OTTAWA (CUP)—A recent report ranking provincial governments’ commitment to post-secondary education has awarded high marks to Quebec but suggests Ontario and New Brunswick are falling behind the rest of the class.
The report, released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-wing think tank, ranks all 10 provinces in four areas: accessibility, equity, accountability and quality. This is the third year the organization has released the rankings, based on publicly available statistics, as a part of its publication Missing Pieces III: An alternative guide to post-secondary education.
Erika Shaker, one of the reports’ authors, said the rankings are meant to show the context in which universities are in and can complement the well-known Maclean’s rankings of individual universities.
“We compare the record of provincial governments based on their commitment to post-secondary education,” she said. “You can’t ignore the context that universities function in and to which they’re responding.
“Obviously, we’re looking at this in the context of federal funding cuts, but within that context we’ve seen provinces with very different priorities.”
Shaker said all four areas are given equal weight in determining the final ranking.
“All four of these indicators have to work together to achieve the kind of post-secondary education system we want,” she said.
Quebec earned the top spot, up from second place last year, based on top rankings in the quality, accountability and accessibility categories. British Columbia was ranked second, down from first last year. The authors warn, however, that with recent actions by B.C.’s Gordon Campbell government, including the deregulation of tuition fees, the province will likely fall further in years to come.
A spokesperson for the Quebec government said its commitment to a tuition freeze and a generous loans and grants program was validated by the report.
“We are very proud of Quebec’s performance compared to the rest of Canada,” said Francois Lefebvre, communications officer for the provincial Ministry of Education, adding that the province intends to continue its tuition-fee freeze.
However, Shaker said Quebec, or any other province, should not rest on their laurels.
“All provinces really need to improve in terms of their commitment to post-secondary education,” she said.
Shaker added that Quebec needs to reevaluate the role the private sector plays on campuses, noting that the province ranks second in terms of percentage of university operating funds coming from private sources, a key component of the accountability ranking.
“Students and faculty are increasingly concerned about the role corporations are playing in research on campus,” she said, referring to recent cases involving David Healy and Nancy Olivieri.
Ontario ranked last in the overall ranking (for the second consecutive year) and in the quality and accountability categories. New Brunswick fell sharply to ninth in the rankings, from sixth place the year previous.
However, the Ontario government said the report does not reflect the quality of education in the province, noting that Ontario universities consistently place near the top in the Maclean’s rankings.
“We feel that the study has a very narrow focus and really doesn’t show the support that universities in Ontario have,” said Bruce Skeaff, spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
Skeaff noted that Ontario universities rank third in the country in terms of total operating income per student, but cautioned that financial resources do not necessarily mean quality. Also, he said that while the government feels tuition fees are “manageable,” the province has limited the amount that universities can raise tuition by for the five years in most programs.
Shaker said the rankings appear to show that political will is the largest determinant of a province’s success in supporting post-secondary education, noting that the country’s most populous province is at the bottom, while many smaller provinces, such as Newfoundland, which recently introduced a tuition rollback for university students, have moved up in the rankings.
“The rankings have nothing to do with the relative wealth of a province, but with a recognition that post-secondary education is important,” she said.
