Universities push for more public funding

By Jonathan Fowlie. Six British Columbia universities will today ramp up their push for an increase in government funding, releasing a report that shows the province's economy will soon be facing a shortage of thousands of university and college graduates.
The report comes as both the B.C. Liberal government and the New Democrat opposition have been jockeying to make skills training a key issue during the coming election campaign - a debate that so far has focused more on apprenticeships and trades training than on the need for more university graduates.
But in an interview Monday, presidents from two leading universities said the report to be released today projects that by 2016, the province's largest skills shortage will not be in the trades, but instead in jobs requiring either a university or college degree. Read more...