President Shoukri’s February 26, 2009 address to Senate was strangely silent on educational policy and the real problem of chronic underfunding. Protecting the quality of the higher education environment will require more than the administration’s “Integrated Resource Planning project” or a “task force” on labour relations; it will require a dialogue on university fianancing and government educational policy. To remain true to York’s historic mission, education as a public good must be defended at every level of the institution.
For starters:
Tuition hikes are wrong way to close university funding gap
Transferring load to students amounts to the privatization of higher education
By Brian Brown, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (excerpted from thestar.com, March 11, 2009)
University funding is a difficult and complex issue. At the best of times, it must be dealt with thoughtfully, intelligently, rationally and with care and sensitivity.
These are not the best of times. They may be the worst of times. Universities with their capacity to train the next generation of knowledge workers while relieving unemployment have a vital role in both the short-term and long-term health of our economy.
The decisions that are made will affect not just students and their families but Ontario as well.
We cannot roll the dice with our higher education system. It has to be effective and affordable and deliver the quality of education that will keep Ontario knowledge workers at the cutting edge.
Degree mills won’t do that, which is what we could be looking at if government doesn’t step up to the plate. University financing has to be a provincial and national priority.
To read the rest of this opinion, click here.