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08 November 2002
uwRyan.com This website is meant to provide value to UW student by delivering information. It will also supplement the column that I write for Imprint by providing extra information on some of the topics about which I will write in addition to the text of each column. Please provide feedback on what I write as well as give me suggestions of topics to cover. You can send e-mail to me to ryan[at]uwryan[dot]com.
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Deregulation part 2: qualityHow university resources have changed
In discussing accessibility of a university education an often heard rejoinder is, "Access to what?" It is natural in protecting access to something of value, to want to protect the value. If ensuring that a growing number of qualified applicants can attend university means that the university experience is diluted, then the goal is less laudable. So along with considering the question of accessibility we must also consider the question of quality. It is not controversial at all to state that we want the most qualified applicants to have access to the highest quality of education. Given scarce resources, the question of how you can balance these two parameters is a tougher problem. The quality of a university education is difficult to measure. Without a standard definition there can't be one answer to what the quality is. University rankings may look at quantitative factors or subjective judgement. Here I will discuss the resources available to universities, as considering the changes in inputs, we can then have a basis to consider how easily output can be produced and what kind of pressure is put on that production. Universities need money to operate and restrictions on the supply of that money can negatively affect their performance. The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities provides information on the changing situation of university funding in Ontario. From the beginning to the end of the 1990s enrolment increased, operating grants went down and tuition went up. Between 1990 and 1999 enrolment in Ontario grew by 3.9 per cent from 257,823 to 267,888. In constant dollars, adjusted by Ontario consumer price index, operating grants decreased by 26.3 per cent. Over the same period tuition charged in Ontario universities increased 109 per cent. Average tuition and fees for the equivalent of full time students increased from $2,420.92 to $4874.28 per school year, a difference of $2,453.36. This means that tuition and other revenue has had to make up for funding cuts. These financial figures account for inflation using the Ontario consumer price index which is an estimate of the changes in prices for consumers. UW president David Johnston suggests that the change in costs for a university is about double CPI because the university consumes more higher-priced goods and services. If this is accurate then the change in revenue would much greater. In 1996 UW had $20 million cut from its operating grant which represented a 15 per cent cut and prompted the university to initiate a special early retirement program to cut costs. That year tuition increased 19.8 per cent in every program. With the retirement of many professors in 1996 and a growing enrolment, the student to faculty ratio grew. Student to faculty ratio is often used as a measure of the quality of education because it relates to the amount teaching attention that is available to students. From 1990 to 1999 in Ontario the ratio of full-time equivalent enrolment to full-time faculty changed from 18.0 to 22.1. This change represents a drop in faculty members by about 2,200 from around 14,000 in 1990. With impending increases in enrolment, universities are facing even bigger challenges. Under restrictions and cuts from the government, universities may lose accessibility to protect quality or may sacrifice quality to keep education within reasonable reach. Clearly universities need more revenue; where they will get it is not necessarily an easy answer. |