The province will give $16.4 million to Ontario colleges based on how well they prepared the 1998-99 graduating classes for the workforce.
While the government claims performance-based funding encourages colleges to assess and improve the programs they offer, student leaders are skeptical of the program. The money is dispersed based on the employment rate of 1998-99 graduates six months after graduation, employer satisfaction with how well prepared students were for the workforce and graduate satisfaction with the education they received.
“Key Performance Indicators set out to implement business practices for public institutions,” said Joel Duff, Ontario chair of the Canadian Federation of Students. He describes the $16.4 million as a “pittance” and says post-secondary institutions need $500 million just to undo the damage done by government under-funding.
“The government is saying, ‘Let’s fund the best and shoot the rest,'” he said, adding smaller and rural colleges suffer most.
“If one region is experiencing economic difficulties, and the graduates have difficulty finding employment…the government will further damage the community by under-funding the college or university,” he explained.
“Nonsense. Absolute nonsense,” rebutted government spokesperson David Ross. “Unless a town burned to the ground, I doubt that’s going to happen.”
However, comparing the funds granted to each school with the employment rate of the region where the school is located reveals Duff’s comments may have some merit.
The largest grant, approximately $1.5 million, was awarded to Humber College in Toronto, where the unemployment rate ranks amongst the lowest in the province at 6.3 per cent. Northern College, which was allocated $153,000, services several rural regions in the James Bay and Timmins areas where the unemployment rates range from 7.3 per cent to 8.1 per cent.
“This is a very short term understanding of education,” said Students’ Administrative Council President Alex Kerner of the program, which he says threatens a liberal arts education. “[The government] is trying to reward institutions for producing workers,” he said.
Ross defended the KPI funding model, explaining that the government’s goal is not to penalize, but to motivate college administrators to evaluate the value and overall effectiveness of the programs they offer.
“This is not a rating system. It lets schools know what students think about [the college’s] programs,” he said.
Further, he explained the government will have put $423 million back into education by 2005-6. However, he declined to comment on whether or not education would be prioritized in the upcoming budget.
