at the situation and sees her school's hands are tied.
"I think they've done the absolute best that they could have and can with the limited resources that they have," Jinnah Morsette said. "But the reality is from students that we do feel like we've been paying more and getting less and that just is not OK."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
