The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is maintaining the long-running post-secondary tuition freeze, while also phasing out student loans and reintroducing a grant program in its place, according to the recent provincial budget announcement.
The move to a grants-only system makes Newfoundland and Labrador the first Canadian jurisdiction to eliminate student loans, a “landmark step towards equality of access to post-secondary education,” according to the Canadian Federation of Students. The 2014 budget also removes all interest on existing student loans.
But while support for students remained front and centre in budget documents, critics charge that core funding for institutions remains relatively flat, while growing pressure on teachers to ramp up “productivity” is damaging the quality and very nature of the education to which students seek access.
“They may be making it easier to go to university and college,” agreed Memorial University of Newfoundland Faculty Association president Ross Klein, “but harder for teachers to excel.”
“We compliment the government for its support for students, but there just isn’t a commensurate commitment to those who teach,” he said.
The budget provides around $358 million for Memorial University and $67 million for College of the North Atlantic, similar to last year’s budget which held the line on operational funding for Memorial University, and which saw a $15 million decrease to College of the North Atlantic.
Klein said a lack of adequate operational funding for institutions, coupled with burgeoning workloads, is stressing teachers and altering the nature of the academic experience.
“It’s quality versus quantity,” he said. “If you have to publish six times a year instead of three, it’s a treadmill. It contradicts the nature of the academy, where you should have time to learn, explore and innovate.”
He warns that the intense push on faculty to increase output is translating to less teaching time, especially for undergraduate students.
University officials revealed their plans in February for a review of operations and budgets, which they say comes in response to a government demand rooted in last year’s provincial budget.
The university’s web site states that “A process of reporting and assessing a comprehensive set of data and metrics for all areas (academic and administrative) of university activities and operations is commencing as the initial step.”
Klein says university officials are working toward establishing benchmarks for productivity and points to a recent report authored by the university’s provost and vice-president academic David Wardlaw, which calls for a 100 per cent increase in output by 2020.
“We don’t oppose increases in publishing or research,” Klein notes. “But how do we do that without the proper support? How do we do that without sacrificing teaching time for growing administrative and research demands?”
The budget also allocates money to fix up aging residences and labs at Memorial University and for infra-structure refurbishment at college campuses and to support “high-demand, high-priority programs.”
The total 2014 budget expenditures in all sectors will add to the province’s debt by half-a-billion dollars, for a total of $9.8 billion.
It’s the first time since 2005 that the government will borrow money to fund operations and spending, but Finance Minister Charlene Johnson said her budget reflects wealth currently seen in the economy.