Aiming higher: across Canada, about 1.1 million full-time students were enrolled in post-secondary institutions in 2001, but thousands have been turned away because of lack of space or they have not applied for admission because the cost of tuition is too high for them.

It is widely accepted that the future prosperity of Canada rests on having a well-educated workforce. Yet, the cost to students of postsecondary education has risen rapidly over the last few years as government funding has dropped dramatically. Since the early 1980s, public funding of post-secondary education in Canada has gone down by 30 percent.

A post-secondary education is now out of reach for poorer Canadians. Those who can get to college and university often end up with debts on graduation that are measured in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Obviously, universities and colleges need money; lots of it. Public post-secondary education institutions in Canada receive most of their direct funding from provincial/territorial and federal government sources. The largest share comes directly from the provinces and territories. The balance comes from tuition fees; research grants; contracts with business and industry; government research contracts; donations; and investment income.

Since the early 1990s, tuition fees have accounted for an increasing proportion of university revenues. In 2002, student fees accounted for 19 percent of university total revenues.

In 2001-02, Canada's total spending on public education reached $58 billion. About $38 billion was directed to the elementary and secondary levels, $10 billion to community college and trade-level programs, and $10 billion to universities.

Former Ontario Premier Bob Rae reported on the crisis facing universities and colleges in Ontario in 2004. His prescription for recovery is a combination of higher tuition fees and increased government funding. The systems have been underfunded for decades, largely because of health-care demands and tax cuts. While per capita spending on higher education in Ontario has dropped by 18 percent since 1987, per capita spending on health care has gone up by 30 percent. Canada as a whole was spending $4 on health care for every $1 on post-secondary education in the mid-1980s. The ratio now is $6 to $1. Ontario's post-secondary system, which has 18 universities and 24 community colleges, receives the lowest per-student funding in the country. So, classes are too large (in some cases as many as 1,000 students crowd lecture halls), equipment is old, and postsecondary programs are not accessible enough for low-income students. Mr. Rae says Ontario needs to pump $2.1 billion into the post-secondary system by 2007/08 to remedy the problems, and bring the province's operating costs up to the national average. More than half the young people in Ontario are not attending college or university, even though 70 percent of new jobs require a post-secondary education. He also called for loan limits to be increased (from $110 a week for a single student to $140), and more grants given to low-income students.

At $4,960, Ontario's undergraduate tuition fees are Canada's second highest just behind Nova Scotia. Ontario's Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty has warned that tuition fees will rise when a two-year freeze is lifted in September 2006. Mr. McGuinty said the increases will be moderate as long as the province, the federal government, and the private sector all contribute. It's all a juggling act for Mr. McGuinty who also has pledged to fix the health-care system in the province.

Meanwhile, Alberta's Conservative government, rich with oil revenue, has started to invest heavily in education. With an estimated surplus of $6 billion in 2005, the province recently announced tuition freezes, grants for education-saving plans, research funding, and a plan to add 60,000 spaces for students at the post-secondary level by 2020. Alberta Premier Ralph Klein said any tuition increases for the 2005-06 school year will be covered by the government, at an estimated cost of $43 million. He also said education is his top priority, and announced a $500 grant toward a registered education savings plan for every child born or adopted in the province. This will be topped up by $100 when the child reaches the ages of eight, 11, and 14. No other province in the country has such a program, which is expected to cost Alberta about $20 million a year initially.

The cost of higher education varies widely across the country, with an average being about $4,172 a year. While Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador have capped tuition, others have not. As a result, Nova Scotia students paid an average of $5,984 in the fall of 2004 for tuition, an eight percent increase over the previous year. Even with its freeze, Ontario is the second most expensive province in which to study ($4,960 on average in 2004/05).

The largest fee increase was in British Columbia, which raised tuition by 15.6%. While that was a huge hike, it was still only about half the previous year's increase, which amounted to almost 30 percent. (B.C. lifted a six-year freeze in 2002.) And, Ontario is not the only province talking about lifting the fee freeze. Quebec, which has the lowest fees ($1,890 in 2004/05) is considering it too.

The federal government established the Canada education savings grant to encourage parents to save more for higher education for their kids. But, only higher-income families are making use of it: the federal government will top up contributions to Registered Education Savings Plans up to a maximum of $400 annually on a contribution of $2,000. Higher-income families are four times more likely to use the plan than low-income families. Nor are education tax credits much help to students or parents with low incomes.

Worldwide, Canada ranks well in terms of university and college funding as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) placed Canada third among 30 developed countries with funding equal to 2.5% of GDP, well above the average of 1.8%. (The United States and South Korea were ahead of Canada.)

