College feels tuition freeze crunch
Funding comes up short after panel says post-secondary institutions are at risk financially
A three-year tuition freeze was not what Niagara College wanted to hear from the provincial government, but president Sean Kennedy is hopeful an accompanying $1.2billion funding package is only the first step for post-secondary institutions in need of additional ongoing funding.
College and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop announced the shortterm funding to help “stabilize” finances of colleges and universities across the province.
However, she said the province would extend the tuition freeze for an additional three years — the year of the next provincial election — for in-province students.
Institutions will be allowed to increase tuition by as much as five per cent for domestic, out-of-province students.
The announcement comes months after a government-commissioned report warned low provincial funding, along with a tuition cut and subsequent tuition freeze, is a “significant threat” to the sector’s financial sustainability.
The blue-ribbon panel recommended a one-time, 10 per cent increase in per-student funding, as well as a five per cent increase in tuition along with an increase in student aid.
In an interview Thursday, Kennedy was appreciative the government is willing to place “significant investments” into the sector but said the decision to keep tuition rates in place until 2016-27 given inflationary increases will only “put further financial pressures on the post-secondary system.”
To Niagara College, every one per cent tuition increase is about $180,000 and if the province had followed the panel recommendations, Kennedy said, it would work out to about $1 million, which would be a “significant enough figure for us to be able to do a number of really important things.”
“I do hope the government will continue to consider modest tuition increases tied to financial aid to ensure accessibility. Because the blue-ribbon panel, I think, made some strong recommendations around that,” he said.
Niagara has become relatively accustomed to the tuition freeze — in 2019, the provincial government cut tuition by 10 per cent and then installed the freeze that has been in place since — and has found additional sources of revenue for through fundraising, community support, learning enterprises and its international operation.
As well as “looking for efficiencies in our operations and being very fiscally prudent in how we manage our budgets” — all of which Kennedy said the college will continue to rely upon.
In recent years, those alternative sources of revenue have enabled the college to make investments in its facilities and to grow its programming. The college is in the process of completing significant renewals of its learning and student spaces, and is more than halfway through construction of a new research-focused greenhouse at its Niagara-on-the-Lake campus.
“Which will bolster our leading position in research and enable us to work with local greenhouse operators and support the Horticulture Environmental Sciences Innovation Centre,” said Kennedy.
This year, Niagara College was ranked No. 1 in applied research nationally — after being ranked No. 2 the previous year — which is an area that “continues to be a remarkable area of growth and pride for us because the college research model is directly tied to us solving industry problems.”
While short of the $2.3 billion recommended by the blue-ribbon panel, the province’s $1.2-billion financial aid package earmarks $900 million for the three-year sustainability fund — with $200 million going to institutions with greatest need.
It also includes $167.4 million for capital repairs and equipment, $100 million for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs, $65 million for research and innovation, $23 million for mental-health supports and $15 million to identify longterm cost savings.
Colleges Ontario and Council of Ontario Universities both released statements welcoming the new funding, but said it falls short of the recommendations and are concerned it puts the sustainability of its programming at risk.
Kennedy said he doesn’t want to downplay the investment and is “grateful” for the additional funding, but added, “we do continue to need more ongoing funding in order to do everything that we need to do, including just dealing with the natural inflation that has occurred the past many years.”
For Niagara College, additional capital funding would be “extraordinarily helpful.”
The college wants to enlarge its health programming facilities to help meet demands on the healthcare system, as well as its trades facilities.
“We need to expand our facilities in order to graduate more students to fill critical labour for shortages but that requires significant capital funding,” he said.
While Niagara College is asking for additional financial support, it knows it is not facing the type of financial struggles of other colleges, in what Kennedy called “a very diverse system from small northern colleges to large middle-of-Toronto urban campuses.”
“We want to leverage our position of strength to do even more and to serve local employers and to help strengthen our communities because, ultimately, that’s the hat I wear as president,” he said.
Brock University did not grant requests for an interview following the funding announcement. In an online statement, it welcomed the funding but said its fiscal deficit “far exceeds the additional government support.”