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11 February 2004
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Federation of Students 
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Summer school solution for university growth
In reaction to rising demand for a university education, to an increasing university-age population and in preparation for the double-cohort the government has been partly funding investment in infrastructure like new buildings to provide more spaces for more students. Ontario universities underestimated the extent of this growth in demand and thence enrolment. This means to accommodate students even more spaces must be created at universities. Full-time undergraduate enrolment in Ontario two years ago was 225,319 and Ontario University Application Centre predicts next year's enrolment will exceed 291,000, a projected increase of 29 percent over three years. Instead of taking a traditional approach to expanding spaces with buildings the government and universities should accept a cheaper option for enrolment growth. One way is to increase operations when most existing university buildings are empty or underused, in the summer. At University of Waterloo most students accept attending school in the summer as a part of the co-op program, but other schools need to accept this change as a more efficient way of using their infrastructure. Bud Walker told me that the traditional reason for having a break from school came from need workers to participate in agriculture. Since few of us are farmers any longer this reason doesn't hold. The benefits are not just in better using buildings and other infrastructure but in other aspects. There would be a more stable market for businesses around universities and a more even demand for housing. Furthermore, on the issue of housing having students studying at university in the summer means that those students will be renting in the summer and filling empty houses instead of pressuring the housing supply in the fall and winter. This solution requires the government to provide operating funds for paying faculty and staff to offer courses and services in the spring term. With government restriction on tuition and on operating grants the government keeps a lid on universities' two main revenue sources. Universities need already need more funding and will need more to educate a higher number of students. Merely educating more students might not be as attractive to politicians as paying for part of a building and getting the photo-op of cutting the ribbon, but it is will be a better solution as enrolment continues to grow. |