British Columbia's post-secondary institutions will receive a $26-million boost in funding according to the March 30 provincial budget, which includes $17.5-million to create 2,900 new student spaces.
The new funding was welcomed by university faculty, administrators and students, who have been dealing with government-directed increases in enrolment without corresponding funding increases for the past two years.
"We are very happy the provincial government has heard our message that they cannot expect the post-secondary system to serve more students without more funding," said Robert Clift, executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C. (CUFA/BC).
In 1996/97 and 1997/98, 3,847 new university student spaces were created, most of which were not funded.
"The (universities, colleges and institutes) did a tremendous job and deserve to be congratulated," said Andrew Petter, B.C.'s Minister of Advanced Education, Training and Technology. "This year we are fully funding the new spaces we are asking institutions to create."
Clift noted that although the new funding is very welcome, it does not make up for the ground lost due to two years of a tuition freeze, the unfunded growth in student spaces, and a cut to university budgets last year. "We hope that this announcement signals the government's intention to make further restitution in future budgets," he said.
Petter noted that over the past five years, B.C. government spending on post-secondary education and training has increased by about 20 per cent -- primarily due to funded enrolment increases in the colleges and institutes -- while spending elsewhere in the country has dropped.
B.C. universities are to create 900 new undergraduate student spaces, 350 of which are to be in fields of study related to information technology.
The government emphasis on information technology arises from the Ministers' Summit on Software Industry Skills Shortages held in July 1997 and coincides with a recent government announcement that some government data processing services will be taken over by IBM Canada. These and other measures are part of an economic development strategy designed to attract high-tech industries to the province.
This strategy also includes the announcement on May 11 that B.C. will establish a six-year, $100-million B.C. Knowledge Development Fund (KDF) to finance up to 40 per cent of the costs of the research infrastructure at B.C. post-secondary institutions, hospitals and affiliated non profit research agencies.
The fund is intended to provide the provincial contribution to projects financed by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Projects not receiving approval (or otherwise not eligible) for CFI funding will still be considered for KDF funding if private money can be secured to make up the balance of the cost.
"With this announcement, British Columbia has moved well ahead of Alberta and Ontario," said CUFA/BC president Tony Sheppard. "Those provinces made large cuts to funding for universities and then restored some of it through their programs equivalent to the Knowledge Development Fund. This new money responds to requests from our organization and from the university presidents for the means to build upon our research successes and to stem the brain drain of researchers from the province in highly competitive fields."
Early in March, B.C. Premier Glen Clark and Petter also announced that the two-year freeze on tuition fees would be extended for a third year. Tuition and ancillary fees for domestic undergraduate and graduate students will stay fixed at 1996/97 levels in 1998/99 -- about $1,970 a year for the average university undergraduate student.
The freeze does not apply to fees for international students. Clark initially froze tuition for two years in 1996 during the provincial election campaign.
Faculty and students applauded the continuation of the freeze. "Freezing tuition is one important aspect of a strategy to make education affordable for British Columbians," said Ed Lavalle, president of the College Institute Educators' Association of B.C.
Average B.C. undergraduate tuition fees are about $900 below the national average -- the second lowest in the country. Quebec has the lowest at $1,670 (although out-of-province students pay $2,900), and Nova Scotia has the national high of $3,750 a year.