Part one of a two-part series on Quebec's university tuition debate.
Lost in the snarl of statistics and ideology, Quebec’s student leaders make a persuasive case against the Charest government’s plan to increase tuition by 75 per cent over the next five years.
It’s an argument that couldn’t fit on the cardboard signs held aloft by the 25,000 students protesting on Nov. 10. Nor could the government provide a sound counter-attack in its 64-page education budget released earlier this year.
Surprisingly light on firm details, the government’s plan to increase tuition would raise an additional $850 million annually by 2017, but leaves a number of important questions unanswered and unasked: Why do universities need more money? How do they intend on spending that money? And how much do students currently spend to attend university, once all the various fees are counted?
“Let me stop you right there,” interrupted Esther Chouinard, spokeswoman for Quebec’s education ministry, four minutes into our second conversation of the week. “I’ve never been asked these types of questions by a journalist before. Journalists normally just want general information, like how much tuition is and how much it’s going up.”
That tuition will increase by $325 a year starting in 2012 was the one detail that Chouinard could confirm without a qualifying statement.
My conversation with Chouinard was on Nov. 9, a day before the largest one-day student strike in Quebec history. I would find out over the next several days that the details of the tuition debate are surprisingly complicated.
The case for higher tuition
“A government report just came out which stated that this would be a ‘five year experiment,’ confirming our fears that the government didn’t do its due diligence before pushing through these increases,” said Chad Walcott, the VP External of the Concordia Student Union on Nov. 10.
That report, released in September 2011 by the Advisory Committee on the Financial Accessibility of Education, concluded that a lack of planning could swamp the government’s financial aid program.
“The government doesn’t know how this will affect education, the government doesn’t know how this will affect students. The government, by its own admission, has no idea what students or universities need,” continued Walcott.
In its budget laying out the tuition increases, “A Fair and Balanced University Funding Plan,” the Ministry of Education dedicated 166 words to describing the “underfunding problem” at Quebec universities. For its part, the ministry cited a report commissioned by the rectors and principals of Quebec’s universities in 2010, which claimed that their institutions were underfunded to the tune of $620 million that year.
“There is no denying that deficits are incurred by Québec universities year after year and that these deficits are of a size not found in any of other province,” the budget concluded.
The “underfunding” argument sits at the centre of the government’s plan, as it states quite simply that Quebec’s universities spend more money than they receive annually. Students don’t deny the deficits, however they blame those shortfalls on the same rectors now looking for more money.
“The rectors have said that universities lack $620 million worth of investment, however we’ve experienced a decade of terrible financial management,” said Stefanie Tougas, the secretary-general of the Université de Montréal’s student union.
“Nearly every university in Quebec has engaged in a senseless waste of money, that’s why the government’s decision is so incomprehensible. The problem isn’t underfunding, it’s a system that is being horribly mismanaged.”
From the Université du Québec à Montréal’s infamous $510 million l'Îlot Voyageur blunder to Concordia University’s $3 million firing of two presidents in three years, the past decade has seen a series of highly publicized failures at each of Quebec’s universities.
"As part of our negotiations with universities in 2012 and 2013, we have set a number of targets to improve governance and the financial situation at each institution," said Chouinard, when asked if the ministry was worried about the accusations of waste.
“Students are not OK with this,” said Walcott. “This problem really comes from the government and universities mismanaging funds.”
At Walcott’s Concordia, the university recently reported that over $14 million was spent on severance packages to administrators over the previous decade—equal to the annual tuition of 4,000 students at current rates.
Where will the money go?
"Education and research remain the primary mission of universities," said Chouinard, responding by email on Nov. 14. "As the provider of funding, the ministry expects universities to devote the necessary resources to maintaining a quality education."
The government’s own plan isn’t much clearer, promising to allocate between 65 and 85 per cent of new funds into “performance indicators” to increase the quality of education and research.
“In concrete terms, measures must be taken to boost Quebec students’ academic success in university, increase the number of courses given by professors and improve the school-to-workplace transition for graduates,” reads the plan.
With the government preparing to inject nearly $1 billion of new money into a university system that currently spends $5.8 billion annually, students are finding the government’s vague statements and promises less than concrete.
“The government is only making vague general statements about where the extra money is going,” said Walcott. “This increase is unjust and unjustifiable.”
“I think they planned that students wouldn’t notice the shortcuts taken by the ministry in its rush to push this increase through,” said Martine Desjardins, the president of La Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec. “We did.”
A provincial lobby group, the FEUQ has spent thousands of hours over the past year digging into the government’s plans and publishing dozens of well documented research reports. The FEUQ hasn’t liked what it has found.
“They aren’t telling students where the money will go. Students have seen tuition hikes each semester for the past five years and they haven’t seen any improvement in the quality of their education,” Desjardins continued.
When Quebec’s tuition freeze ended in 2007, the government promised that an increase of $50 per semester would increase the quality education. Desjardins, who calls the higher tuition a “new tax on the middle class,” claimed that the FEUQ hadn’t found an increase in hiring or a decrease in classroom sizes despite the 30 per cent increase in tuition since 2007.
“Despite the promise of more money, Concordia’s Provost, the highest academic officer at our university, just put forward a new academic plan that could open the door to program cuts and mergers in the next few years. That means larger classrooms and less choice,” said Walcott. “Where is this money going?”
As the first university in Quebec to release a binding academic plan for the higher tuition years of 2012 through 2017, Concordia’s plan relies on the new money, but many students fear that smaller programs in the humanities will be shed in favour of revenue-producing programs like engineering.
“The argument from the government that this will better education is weak, or just plain wrong,” said Walcott.
Tomorrow, part two will explore the real cost of a university education and the lack of negotiations between students and politicians.
