Canada's universities and university colleges are increasingly drawing upon private sources of funding to make up for public funding cuts, according to a report compiled by CAUT.

The study released earlier this year, Private or Public? University Finances 2002-2003, found total university revenues rose almost 7 per cent over the previous year, but that most of the increases were derived "from private revenue sources in the form of higher tuition fees and increased sponsored research funding."

Government funding now makes up just 56.6 per cent of all university revenues in Canada - a drop of 10 percentage points from a decade ago. By contrast, fees paid by students now constitute more than 20 per cent of all revenues and 34 per cent of operating revenues, compared to 13 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in 1992.

The study also found the trend away from public funding is most pronounced in Ontario and Nova Scotia where more than half of all university revenues now come from private sources, primarily in the form of tuition fees, private grants and donations.

"The rapid decline in public financial support over the past three decades has led universities to aggressively pursue other sources of revenue," the report says. "In this process, the Canadian university is becoming less a public institution and more a private one, less accountable to the public interest and more beholden to private interests.

"A renewed commitment on the part of governments to adequately provide public funding in the form of core operating grants to universities and colleges is urgently needed to counter these trends. Beyond this, however, university administrators must also make a commitment to reinvest in the core functions of universities and act to ensure post-secondary education is affordable and accessible."