Alberta Finance Minister Doug Horner may have restored $32.5 million to the province’s universities in his recent budget, but that still leaves institutions more than $100 million short of what they were promised by former premier Alison Redford when the Conservative leader first came to power just two years ago.

With Dave Hancock now installed as inter­im premier after Redford’s sudden resignation in March, observers say post-secondary education in the province remains “in disar­ray” with little offered in the finance minister’s budget to mitigate that assessment.

“Overall, it’s extremely disappointing,” said Rob Sutherland, president of the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations. “Last year they slashed 7 per cent with no warning. Academic staff were laid off, programs were closed, the capacity of the system shrank, and researchers left the province.

“The system was thrown into complete disarray and it remains that way.”

The cuts directly flouted Redford’s 2012 pledge of stable two per cent increases in overall funding for the sector over a three-year period.

Sutherland says after the impact of the cuts became apparent, about $50 million was injected back into the system half-way through the year in a wild flip-flop that made a mockery of any notion of financial planning or stability.

Core funding for the province’s institutions now stands at $2.1 billion, including the $32.5 million mentioned in this year’s budget which is earmarked to create 2,000 new spaces “and encourage collaboration throughout Campus Alberta” according to the government’s news release.

But Sutherland says those spaces will be created in “government-identified priority areas,” and points to criticism leveled last year by the province’s auditor general, who called the Campus Alberta plan confusing and lacking the means to measure its effectiveness.

The plan, ostensibly to have the province’s 26 post-secondary schools work more closely together, is probably more about reducing programs and non-academic staff, Sutherland charges, and remains shrouded in mystery with few operational details yet revealed.

Doug Short, president of the Alberta Colleges and Institutes Faculties Association said he fears more job losses are to come.

“(O)n the heels of last year’s significant drop in funding, post-secondary institutions are still behind the funding levels of 2012–2013. We will once again likely face program cuts, faculty layoffs and increased class sizes. This will not enhance the quality of our students’ education,” he said.

While the government has also pledged just over $50 million for infrastructure upgrades, Sutherland calls the amount “a drop in the bucket” compared to a quickly-growing bill for deferred maintenance at many of the province’s post-secondary institutions.

And with Alberta experiencing the lowest rate of post-secondary engagement of any province, he says predictable and adequate funding is crucial in order to increase institutional capacity, recruit faculty and begin to dispel the sense of “real uncertainty, which hasn’t gone away, and to combat the extremely poor post-secondary enrolment.”

Other budget items include $50 million that will be drawn from the province’s rainy-day fund to reinstate the old Access to the Future program suspended four years ago. The program matches private donations to support innovative projects in the post-secondary system.

Additionally, the budget adds new money to the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund, which has been expanded to include trades apprenticeships, while an additional $408 million in loans will be made available to about 63,000 students.