Canada's post-secondary institutions are in real trouble due to underfunding on the part of both the federal and provincial governments, the consequences of which faculty and librarians have no difficulty seeing.
The number of university and college teachers has declined by nearly 10 per cent over the past decade, to the point where the quality and range of education students receive is seriously threatened.
The acquisition of books and journals by academic libraries has plummeted so severely that major Canadian research libraries rank at the bottom of those in North America.
The infrastructure of universities is in such serious disrepair that some buildings are being cited as health and safety hazards.
Tuition fees and student debt loads have risen dramatically, putting access to post-secondary education beyond the reach of a growing number of Canadians.
Professional schools are becoming the preserve of high-income families and deterring students from pursuing lower paying, socially relevant jobs in order to pay off loans. The average debt load of students at Dalhousie's law school is $38,000, reveals a student survey. The Dalhousie program, whose tuition will increase by more than 50 per cent in three years is by no means the highest tuition in the country.
Faced with less core public funding, Canadian universities and colleges are turning to private sector support. Unfortunately, private money generally comes with strings attached that increasingly threaten the integrity of research and academic freedom.
These serious problems are only going to get worse. Post-secondary institutions and government agencies have suddenly awakened to the very predictable fact that universities and colleges are going to experience a severe staffing shortage over the next decade. Enrolments are on the rise, and professors hired in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the country's universities rapidly expanded, are approaching retirement.
The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada projects a need for 40,000 new faculty over the next decade. While this figure may be somewhat high, there will be a significant shortage of qualified academic staff. Canadian universities currently graduate nearly 4,000 new PhDs each year, but only 1,400 pursue academic careers, with the remainder recruited by industry, business and government, whose starting salaries are substantially higher than those in universities.
What are the likely consequences of the imminent academic shortages? We are already seeing some of these. Universities are no longer interested in downsizing their staff complement and are suspending or terminating early retirement programs. They are likely to look for ways to keep selected faculty beyond normal retirement age. Positions are either going unfilled or being staffed by less qualified individuals. To recruit new faculty in certain subject areas, universities are paying upwards of $40,000 above normal starting salaries, and creating equity problems for senior faculty in the same departments who are paid considerably less.
We are already seeing higher faculty to student ratios and reduced student access both through higher tuition fees and the imposition of artificially high standards designed to keep enrolments down. The nature of our pedagogy is changing with less emphasis on written work to cope with grading assignments in large classes and more use of teaching assistants and instructors.
A recent task force on recruitment and retention at the University of Calgary found that a number of faculty were demoralized and felt undervalued, "discouraged by the conditions they experience on a daily basis - heavy teaching assignments, pressures to demonstrate research outputs, and demands to make service contributions." These conclusions could apply to almost any post-secondary institution in Canada.
What can be done? Not much will change unless there is a real commitment by Ottawa to increase the operating funding for colleges and universities it provides through transfer payments to the provinces. This will not happen unless the federal and provincial governments work together to ensure that post-secondary education becomes a national priority.
It will also require a change in the funding mechanism, from the current block transfer arrangement to a dedicated post-secondary fund with national guidelines and an accountability mechanism as we have proposed in our draft Canada Post-Secondary Education Act.
Without a new funding arrangement and a renewed commitment to post-secondary education by the federal and provincial governments, accessibility and quality will erode further and our ability as a nation to reap the social, cultural and economic benefits of education will continue to be compromised.
The academic community must raise its voice to register our concerns over the federal and provincial governments' failure to address the decline of Canada's universities and colleges. We have to raise the state of post-secondary education and student accessibility at every political rally. We have to press candidates for elected office and for leadership positions for their commitments to improve post-secondary education.
A few months ago I had the opportunity to ask Premier Bernard Lord of New Brunswick why provincial governments weren't prepared to increase funding to universities. His answer was telling: His government didn't see the public pushing for more university funding.
It is our job to increase the pressure. Politicians, or their staff, do read the e-mails, letters and faxes they receive. If you share my concerns, send a letter or e-mail to your MP and to your MLA or MPP and suggest to your students that they and their parents do the same. Maybe together, our voices will be heard and the politicians will begin to feel the pressure.