A healthy job market needs healthy colleges and universities. But after unprecedented resource trauma across the country, many post-secondary institutions are heading for the fiscal emergency room.
B.C. isn’t alone in its struggle to finance much-needed educational opportunities. Alberta recently made a 6.8 per cent cut in post-secondary funding when the sector had anticipated a two per cent increase. Quebec cut $124 million in educational funding out of its most recent budget.
In B.C., operating support for universities and colleges has been frozen for three years and targeted for an additional $50-million cut over the next three years.
B.C. universities and colleges are under threat at a time when they offer an obvious solution to the challenges our province faces. Investments in post-secondary education are what the citizens of B.C. need for future prosperity. Instead, budget deficits, staff cuts, program elimination, tuition pressures accompanied by a rising tide of anger and resentment are attracting public attention.
A key economic issue raised during this provincial election campaign is the skills gap. Last fall, the Research Universities Council of B.C. called for a modest funding increase of $130 million over four years to create 11,000 new post-secondary student spaces. It also called for the expansion of student aid to assist students in need. However, in this period of financial austerity, political parties are not promising a lot of new spending.
The headline in Saturday’s Times Colonist, “Amid schools cuts, Royal Roads opts to expand,” suggests that in spite of the challenges facing the system, Royal Roads is bucking the trend. By design, Royal Roads is the only university in the province with a mandate specially targeted to meeting B.C.’s labour market needs — to filling that skills gap.
In 1995, the provincial government created a unique post-secondary educational experiment: a special-purpose university specifically focused on the province’s labour-market needs. It was designed to be more flexible, more demand-driven and less dependent on government funding.
Royal Roads operates with the lowest grant per student in the province and is currently admitting 25 per cent more domestic students than it is funded for. As a result, it is one of the most efficient universities in the province. And it continues to fund its own new growth in domestic enrollment (increased by 22 per cent in the last three years). We have even added six new degree programs for the coming year.
B.C. is blessed with a vibrant and diverse post-secondary system that shares a collective commitment to the development of the province. It is distinctive in the diversity of its institutions in terms of their focus, mandates, emphasis on teaching and research and local and international responsiveness.
Royal Roads ended 2012-13 without a deficit or any accumulated debt. Through effective cost management and cautious investments in new programs, we have been successful. An RRU board of governors policy requires our administration prepare an annual operating plan without a deficit, one that holds expenses at 95 per cent of revenues.
Success, even with limited resources, is due to our choice to shift support to programs that are growing and healthy in areas of student and employer need, and away from those that are struggling or declining. As a result, Royal Roads has a market-responsive set of degree programs and certificates in fields such as leadership, entrepreneurial management; professional communications, tourism, justice, environment, and education and health leadership.
Royal Roads has always been a pioneer in implementing the extraordinary technological change sweeping education. Delivering courses through a blended system (a combination of online and on-campus courses) maximizes our limited resources. It’s a scheduling challenge to accommodate everyone, but it means more groups of students can attend at different times throughout the year.
We meet budget pressures because of an efficient teaching model with a higher ratio of “scholar practitioners” (experienced associate faculty under contract) to core full-time faculty. RRU has also controlled costs due to a cap on executive compensation, and a government-imposed salary freeze on staff that means RRU has used its own savings to offer modest increases.
Royal Roads faces its own unique fiscal challenges. We charge higher tuition than many other universities, which puts pressure on many of our students requiring financial support. As a new university, operating on a leased National Historic Site without huge endowment funds, we are challenged with maintaining our heritage gardens and 105-year-old Hatley Castle.
Preparing for the knowledge-based economy that is critical to Canada’s long-term growth rests with our colleges and universities. They are the necessary infrastructure required for a healthy and prosperous B.C. Royal Roads is earning its way and will continue to provide enormous value for the future to the people of B.C.
Allan Cahoon is president and vice-chancellor of Royal Roads University.
