Expert Panel on University Funding (fwd)

[Richard Plant]

Hello all -- and a here's wishing you a joyful entry into 2000. The
following missive is the latest issue of "Perspectives," the HSSFC
newsletter.

Richard Plant
Dept of Drama, Queen's University
and
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama,
University of Toronto

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 15:25:31 -0500
From: Fedcan <fedcan at hssfc.ca>
To: @hssfc.ca
Subject: Expert Panel on University Funding

PERSPECTIVES
An electronic newsletter on research and science policy.  A pilot project
of the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada.

PERSPECTIVES will appear at regular intervals throughout the year and will
be posted on the Federation web site:
http://www.hssfc.ca/Pub/PublicationsEng.html.  Please address your comments
and suggestions to Jacqueline Wright, Executive Assistant, at:
jawright at hssfc.ca.

PERSPECTIVES (Volume 3, Number 4)
December 23, 1999

Editor: Wayne Kondro

Table of contents:
1)      Highlights
2)      The Expert Panel
3)      The Diagnosis
4)      The Cures


EXPERT PANEL URGES $2-BILLION FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN UNIVERSITIES
Recommended measures include funding to rejuvenate library collections

Arguing that the capacity of Canadian universities to perform their
research and teaching functions has been seriously compromised by funding
cuts, an Expert Panel on University Funding convened by the Humanities and
Social Sciences Federation of Canada (HSSFC) is urging the federal
government to re-invest $2-billion in post-secondary education in its
forthcoming budget.

Convened by the HSSFC to recommend specific measures by which the federal
government might address the "crumbling" of Canadian universities, the
expert panel says an array of new investments are vitally needed to offset
"several decades of neglect."

Universities are in a state "of national emergency, particularly with
respect to Ontario, because we're going to strangle our economic growth if
we don't do something about it," says Carleton University president and
panel member Dr. Richard Van Loon.

"The overall problem is just plain lack of operating funds," Van Loon says.
 "Everything else (problems related to faculty renewal, research, physical
plant and libraries) derives from that."

HSSFC President, Dr Louise Forsyth, pointed out that the phenomenon of
crumbling campuses was widespread in Canada.  She recalled that at her
university - the University of Saskatchewan - "we had to evacuate one
building in a matter of minutes when the roof structure failed".

THE EXPERT PANEL
Fresh from its annual general meeting, where university and association
representatives voiced their serious concerns about the shape of
universities, the Federation struck an Expert Panel to devise
"constitutionally viable options for federal funding of Canadian
universities".  The expert panel consisted of: Concordia dean of graduate
studies & research Dr. Claude Bedard; Queen's professor of economics Dr.
Robin Boadway; Lakehead professor of economics Dr. Livio Di Matteo,
University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres rectrice Dr. Claire de la Durantaye;
Carleton professor of public administration Dr. Leslie Pal; Ecole nationale
d'administration publique professor of administration Dr. Jacques
Plamondon; University of Alberta professor of political science Dr. Alan
Tupper; and Carleton president Dr. Richard Van Loon.

"Our intent was to provide the federal government with a variety of
initiatives where they could give large sums of money to universities
without being unconstitutional," says HSSFC Executive Director Louise
Robert. "We did that because we know that the situation on campuses is very
urgent and drastic and we want to facilitate or speed up the process
because if it bogs down on a constitutional question, the universities
might never see the money."

The panel's final report was submitted to a series of cabinet ministers,
department officials and agencies in hopes its recommendations will be
factored into the current round of federal budget deliberations.

THE DIAGNOSIS
The expert panel cited five areas of financial need within universities,
the most critical of which is additional funding to hire new teachers. The
nation's universities will have to hire 31,000 new professors over the next
10 years to replace retiring faculty and offset a 20% increase in
enrolment, the panel projected.

The panel also recommended new monies be provided to refurbish buildings
and equip teachers "with the latest teaching aids."  It also noted that
upwards of $300-million/year will have to be spent in each of the next five
years to connect faculty and students to the Internet, while granting
council budgets will have to be significantly bolstered in order to ensure
adequate support for graduate students.

