“Something fundamental has happened to North American universities,” reads a quote from Bill Nelson in last week’s Varsity article entitled “The corporatization of U of T.” Nelson, who became the chair of the university’s government committee in 1969, continues: “Forty years ago, major universities were not primarily concerned with servicing the world of business and commerce. The primary concern was educating people.”
U of T’s motto translates from the Latin “Velut Arbor Aevo” to “as a tree with the passage of time” in English — a mission statement for the institutions growth and evolution over time. And grown it has, most notably in terms of the university’s size — U of T’s 67,128 undergraduate student population stretches across three campuses, and U of T is the largest research institution in Canada. Things become more complicated, however, when we look at how that growth has occurred.
In 2013–2014, U of T operated on a $1.9 billion budget, 44 per cent of which came from tuition and 34 per cent of which came from government funding. Ontario’s current provincial funding model for post-secondary institutions distributes funding according to enrollment: larger enrollment means more funding from the provincial government. Though this current formula was meant to extend access to higher education in principle, in practice it creates a seemingly endless cycle wherein institutions like U of T bring in more students to pay for the ones they already have.
To operate on the scale that it does U of T cannot rely on provincial funding alone. In order to maintain, and increase, its institutional reputation moving forward, U of T has adopted a corporate model of operation to grow the endowment by supplementing meagre provincial support.
Many of the university’s constituent organizations, such as its Governing Council, have begun to rely on corporate strategies in light of insufficient funding. U of T’s Governing Council is a high-level decision-making body tasked with overseeing the academic, business, and student affairs of the university. The council consists of students, faculty, alumni, members of industry, and government appointees. There are eight student representatives who sit on this board, which is comprised of 50 members. Because of this, student representatives have little say in the affairs of the council; they can bring issues forward, but are unable to affect substantial change in the event that they are opposed to a vote.
U of T stands out in stark contrast in this regard when compared to the administrative structures of some other Canadian universities, many of which have both a board of directors and an academic senate working in tandem.
Being an undergraduate student at U of T today is very different from what it was a few decades ago. Growing as an institution means that more students are coming to study at the university, but that development does not necessarily equate to adequate resources for the growing student population. The current funding model provides an incentive for U of T to bring in more students, but not necessarily to enhance the quality of their experience after enrollment.
Increasingly, students are looking at higher education as a means to an end — investing money in their education with the hopes of seeing a return on that investment in the future in the form of stable, meaningful employment. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this mode of thinking; it makes sense that those who have invested in a university degree would want a sense of financial security in return, especially as fees continue to rise. But when it is the only concern, other important aspects of the educational experience are drowned out, like whether you have a genuine relationship with your professors or whether you feel you are getting a broad and comprehensive education.
Ontario has the highest tuition and the lowest per-student funding of any province in the country. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, undergraduate students in Ontario pay 29 per cent more than the national average, and graduate students 41 per cent more. Additionally, in the last 20, years undergraduate tuition fees have outpaced inflation by 601 per cent. Under the 2006 provincial Reaching Higher framework, tuition rates have increased annually at an average rate of five per cent, leaving the average student with $37,000 in combined loan debt after a four-year undergraduate degree.
The current model of provincial funding needs to change. A university can only prioritize its students if it has the money to do so. If U of T is to maintain its reputation and progress further, the institution needs money, and it resorts to corporate strategy to get it. This presents something of a catch-22 — in order to achieve a better student experience and continue providing a top tier education, U of T has opted to pursue a business path that threatens to compromise academic values.
The government of Ontario is currently working with a $10.5 billion deficit, making it unlikely that it will be able to arrange its budget to provide substantially more money for post-secondary institutions in the near future.
However, the government must reconsider the way it chooses to fund these institutions, and it must acknowledge the importance of doing so. If students think of their degrees as an investment, then the province needs to follow suit. Students at U of T and other schools are the ones who will soon be filling the province’s work force, and they deserve a quality education, and one that will not leave them mired in debt.
As an academic institution, U of T must always remain faithful to its foundational purpose: the education of its students. If it has grown to become a corporate-style institution, then we must refer back to the independence of its academic roots. The province needs to prioritize higher education and enable institutions like U of T by curbing tuition inflation and increasing per-student funding. For students to engage with their post-secondary education, and invest in it as more than a means to an end, the province must invest in them in turn.
The Varsity‘s editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester. For more information about The Varsity’s editorial policy, email [email protected].
