Provinces would rather pay students than universities

By Alex Usher. What 2013 provincial budgets mean for the higher education sector. There is a pattern emerging in provincial budgeting for higher education over the past couple of years which deserves more attention than it has been receiving. Though some new net money has been reaching universities and colleges, within the sector as a whole governments seem far more interested in funneling money to students than providing support for institutions themselves. There are three important caveats regarding the budget data presented here need to be made. The first is that what provinces budget for higher education often has only a vague relationship with what actually gets spent. Last year in Quebec, for instance, what eventually got allocated to institutions was a good $120 million less than what was budgeted. Read more...