A final area of desperate need lies within university libraries, which are
facing skyrocketing book and journal costs. Some $200-million/year is
required to simply meet "minimum research and teaching requirements," while
an additional $1-billion is needed to provide on-line access to
collections, the panel said.

THE CURES
Federal transfers
Although the governing Liberals have demonstrated that they are more
receptive to targetted post-secondary initiatives like the
recently-announced 21st Century Chairs of Research Excellence, (see
Perspectives, Vol. 3, No. 2), the expert panel contended the primary
solution to university woes lies in restoration of the $2-billion cut from
federal transfers for post-secondary education in 1995.

"Of all the options the expert panel had, they were adamant that the
fastest way to deliver big monies would be to use existing channels, which
is federal transfer payments," Robert noted.

The panel argued that $2-billion should be immediately transferred to the
provinces --by way of direct cash transfers or tax points-- under the
rubric of a settlement achieved as part of the new intergovernmental Social
Union Agreement. Pending those negotiations, the federal government should
demonstrate its good intent during negotiations by placing the monies in a
'Post-Secondary Education Fund'.

Provinces should be allowed to opt-out of any negotiated settlement, the
panel said. But it noted that "an agreement would exercise considerable
moral pressure on opting-out provinces to encourage them to, themselves,
increase university funding."

The federal Liberals appear to have "tremendous skepticism" that provincial
 governments like Premier Mike Harris' Conservatives in Ontario would
actually invest any additional federal monies in post-secondary education,
Van Loon notes. But if the provinces were to make a specific commitment to
spend the money on education, as they did when Ottawa bolstered health
transfers last year, "I think it would change their (the Liberals)
orientation."

"But we have to work with what we've got and what we haven't got is that
kind of commitment from the provinces," Van Loon said, adding that in the
wake of the latter reality, the panel proposed a series of "marginally
adequate alternatives" to increased federal transfer payments.

"You have to take what you can get."

Student assistance
Among the alternative measures was one aimed at increasing accessibility to
post-secondary education and raising revenues for universities through the
creation of a "federal refundable tax credit for post-secondary education,"
under which tuition fees would be made 100% tax deductible and refundable.

Alternatively, the panel recommends the creation of a student education
credit or voucher, which would be applied to tuition fees and reclaimed by
universities directly from the federal government.

Granting Councils
To offset spiraling indirect costs of research, the expert panel
recommended that each granting council award include an added portion for
Research dissemination and infrastructural support paid directly to the
appropriate university or post-secondary institution.  Each granting
Council should be responsible for dispersing a portion of these additional
Funds equivalent to the percentage of university researchers it serves.

To ensure that the major research universities aren't the only
beneficiaries of such a scheme, the panel also recommended that "a floor or
base amount" be awarded to each institution to "ensure a developmental base
to help redress regional disparities in research."

Libraries
To offset funding problems within libraries, the panel recommended that
Ottawa provide funds to improve collections either through the granting
councils or directly to universities so that they'll be able to "meet their
responsibility for the dissemination of research."

Alternatively, monies could be provided for university libraries through
the National Library of Canada under the auspices of its mandate to
"acquire, preserve and promote the published heritage of Canada for all
Canadians, both now and in the years to come."

Connecting campuses
To promote electronic linkages between and within disciplines and campuses,
the panel recommended that Ottawa proceed with a major program to develop
the physical infrastructure underlying such electronic connections.

Specifics include the provision of monies to create "discipline-based
networks" similar to the Networks of Centres-of-Excellence or
alternatively, to develop electronic networks linking universities with
Canadians in "small business, non-government and voluntary organizations."

Editor:
Wayne Kondro is a freelance writer based in Ottawa.  The former Editor of
the "Science Bulletin", an independent newsletter on national S&T policy,
he is currently a regular contributor to such publications as "Science" and
"The Lancet".