Universities and colleges across Canada have suffered through two decades of funding cuts. At the same time, tuition fees skyrocketed and wages for faculty and staff stagnated.

University and college administrators argue that inadequate public funding prevents them from providing fair salary increases to faculty and staff, yet they do not make accessible to the public the facts that would help students judge for themselves.

Universities are publicly-funded, yet they are not held to the same standards as other public institutions. Prior to 2007-2008, universities and colleges were not even required to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and there are very few formal requirements for financial and strategic reporting by the administration to the boards that govern Manitoba’s universities and colleges.

The Canadian Federation of Students has made dozens of requests under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act (FIPPA) for basic financial and strategic information, including: year-to-date financial data, senior administrators’ travel and meeting costs, contracts with private companies, and new project planning information. Virtually all of these requests have been rejected or denied by the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. Until the provincial government and the governing boards at the campus level create rules for accountability, these institutions will continue to hide behind information laws to avoid a public debate on their priorities.

If universities and colleges are to serve the public, they must report to the public and be held accountable for spending priorities.

Related Links:

Presidential Perks (Winnipeg Free Press, August 23, 2008)

10	Tuition fees are the primary reason students' can't afford college or university.
9	Lower tuition fees = more government funding = higher quality of education.
8	We all benefit from an educated society.
7	We can afford it. Government surpluses must be good for something!
6	Manitoba has one of the highest poverty rates in Canada.
5	Free tuition fees and needs-based grants would eradicate student debt. Imagine graduating debt free!
4	Lower fees mean more people can afford to learn.
3	Since 1990, tuition fees have increased more than three times faster than inflation.
2	Ireland eliminated tuition fees. Ten years ago.
1	When Gary Doer was 19, university students paid $400 per year in tuition fees.

Early in April 2008, the Winnipeg Free Press published a story based on information leaked from the legislature, about plans to deregulate tuition fees in fall 2008.

Many students, faculty, staff and community members like you responded with messages of support for accessible education, including the tuition fee freeze policy. Together, we won an important victory. Prior to budget day, the provincial government revised its plan to deregulate fees. But it announced that fee hikes would be allowed starting in fall 2009, and created the Levin Commission to review the tuition fee policy. At its incipience, the commission included a focus on university and college spending priorities and accountability, but this was soon dropped from the plan.

While it is clear that a greater investment in post-secondary education on the part of our federal and provincial governments is needed immediately, it is equally clear that the tuition fee freeze in Manitoba, like in other jurisdictions, has been accompanied by funding increases for education. Fee hikes will do nothing to alleviate funding challenges. In fact, evidence shows they will result in no net funding increase.

Shortly after the release of the 2008-2009 Manitoba Budget, students from across the province gathered at the Selkirk Avenue campus of the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg for a general meeting of the Canadian Federation of Students–Manitoba. It was unanimously resolved to organise a major day of action around the dual themes of quality and accessibility in public post-secondary education. In Ottawa, at a national meeting of the Canadian Federation of Students, hundreds of delegates from across the country affirmed the importance of working together for tuition fee freezes and reductions, as well as more funding for education.

Students rejected the argument from critics of the tuition fee freeze that tuition fee hikes accompanied by targeted bursaries would be accessibility-neutral. Accessible, well-funded education requires governments to demonstrate some political will, not complicate the debate with schemes to justify policies that hurt accessibility and quality.

You may have heard that the tuition fee freeze constitutes a subsidy by low-income Manitobans to the wealthy and that tuition fees are not an important barrier to participation in university and college of low-income students. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Tuition fees and student loan payments punish those who can least afford to pay. As economist Hugh Mackenzie points out, tuition fees constitute a regressive tax because the less money you have, the bigger proportion of your income tuition fees make up. That’s why, for every $1000 in tuition fees increases, low-income students are 19 percent less likely to complete their post-secondary education.

