More than half of Canadians say spending on post-secon­dary education should be increased even if it means paying higher taxes, according to a new poll.

The CAUT-Harris/Decima poll released Nov. 27 also indicates that Canadians believe the country’s governments as a whole aren’t doing enough for post-secondary education, with more than 60 per cent of those questioned saying the federal government should play a stronger funding role and set conditions for how the provinces spend funds transferred for post-secondary education.

Just under eight in 10 Canadians say post-secondary education is more important than ever.

“These numbers demonstrate that Canadians understand that accessible, quality post-secondary education is vital to achieving long term economic recovery, and must be a top priority for all governments,” said CAUT executive director James Turk.

Almost 50 per cent of people questioned about access to post-secon­dary education think it’s more difficult to get a college or university education today than 10 years ago, with 48 per cent identifying a tuition reduction as the main priority for new post-secondary education funding.

The poll found that 56 per cent believe many qualified students don’t have access to post-secondary education, with 75 per cent of those saying it’s because of high costs.

Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with 2,021 Canadian adults, conducted November 12–22, 2009. The margin of sampling error is 2.2 percentage points.