New Funding System for Post-Secondary Education?

Empower Students, Meet Postsecondary Goals with Student-Based Funding: C.D. Howe Institute Study

TORONTO, Feb. 22 /CNW/ - As Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest prepare to convene a national summit on postsecondary education in Ottawa, a new C.D. Howe Institute Commentary argues for an over-haul of postsecondary funding. Provinces should change their outdated postsecondary funding mechanisms in favour of student-based funding, says the study, "The Future Is Not What It Used to Be - Re-examining Provincial Postsecondary Funding Mechanisms in Canada." The paper argues that providing a share of provincial funding directly to students, rather than only to institutions, would do a better job of meeting the sector's goals of quality, accessibility and responsiveness to labour market needs.

The new study, by Payam Pakravan, a former policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute, suggests replacing a significant part of current institutional subsidies with student-based funding. Institutions would continue to receive a basic amount of direct funding based on actual or moving-average enrolments. The remaining amount of public operating funding would be given directly to students, according to needs-based assessment criteria, perhaps in the form of a carefully designed voucher scheme. The other element of such an approach would be a more deregulated tuition regime, in which institutions would have more freedom to set differentiated tuition fees, subject to meeting accessibility criteria.

The study, "The Future Is Not What It Used to Be - Re-examining Provincial Postsecondary Funding Mechanisms in Canada," is available at www.cdhowe.org.