The study also found that, even with its problems, Canada has the highest percentage of 25-to 64-year-olds with a university or college education: at 43 percent, it's almost double the OECD average, and about 15 percentage points higher than a decade earlier.

But, none of this changes the reality for many students who are graduating with enormous debts, which can range anywhere from $30,000 for a four-year undergraduate program to $60,000 for those doing graduate studies. Professional faculties can lead to much higher debts: annual tuition at the University of Toronto's medical school, for example, was more than $16,000 by 2003, and half of Canada's 16 medical schools were charging more than $10,000 a year. It can all add up to a six-figure bill after graduation--one observer suggested it's one reason why doctors are opting for specialties rather than family medicine because the pay for the former is much higher.

It's been estimated that by 2020, a four-year university education will cost about $90,000. One economist points to the United Kingdom as a possible model: amidst suggestions of much higher fees, it is also introducing a new system that allows students to borrow fully against university costs, and repayment after graduation is tied to income earned. Britain also is offering sizable grants for students from lower-income families.

Meanwhile, food banks are cropping up at university campuses across Canada as students try to stretch their dollars.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. The health of the British higher education system is a matter of perspective. Some say the system has deteriorated with crumbling facilities, paltry academic salaries, and poorly qualified students increasingly from the working class. Critics say the result is that university degrees are losing their meaning as more people have them and quality has declined. Discuss this notion that as more and more people seek higher education it becomes devalued.

2. The European Commission recently published a study ranking the world's best universities. Of the top 50, all but 15 were American. From Europe, only Oxford and Cambridge made it into the top 10; from other EU countries, no university ranks higher than 40. Four Canadian universities made it into the top 100: University of Toronto (24), University of British Columbia (36), McGill University (61), and McMaster University (88). Do a report on what makes the top universities better in the eyes of the researchers. (Academic Ranking of World Universities: http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking. htm)

FACT FILE

According to Statistics Canada, at an average annual increase of 8.1%, tuition fees in the past decade have gone up four times the average rate of inflation.

FACT FILE

Ontario's post-secondary system includes 24 colleges, 18 universities, and I the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) plus apprenticeship training in workplaces throughout the province.

FACT FILE

In Ontario, between 1991 and 2001, 69.2% of the growth in employment was in jobs requiring a post-secondary education.

FACT FILE

Nationwide, hourly earnings for men with university bachelor's degrees are 33.5% higher than they are for male high school graduates; hourly earnings for women with university bachelor's degrees are 39.2% higher than they are for female high school graduates.

Websites

The CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) Almanac of Post-Secondary Education 2005--http://www.caut.ca/en/ publications/almanac/default. asp

The Council on PostSecondary Education--http://www.copse.mb.ca/

RELATED ARTICLE: Going back in time.

Laval University in Quebec City was Canada's first post-secondary institution. It started its life as the Seminaire de Quebec in 1663 when it was founded by Monseigneur Francois de Laval, the first bishop of New France, with the authorization of the King of France, Louis XIV. More than two centuries later, in 1878, Laval opened a second campus in Montreal, which became the University of Montreal in 1920.

At the time of Confederation in 1867, there were three universities in Quebec, three in New Brunswick, five in Nova Scotia, and seven in Ontario. Government involvement was minimal, but that started to change when the four Western provinces set up provincially chartered universities early in the 20th century.

The Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC) explains that at the end of World War II, a federally funded veterans' rehabilitation program brought an influx of war veterans to Canadian university campuses and increased government participation in university funding. New institutions were set up, and post-secondary facilities continued to expand throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.

CICIC says that while some public colleges have histories dating back to the 1920s, most came onto the scene in the 1960s. Generally, they were created by provincial governments as vocationally oriented alternatives to university study. However, some provided university transfer programs, and they are becoming increasingly linked to universities today.

By the 1990s, provincial governments gave some public colleges authority to grant applied degrees, and some private post-secondary institutions also obtained permission to offer degree programs.

RELATED ARTICLE: Government support.

Federal departments play an indirect role in Canada's post-secondary education system.

The Department of Finance, for example, oversees federal transfer payments to the provinces and territories. The Department of Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSD) is responsible for the Canada Student Loans Program. The Department of Canadian Heritage has a program in support of the official languages in education. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and HRSD promote international academic exchanges.

The Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (CMEC) monitors international development in higher education through an agreement with DFAIT to ensure Canadian representation at international discussions on post-secondary education, Statistics Canada, through the Canadian Education Statistics Council, works with CMEC and the provinces and territories to ensure the collection, coordination, and publication of pan-Canadian education statistics.