While it is true that students from high-income backgrounds are more likely to go to university, high-income earners in Canada pay more taxes over their lifetime and therefore contribute more, through the tax system, to the funding of post-secondary education. Mackenzie points out in one study that among those with the highest-income, 25 percent of households with children earn 47 percent of the income, pay 47 percent of the taxes and make up 31 percent of the student population. The bottom 25 percent of households on this income scale earn 8 percent of the income, pay 8 percent of the taxes, and account for 21 percent of the student population.

Contrary to what a vocal minority of critics argue, lower tuitions fees, grants and fair taxation are effective ways to improve low-income participation in university and college.

Related Links:

Fast Facts: Tuition Fees (Hugh MacKenzie, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)

University Funding Cuts: Shortchanging Ontario Students (Hugh Mackenzie & Mark Rosenfeld, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)

The Tuition Trap: The Path of Least Resistance (Hugh Mackenzie, Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations)

In the 1990s, tuition fees rose by 137 percent in Manitoba. During that time, enrolment declined sharply at Manitoba’s universities and colleges, leaving the province with among the lowest participation rates in the country. After this decade of federal and provincial funding cuts, the elimination of bursaries and grants for students, skyrocketing tuition fees, and declining enrolment at Manitoba universities, students agreed that enough was enough. During the 1999 provincial election, students campaigned for a tuition fee freeze, grants and bursaries for students, and adequate funding for colleges and universities.

In fall 1999, one of the first actions of the new Premier, Gary Doer, and the NDP government was to announce that it would reduce tuition fees by ten percent in 2000. Fees have been frozen ever since, but now the Doer government has announced plans to allow fee increases beginning in 2009-2010. The provincial government has adopted a plan to let fees rise by 11 percent, back to 1999 levels, undoing the progress that has allowed so many more students to afford a university or college education.

The tuition fee freeze has been accompanied by enrolment increases and reasonable operating and capital funding increases for universities and colleges. Allowing tuition fees to rise, and hitting individual students in the pocketbook, will do nothing to improve funding for post-secondary institutions. Increased fees lead to declining enrolment and, often, reductions in government funding. On top of that, the provincial government’s focus on increasing funding for bursaries instead of reducing the up-front costs of post-secondary education is backwards, as the value of bursaries and grants are eroded by rising fees. Tax credits and rebates for students post-graduation do nothing to help students access post-secondary studies.

Thanks to the tuition fee freeze, university students in Manitoba now pay the third-lowest tuition fees in Canada, but for how long? This year, the Canadian Federation of Students is campaigning to stop fee hikes and reduce tuition fees.

One in four children in Manitoba is Aboriginal and, as this young population ages, access for Aboriginal students to education must be a priority. The provincial government has maintained its commitment to initiatives such as the acclaimed ACCESS program and Prior Learning Assessment, as well as more general measures to improve access; however, the federal government has not provided adequate support.

The federal Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSSP), which funds status First Nations and Inuit students to pursue post-secondary education, has been capped for years, in spite of recommendations to increase funding. Bands have long waiting lists for student funding, and allocations are inadequate to support the growing number of Aboriginal youth. Métis students receive some provincial support, but some of this aid is only available to students with high grades, in the final year of a university program.

In order to fulfill its treaty obligations and address the needs of Manitoba’s fastest-growing population, the federal government must significantly increase funding and other supports for Aboriginal students. For its part, the provincial government must reduce tuition fees and provide more funding for bursaries and grants for Aboriginal students, pegging program funding increases to Aboriginal population growth.

This year, the Canadian Federation of Students is campaigning for increased funding and support for Aboriginal students.

Our current system of student aid is administered by Manitoba Student Aid (MSA), but is a patchwork of federal and provincial aid programs. Central to Manitoba Student Aid are student loans, provided on a needs-based scale to students—60 percent by the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP) and 40 percent by Manitoba Student Aid. Manitoba Student Aid also provides a number of non-repayable grants to students and has more generous provisions for certain needs, like higher vehicle allowances for rural commuters. Rules for aid eligibility are set by the CSLP, and mirrored by MSA. Although provinces should be working together on post-secondary education issues nationally, the out-dated methodology of the Canada Student Loans Program has left students in Manitoba struggling through a maze of ineffective rules and regulations, and ultimately without the aid they need.

