As leader of the engineering student council this past year, I can certainly say that post-secondary education (PSE, a provincial government matter) is perhaps my single biggest concern of the current provincial election. Unfortunately I don’t think the same can be said for most Manitobans (who probably cite health care, crime and taxes as their top 3). Nevertheless, promises have still been made about PSE, and I believe that with Hugh McFayden’s announcement yesterday at the University of Manitoba, all three major parties in the 2007 provincial election have weighed in with their policy on university PSE. As such, here’s a little opinionated analysis from yours truly.

I appreciate that the role played by RRC and other post-secondary education and training institutions is very important to Manitoba, but this analysis is focused on my area of familiarity — university.

Liberal (source)

• Eliminate the tuition freeze and limit total cost-of-education increases to inflation
• Increased baseline funding for PSE
• Grants and bursaries for students staying in Manitoba
• Bursary fund to allow qualified students without the ability to pay to attend university
• Increased R&D investment
• Quicker accreditation for foreign-trained professionals (like the U of M IEEQ program)
• Free transit passes for students

Although there is a considerable lack of detail and hard numbers here, I’m impressed. It must have taken a lot of guts to announce an elimination of the tuition freeze tradition in our province (albeit while limiting increases to the inflation rate), a province where 82% of Manitobans support lower tuition (note that the consequences of such a position, including issues of quality as well as where additional funding comes from, are not of concern to these pollsters).

Increased funding is also always good and sorely needed. No numbers, unfortunately. Need-based bursaries are also good, and together with the lack of freeze dispense government funding based on lack ability to pay — arguably a more socially equalizing approach than the universal, equally distributed freeze we currently have.

Increased R&D investment should benefit both academics and students while providing further incentives for businesses to set up shop or continue investing in their Manitoba operations. Businesses and immigrants would also benefit with support of fast-tracked accreditation programs like IEEQ.

Finally, free transit passes. There are numerous benefits here — a tangible promise, more money in students’ pockets, a more sustainable transportation option for up to 30-40,000 Winnipeggers, potential for less student drunk driving, and no cost to the government for all the students who don’t ride the bus — an unfortunate but common trend.

Bottom line: All in all, a lot of good ideas — potential solutions for some of the problems facing our universities. They need to be fleshed out, but I doubt that Manitoba’s public will ever give Dr. Gerrard the chance to do so.

NDP (source)
(Forgive me if I missed an announcement, but this is all I was able to find)

• a 60% tuition rebate for new grads who stay here
• extending the tuition freeze

There have been plenty of other NDP announcements regarding programs and projects for RRC, training and apprenticeship programs, but this seems to be all that’s out there for universities.

Nothing new at all here, perhaps because the NDP would like you to think that universities are doing just fine. The tuition freeze, currently in its 7th year, is starving the province’s universities while not dramatically improving accessibility, it’s intended purpose, as noted in the Winnipeg Free Press earlier this year.

As for the up to 60% tax credit on tuition, let me join the other young Manitobans who say “a tax credit won’t keep me here”, even if it were 100%. My education was so cheap in the first place that I wouldn’t think twice about leaving MB for a great job elsewhere. $12,000 in tax credits is hard to compare to a city or province that provides a satisfying place to work and live (or an NHL team — just kidding).

Bottom line: Nothing to see here that we haven’t already seen — move along. Shouldn’t you be worried about health care?

PC (source)

• Strike a taskforce to examine the investments and reforms required to make Manitoba’s PSE institutions stronger and better able to compete, including funding and governance models
• Double the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary program funding to $10M/year
• Allow professional and graduate faculties (and all faculties) to raise tuition with the support of a student referendum

I actually had the good fortune to see this announcement in person, as I happened on a bunch of UMSU protesters on one side of the University Centre patio and a microphone and media on the other side, while going to find some lunch. About halfway through Hugh’s speech, they began several yells and chants including “Education is a right. We will not give up the fight.”, “Sign the pledge.” “Keep the freeze, reduce the fees.” and other such Day of Action lines. Don’t you think the government would me more willing to listen to and work with student leaders if they (the student leaders) didn’t make government leaders look bad at every opportunity?

Back to the topic at hand. This announcement was very much lacking in any concrete information. I am happy about the thought of striking a taskforce to examine the situation facing PSE in this province. It is an acknowledgment that there are problems facing PSE in the province, and that the party doesn’t have the answers, but is going to study the problem to find some solutions. A sensible approach that I wish politicians would take more often. Whether or not this taskforce actually a) accomplishes what it sets out to do, b) is composed of those who truly understand PSE and its problems, and c) is free to do its job without political influence, is another question. This taskforce could (and I suspect will) conclude, amongst other things, that the tuition freeze is a bad thing and recommend that the government lift the freeze. In other words, this is the PC way of planning to lift the freeze without campaigning one way or another on the issue — they can pass the buck to the taskforce.

Leaving this conspiracy theory for a moment, let’s look at the other planks of the Tory PSE policy. Doubling the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary program funding sounds good, but I’m not sure one way or another how much of an effect this will have. As for allowing faculty tuition increases following referendums, presumably instead of the current five criteria of the Minister of Advanced education, this is what the government should have been doing in the first place.

Bottom line: A whole lot of vague from Manitoba’s PCs. They want to strengthen Manitoba’s universities, but the solutions to the problems facing these institutions will be found by a taskforce (and may or may not be implemented by government). While I have high hopes for such a taskforce if the PCs form the government, cynical old me suspects that this taskforce may be used mainly as an instrument to lift the tuition freeze while allowing the PCs to campaign to those 82% of Manitobans mentioned above.

Conclusion
PSE is not a priority for Manitobans, as evidenced by the lacking policy presented during this campaign. Despite a desire to keep young people in the province, there seems to be little interest in seriously supporting the institutions (except perhaps by the Liberals) that are being attended by and developing more young Manitobans than ever before. Cast your ballots wisely, if you do at all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 3:39 pm and is filed under School, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.