NS university funding cut, tuition hikes capped
Posted Jan 5, 2012 03:52:19 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The provincial government has issued a challenge to universities: figure out how to make big cuts in your budget, and we’ll help you pay to make them real.
As that happens, the government is cutting funding anyway and stopping universities from charging students much more to go to school.
Advanced Education Minister Marilyn More presented a three-year Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a $25-million fund to help make sustainable budget cuts. Universities can apply alone or together and compete for the funding.
“By the end of the MOU, the University Excellence and Innovation program should have achieved a permanent annual reduction in expenses for the university sector of at least $25-million,” said More.
The funding cuts start in year one, with three per cent sliced from the operating grant and a three per cent cap on tuition hikes. That cap could be reviewed later and changed.
The memorandum also outlines areas where new approaches are needed to ensure excellence and sustainability. They include, according to the government:
- An updated formula to allocate the provincial operating grant among universities that better reflects program cost variations and enrolments
- More collaboration by universities to reduce costs while maintaining or enhancing program quality. This could include things such as shared data services
- A review of tuition-related policies to ensure fair and competitive tuition that remains at, or below, the national average
- Improving credit transfer to make it easier for students to have completed courses recognized at other universities
- Enhancing research and development, and contributions to economic development. For example, the Halifax Marine Institute links academic and public sector research with ocean industries and works to generate long-term economic benefits for the province and region
For a full copy of the memorandum, visit www.gov.ns.ca/lae/
