In a year-end letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin, six national education organizations have called on the federal government to reinvest in Canada's universities and colleges through a new federal-provincial transfer for post-secondary education.

"This joint letter represents an important step toward restoring Canada's post-secondary education sector," said CAUT president Victor Catano. "These six organizations speaking with one voice deliver a powerful message to the government."

The letter, co-signed by CAUT, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Association of Community Colleges of Canada, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations and the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, emphasizes to the prime minister that accessible and high-quality post-secondary education is vital to Canada's economic, social and cultural development.

The letter points out that funding of higher education has not kept pace with enrolment growth, resulting in a dramatic rise in tuition and the size of classes, the relative decline of libraries and other educational resources, the serious deterioration of campus infrastructure, and, in many cases, inadequate equipment and technological support.

In addition to substantial federal funding through a new transfer, the letter calls on the government to increase the resources it makes available to students in the form of non-repayable needs-based grants.

The letter urges the federal government to commit to work with provincial and territorial governments to design and implement the new fiscal transfer for post-secondary education.

According to Catano, such a transfer, a long-standing goal of CAUT, would solidify a firm commitment of stable funding from the federal government for post-secondary education and would also provide a way of guaranteeing that the provinces actually spend the money on universities and colleges.