2.5 billion scholarship program in jeopardy
By Scott McManus
Lance Writer
October 10, 2007
 After three decades of reduced spending towards post-secondary education, student and faculty organizations are hoping to use pressure from the upcoming Ontario election to ease the financial burden on students.
Ontario is currently the second- last province to contribute to post- secondary funding. Enrolment in post-secondary education continues to grow while funding is unable to keep up with the rate of inflation.
Experts say the government must supply an immediate increase of $1.6 billion for operational and capital costs, as well as continue the $350 million transfer payments to universities instead of using it to replace already committed funding.
While Liberal Party spending has increased recently, Ontario still finds itself below the levels set in the early 1970’s. The average per-student funding in Ontario has dropped to $4,271 this year, down from $6,568 given to the baby boomer generation. This has left Ontario students one-quarter below the national average and over one-third below public post-secondary funding in the United States.
Organizations like the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association (OCUFA) are demanding that the 3 per cent of the budget currently being put towards post-secondary education be increased to the 5 per cent it held 30 years ago.
Brian Brown, president of OCUFA and a visual arts professor at the University would like to see this become an issue to voters. Brown explained that there is a large gap between funding and inflation that has caused students today to pay much more than their parents did. This generational funding gap has had serious effects on the quality in education, updates in infrastructure and most notably the lack of staff, which is now worse than ever before.
Brown explained that while Windsor has an estimated one faculty member for every 25 students, the provincial average is slightly worse with a ratio of one to 27. One of the OCUFA’s main goals is to restore the student faculty ratio to a more sensible one to 15.
Another group working hard to increase post-secondary funding is the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA). Representing over 125,000 part and full-time students across seven institutions the group is committed to giving policy recommendations for helping to deal with the funding dilemma.
OUSA maintains that tax credits do little for low-income families.
The group has been pushing for more non-repayable student grants, and to lower interest rate for student loans.
Zach Cranny, VPUA for the UWSA and member of OUSA explained that one of the largest pushes is to save the Millennium Scholarship Fund from becoming extinct.
The fund, which was originally set up under the Chrétien government, represented $2.5 billion to be paid out in $350 million increments until 2009. Currently, the government has no plans to renew the scholarship fund, which Cranny explained as devastating.
To add to funding issues, student enrolment is climbing faster than ever.
Reaching Higher, a Liberal Party plan for increasing funding to universities and colleges, estimated an increase of 46,000 more eligible students by 2009-10. Further studies have estimated that this number could be closer to 92,000, double what the government was expecting.
“It’s estimated that 70 per cent of future job positions will require post secondary education,” Brown explained.
This increase has left many worried about the funding future programs may not receive. According to both OUSA and OCUFA, local party candidates as well as party leaders have been sympathetic towards the funding situation, and ensure, if elected, changes will be made.
However, David Simmons, president of OUSA, pointed out that although much attention during the campaign has been focused on education, little attention has been directed towards post-secondary.
Post-secondary students can only hope their concerns are heard after the election, and that things get better before they get any worse.
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