Students’ lobbying, however, has been making a difference. In response to the Grants Not Loans campaign of the Canadian Federation of Students, the federal government has finally announced the creation of a national system of grants for students. After last year’s campaign for student aid reform, the provincial government has reduced the student loan interest rate by 1 percent and committed to doubling the provincial grants program. The challenge now is to ensure these gains are not eroded by rising user fees.

Over the past two decades, there has been a marked shift away from public funding for universities in Canada. In 1985, universities received 83 percent of their funding from government sources, and only 13 percent from tuition fees. By 2005, those figures had changed to 64 percent from government and 24 percent from fees. This has meant skyrocketing tuition fees for students, and lower overall funding for universities.

Since 2000, the tuition fee freeze and gradual funding increases have boosted the budgets of Manitoba’s universities and colleges. This year, $800 million in new federal funding has been transferred to the provinces for universities and colleges—Manitoba received a $24 million funding increase. However, when accounting for population growth and inflation, federal cash transfers to Manitoba still lag behind what they were fifteen years ago.

The provincial government has taken gradual steps towards filling this funding gap. Since 1999, universities and colleges have seen a 63 percent, or $180 million, increase in operating funding, not including special operating grants, capital grants, grants for students, annual tuition fee reduction grants provided to institutions, and additional tuition fee revenues due to rising enrolment. Funding and financing for new buildings and renovations has received a significant boost too: $100 million over two years.

Opponents of the tuition fee freeze claim that the quality of post-secondary education in Manitoba has suffered because tuition fees have been frozen at 1999 levels. There is no evidence of this claim; in fact, the quality of education is of equal concern in provinces where tuition fees are high.
In Manitoba, the provincial government has funded the tuition fee freeze and further increased funding for post-secondary education year after year since 2000, providing universities and colleges with much-needed funding. The real reason that quality has declined is fifteen years of inadequate federal funding. There is no new quality crisis: only the legacy of $7 billion in federal funding cuts.

Governments allow tuition fees to rise and cut funding because they fail to prioritise a strong public post-secondary education system. They ignore the fact that post-secondary education provides benefits to society as a whole, not just the individual. Even in narrow economic terms, post-secondary education creates vital social capital, and post-secondary graduates generate most of Canada’s income tax revenue.

More funding is required from both federal and provincial governments, especially because university administrators have increasingly turned to tuition and other user fees to cover operating expenses. However, it is also up to universities and colleges to choose the right priorities for spending. Too often, basic educational improvements like hiring more faculty and staff, offering better student services, and improving labs have been overlooked in favour of flashy projects and bigger bureaucracies. Provincial and federal governments must turn their attention from tax cuts to increased investment in higher education.

While all students in Canada have faced dramatic fee increases over the last decade, tuition fees for international students have become particularly burdensome.

After a decision by the provincial government in 2002, the differential fees charged to international students began to rise dramatically for the first time since they were allowed in 1995. By September 2008, undergraduate international students in Manitoba were paying 100 to 230 percent more than their Canadian counterparts. These high differential fees are an unfair burden and a barrier to post-secondary education for international students. Ultimately, such fees will threaten Canada’s ability to attract and retain the skills base and ideas needed to prosper in the future.

Governments and post-secondary institutions know that high tuition fees are unpopular with students and their families. However, because international students and their families have limited political influence, governments and institutional decision-makers see them as an easy target for tuition fee increases.

The federal government needs to restore funding for post-secondary education to the provinces to reduce the incentive for universities and colleges to rely on tuition fees as a means of generating revenue. In the meantime, Manitoba must end the practice of charging differential fees and expand the freeze and fee reductions to include international students.

The challenges for international students go beyond tuition fees. Despite the many contributions they make to Manitoba’s tax base, culture and economy, international students also face challenges in accessing health care and work. While students won a recent victory in federal policy when international students were granted the right to work off-campus permanently, they still have to pay more than $425 per year for basic health coverage. The Canadian Federation of Students is campaigning to have the Government of Manitoba implement the same policy as exists in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, where international students have free access to Medicare, just as Canadians do.