Increasing BC Post-Secondary Participation

Increasing BC Post-Secondary Participation

Concerns about a looming skills shortage as the baby boom generation retires have led to calls for more post-secondary education in BC. Invariably, the prescription put forward has been to increase “seats” in post-secondary institutions. Seats are a convenient way to convert operating funding to an average capacity for learners, so the prescription is simply more taxpayer funding.

While the BCAIU shares concerns about skills shortages and agrees that more post-secondary education is needed, there is more to the issue than simply increasing operating funding to increase capacity. Rather, BCAIU is proposing that the focus be on increasing post-secondary participation as the ultimate objective.

There are several barriers to increased participation that must be addressed, not just institutional capacity. Addressing these barriers will lead to a more efficient and effective system that will be better able to translate taxpayer-funded capacity increases into increased participation. Not only will that help address skill shortages, increased participation will lead to a more educated population which will enhance economic performance and develop the resilient, engaged citizens we need to address and prevent social issues so often rooted in poverty and health issues.

What drives participation beyond taxpayer operating funding? There are three areas that are important: the quantity and quality of education provided by institutions, the demand for education by existing and potential learners and the skills needed by employers.

In terms of the supply of education by institutions, operating funding is only part of revenue generated by post-secondary institutions and only part of the question of capacity. Tuition, revenue from the sale of goods and services and donations are all important revenue sources that are limited in ways that negatively affect participation. Funding for both academic and trades programs are unfair in the way they are allocated, also affecting participation.

In terms of learner demand, there is not enough recognition in the way the system is managed of what the students want to learn. Institutions must have some capacity to respond to that demand. Learner demand is also affected by affordability, linking back to tuition but also to student financial aid. It is also linked to quality of teaching and of education. The highest quality undergraduate teaching and education requires a certain level of research activity, currently discouraged outside research-intensive universities. More research that is partnered with industry, governments and not-for-profits, community engaged and applied in nature at teaching-intensive universities and institutes would substantially increase teaching quality.

The third dimension, in the middle between institutions and learners, relates to the requirements of employers, whether private or public sector, for skilled employees. Close connections between those employers and institutions are needed to enable institutions to adapt to changing needs and to give potential and existing students the information they need to seek the skills they will require to succeed. That is crucial to increase participation in terms of both student demand and institutional supply of education. Barriers to increasing research inhibit these important connections.

There is no need for fundamental reform. The BC post-secondary education system is the envy of many, with broad geographical distribution to enable most learners to at least get a good start without going far from home and with strong integration that provides learners with flexibility to choose the educational path that works for them. Incremental changes that address some of the specific barriers to increased participation would make the system more efficient and effective.

BCAIU is proposing:

  1. Tuition regulation. Tuition should be regulated but the current approach is unfair to institutions and students, and makes it difficult for institutions to respond to unmet student demand for specific programs. The proposal is for program bands grouping like programs, each with a maximum tuition level that increases with the CPI. High demand programs would have higher maximum tuition that increases at a higher rate.
  2. Student financial assistance. An incremental change to enhance an already effective program would enhance incentives to complete programs with a completion bonus that offsets student loan debt upon program completion.
  3. PACE research. BCAIU members are all engaged in Partnered, Applied and Community Engaged (PACE) research to some degree and some, such as BCIT and ECUA+D to a significant degree. Incremental easing of labour relations and financial management restrictions would encourage increased PACE research, increasing participation while maintaining the teaching intensive nature of the institutions and avoiding any increase in basic research. Financial management changes will also generally allow the institutions to increase efficiency.
  4. Operating funding. Incremental funding should be directed to academic and trades training programs with unmet student demand and significant labour market demand in a way that is sustainable for the institutions. That would automatically increase participation in programs that will lead to jobs where skills are needed.

Apprentice program funding. There is a significant mismatch between unit funding levels and unit costs for trades training programs, leading to an unfair allocation of funding and important programs being underfunded. BCAIU is proposing that funding be immediately aligned with costs as measured last year. A commitment to regularly assess the cost of programs and ensure funding is aligned with costs, together with tuition regulation changes proposed above would improve the supply of trades training programs and participation.

The next step would be to build upon the recent one-time equipment funding initiative with a 10 year plan to eliminate the equipment deficit and a commitment to ongoing refreshment of the equipment stock.

For further information, please contact:

Ruth Wittenberg, President, BCAIU

(250) 940.1142 or ruth.wittenberg@ufv.ca